Category: News

By WMF GC Level Play team captain Fran Wall

Well, what a summer we’ve had, with sunshine and wins all the way through – rock on!

This season, the West Midlands Croquet Federation GC Level Play League consisted of six teams, Kenilworth Abbey, Kenilworth Castle, Eardisley, Himley, Broadwas and new this to the league this year, Stourbridge.

We started our campaign in May with an away match against Kenilworth Abbey winning 15 : 3  net hoops.

That win was then followed by another  away match at Himley, played in the rain without any shelter. This time we  won 10 : 8.

Eardisley came to Stoney Ley in June. When Jim Dryden (2) had finished his match against Tony Johnston (1) he came into the pavilion looking white and pasty saying ‘seven nil, seven nil.’ From his dejected demeanour, Fran took this to mean he’d lost against the lower handicap opponent, but no. Jim had  whopped him and was stunned at this own performance. I always knew he could do it !!! Broadwas went on to win 14 : 4.

Our away match to Kenilworth Castle in August was at the height of the heatwave but it was like visiting an oasis, with lush vivid green lawns so intense that we needed sunglasses.  Kenilworth have an automatic irrigation system with sprinklers rising out of the lawns at the push of a button, very effective and a bargain at only ten thousand pounds! At about lunchtime Broadwas were flagging and Billy Cooke asked Captain Fran to give them an inspirational talk to reinvigorate them. Captain Fran, often a man of few words, told them to pull their fingers out and get on with it. We won the next round completely and the match 11 : 7. 

We played Stourbridge at home next and Billy gave his opponents his coaching spiel about the intricacies of the Stoney Ley lawns with much giggling and laughter during the matches. Broadwas won 16 : 2.

In summary, Broadwas won all their matches and the League with 15 league points.

Second were Kenilworth Abbey with 12. Third was Eardisley with 7, then Himley 7, Kenilworth Castle 7 and runner up Stourbridge 0.

I give my thanks as captain to all those who played; Billy Nicholson, Billy Cooke, Jim Dryden, Ian Lambert, Ian Dampney, Stuart Smith and Jon Carrington.

As always, there were minor management issues which included Kenilworth wanting to play a reserve which isn’t in the rules and the rescheduling of matches due to the heatwave which proved to be quite difficult due to the existing club commitments superimposed on the need of other captains to rearrange their own matches. One club wanted to change the match date because they couldn’t raise a team even though the date had been agreed. Strictly the match could have been forfeited – but we’re not like that!

The Robertshaw Cup is an annual competition organised by the West Midlands Federation that we’ve played twice this year! Once in June for 2025 and last Tuesday for 2026. The competition was devised by Paul Robertshaw and is contested between the four top teams in the WMF League. It is time limited to 40 minutes, with 3 people in a team, rounds of singles and doubles and is usually played at Edgbaston on two lawns –  6 people per lawn.  In May, Broadwas (5) came second to the leader Kenilworth Abbey (9).

Last Tuesday Broadwas was represented by Billy Nicholson, Jim Dryden and Fran Wall with handicaps of 2. We each played three single games and six doubles. The morning went particularly well for us. In a game of singles Jim’s opponent rolled his ball up to hoop 10, stopping inches from the jaws. Unfazed Jim shot from hoop 9 and dislodged the ball. Jim’s next shot, also from hoop 9, locked firmly into hoop 10’s jaws. The man was on fire!!

Three teams drew in first place, with 6 tournament points each, so a very close finish. The winner was differentiated by the total number of games won. This honour went to Eardisley with 13 games won, second (again) was Broadwas with 11 games, then Kenilworth with 10 and Himley bring up the rear with 2.

Billy, Jim and Fran celebrated on the way home with a round of ice creams and raised their cornets to Janet Barber and wished her Happy Birthday.

Fran Wall

Just imagine. Your doubles opponent has delivered a perfect ball right in front of the hoop. Your partner is miles away, so you have no option but to go for a stop shot. You pull it off perfectly and in the very next shot of the game, you immediately score an easy hoop.

Fantasy land?  It is really, but members of the club’s GC Level Play 5+ squad had the opportunity to live in dreamland on Wednesday when team captain Malcolm Armstrong hosted a ‘Fun Day’ of croquet for squad members. This was the first season Malcolm had captained the Level Play Five Plus team.

Malcolm’s end-of-season thank you to his players was enjoyed by Eileen Holt, David Kaner, Jackie Guy, Howard Freeman and Robin Higgins. Missing out were Alison Disley and Peter Hill, who were on breaks away.  

The sun shone for Malcolm’s morning entertainment, where players were rewarded for clearing, with an extra shot that they could take immediately after contacting or clearing an opponent’s ball. There was occasional confusion during the proceedings but all the players seemed to enjoy Malcolm’s interference with the rules. The aim of the game was to encourage and help develop skills in clearing.  

After lunch there was a “Points Mean Prizes” challenge. Since club captain John Guy wants to check player’s indexes soon, I hope all the 5+ team members “played their cards right.”

Paul Felton

Chris Croft reported that this afternoon was a Special Tuesday Roll-Up Celebration of Janet B’s 90th Birthday!   Chair Malcolm Armstrong offered a few well-chosen words and all members present raised the pavilion roof with a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday to You”.  Everyone then partook of delicate chocolate brownies and strong tea!

(Images: Jackie Guy)

The club held its final internal one-day competition of the 2026 season on Thursday, when the heat-delayed Barber Trophy doubles tournament was played at Stoney Ley.

Organised and managed again by club captain John Guy, the tournament attracted sixteen players this year. They were Billy Nicholson 2, Robin Higgins 6, John Guy 2, David Kaner 6, Janet Bedford 5, Jim Dryden 2, Peter Hill 6, Eileen Holt 5, Jackie Guy 9, Alison Disley 9, Peter Dobson 12, Paul Felton 11, Diana Hill 18 and Mary Dryden 8. Because two competitors had to withdraw very late from the competition, Vivien Ellis 20 and Debbie Kaner 12 stepped in save the day.

Played under advantage handicap rules, the day kicked off with blocks games on slightly damp and chilly lawns.

In the first round of blocks there were wins for the partnerships of Billy Nicholson and Jackie Guy, David Kaner and Paul Felton, Janet Bedford and Diana Hill and Peter Hill and Debbie Kaner.

By the second round, the sun was shining and the lawns had warmed up considerably, inspiring the second wins  of the day for Billy Nicholson and Jackie Guy and Peter Hill with Debbie Kaner. Picking up their first wins were Eileen Holt and Vivien Ellis and Alison Disley and Robin Higgins.

An early lunch brought wins again for Peter Hill and Debbie Kaner and Billy Nicholson and Jackie Guy – this made three wins for each for both pairs. Janet Bedford and Diana Hill picked up their second win of the day while John Guy and Peter Dobson grabbed their first win of the day.

The semi-finals saw the lower overall handicap-pairing of Billy Nicholson and Jackie Guy facing Janet Bedford and Diana Hill on lawn 1. Billy and Jackie were chasing a target of seven hoops to Janet and Diana’s five. Having secured five of their seven hoop target, Billy and Jackie lost out when Diana played an inspired long-distance shot from hoop 9 to within inches of hoop 10. She clinched the game with a confident and unhesitant hooping.

In the second semi-final, Peter Hill and Debbie Kaner secured their fourth win of the day, beating John Guy and Peter Hill in a close game, 7/7 – 7/8 on lawn 5.

On lawn 3, Billy and Jackie faced John and Peter Dobson in a battle for third place. Chasing a target of seven, Billy and Jackie could only bag five hoops of the seven they required to John and Peter’s final 5/5 score.

The trophy final on lawn 2 was a close game, Janet and Diana were chasing a target of six hoops to Peter and Debbie’s seven. As they reached the  12^th hoop, Janet and Diana were just one point away from their target as were Peter and Debbie, when Debbie hooped her black from about three yard’s away. Her delight was palpable.  Debbie has been a revelation in the club’s High Handicap team. It’s also been a great season for Peter Hill. He will soon face another final against Dave Holt in the final of the club’s season-long GC Open competition.

The John Barber Trophy was tournament was set up in memory of the founder of the club and Peter and Debbie were presented the cup by John’s wife, Janet.  John Guy remarked that it was good that some new names will be appearing on the trophy.

After the tournament, Peter Hill thanked John Guy for once again, organising the competition.

Peter wrote ‘You were as masterful as ever and I am pleased you were able to take part again, even though our semifinal was nerve wracking in the extreme. It was a remarkable co-incidence that I was playing Diana in the final and that I was on the winning side this time. We both enjoyed the day very much and Diana was delighted with Janet’s company and guidance as I was with “super sub” (Debbie); your recruitment of her this morning being an inspiration as was her remarkable performance which carried me through.’

The day was once again, truly joyful and many thanks to John Guy for organising it. Club chair Malcolm Armstrong, referring to Peter’s remark that the competitors stayed to the end to watch the outcome, said ‘I think it was a true reflection of what this club is all about. The atmosphere the attitude everything.’

Billy Nicholson remarked that there were ‘Lots of giggles going’ and Janet Bedford agreed that the competition was played ‘In good humour.’

I can attest that the tournament (as are all the club’s internal competitions) is great fun and is well worth thinking about entering next year.

Good luck Peter and Dave in the Open final and good luck to Fran Wall and our GC team next week in the Robertshaw Cup at Edgbaston.

Paul Felton

Wednesday saw the Broadwas Level Play team complete their South West Federation fixtures for the season with a final game at home against Bath.

The game was a re-arrangement due to the summer heat.

The match was played in the short format, with 4 doubles games and 12 singles.

The team of Jon Carrington, Billy Cooke, Ian Dampney and Billy Nicholson went into the match with best wishes from Stuart Smith who was absent on the tail end of his recovery.

The team had their unbeaten record on the line but thankfully the league had been won, so pressure was off. 

The match started with a round of doubles which saw Broadwas take a 2-0 lead. It was to prove an important round as the 2 rounds of singles before lunch turned into a real battle. Both rounds being split 2-2, to take the lunchtime score to 6-4 to Broadwas.

Some lunch saw the team re-invigorated and emerge triumphant 4-0 in the last round of singles. Both Billy’s winning 7-6 showed it was still a closely fought match. Special mention goes to Billy Cooke as the only player to win all their singles.

A final round of doubles saw the team win both matches 7-1 for a fine win, 12-4 the match score.

All eyes to the future now. Promotion to the premier division will see us play the likes of Bristol and Budleigh Salterton’s “A” teams. Fearsome stuff.

It has also been noted just what a challenge this will be by looking at the fate of all other teams who’ve been promoted in recent years… they’ve come straight back down.

But the team has seen impressive wins individually over this and recent seasons, both in this league, and in county matches and they know they can beat anyone on their day.

So, our target is clear:

Mission: Avoid relegation.

I look forward to letting you know how we get on next year.

Jon Carrington

The club’s elite players took to the lawns on Thursday for the annual Veteran’s Trophy tournament.

This year, eight competitors enjoyed a hotly contested tournament in ideal playing conditions. The lawns were looking lush after the recent rain.

Peter Hill 6, Roger Wood 0, Derry Bancroft 20, Nick Reed 12, Chris Croft 8, Patrick Linturn 11, Janet Bedford 5 and Peter Dobson 12 were all raring to go after the tournament was postponed in July due to the extreme heat warnings. Winner of the 2025 tournament, Eileen Holt, was unable to play due to a holiday commitment which clashed with the rearranged date.

Played under the newly introduced Advantage Handicap target score system, the tournament began with a block’s competition – two blocks of four.

Under the new system, zero-handicap Roger Wood found himself having to hit a target of twelve hoops in his first game, whilst Janet Bedford had a target of ten hoops to chase.

Nonetheless, both Roger and Janet both won their first games in the Black block and Red block respectively, by 9/12 – 2/7 for Roger and 10/10 – 2/7 for Janet.  Nick Reed won his Red block game 9/9 – 6/7, while Chris Croft won his game 7/7 – 5/7.  

In round two, the deadly accurate Janet won again, hitting her target 9/9 to her opponent’s 4/6. Patrick Linturn won his Red block game by  just hitting his 8/8 target before his opponent Derry Bancroft could just get one more hoop to hit his 6/6 target.

In the Black block, Roger was thwarted by Chris Croft who hit his 6-hoop target within the block competition’s one-hour time limit before Roger could get near his 11-hoop objective. Meanwhile, Peter Hill grabbed two match points by winning his game 7/7 – 4/5.

By the third round of the blocks, Janet appeared to be unstoppable in the Red block. She hit her target of seven well within the hour, to her opponent’s 2/4 score. Patrick Linturn turned in a good performance when he clinched a 7/7-5/7 win against the on-form Nick Reed, who performed well in the Ryland earlier in the week.

The two Peter’s – Hill and Dobson both had wins in the black block. Peter Dobson enjoyed a fine win over Chris Croft 7/7 – 4/9, while Peter Hill beat Roger 4/4 – 2/7.

At the end of the blocks round, the winner of the Red block was Janet Bedford with 6 points. Chris Croft won the Black block with 4 points. Patrick Linturn was runner-up in the Red block with 4 points, while runner-up in the Black block was Peter Dobson, also on 4 points.

After lunch came the semi-finals for the Veteran’s Trophy and the Veteran’s ‘Plate’ ( a rather fine bottle of Bordeaux).

In the first of the Trophy semi’s, Janet Bedford beat Peter Dobson in a tense and very tight game on lawn one. Janet finally won 9/9, while Peter was close on her heels, just missing out with a score of 6/7.

Chris Croft triumphed in the other Trophy semi-final, pipping Patrick Linturn 8/8 – 3/6.

In the Veteran’s ‘Plate’ semi-finals, Nick Reed beat Roger Wood 5/5 – 7/12, while Peter Hill beat Derry Bancroft 7/7 – 1/4.

The Veteran’s Trophy final saw Chris facing  Janet on lawn 2 in an untimed game. Chasing a target of 9 hoops to Chris’s 7,  Janet, from the off, looked like she was taking no prisoners. Despite some accurate play from Chris, Janet romped to her target within an hour, winning 9/9 – 2/7.

Meanwhile on lawn 3, the Veteran’s ‘Plate’ was won by Nick Reed.  Nick beat Peter Hill 5/5 – 3/7.

Well done Janet. A very worthy Veteran’s Trophy winner – on her first attempt as well.

The tournament was a joy to watch, with some excellent golf croquet being played by all the competitors.

Runner-up Chris Croft said later ‘Janet Bedford ran out a worth Veteran’s winner. She took every opportunity to strike in the final (and no one can say there weren’t plenty of them). All the matches I contested were played in the spirit of the game.’

Chris added ‘The organisation was exceptional, the company was great, the craic was good and the refreshments were first class.’

Many thanks to the Elite Eight for a lovely day. Thanks also to Jim Dryden for his help at the end of the day and to Hazel (Felton) for the wonderful cakes that complemented the glasses of Prosecco we imbibed at the end of the afternoon.

Paul Felton

It was a “London Buses” day at the club this earlier this week!

For months, John Steel and I have been working hard to secure the Malvern Hills District Council grant and the MHDC planning approval for the new shed. It seemed that  two MHDC departments had been holding each other up.

The grant was offered, but “subject to planning approval” and the planning approval was applied for but there were still hurdles to jump – scale drawings, quotes, water management plans (code for how we are planning to deal with rain landing on the shed) and even, a possibility of a bat survey being needed!

Then, in a single half hour, the Planning Application was APPROVED and the Grant was SIGNED OFF. Eureka!

The London buses arrived together and, thankfully, no tyre marks on any of the lawns. The project can finally commence.

Well done President John in achieving this great result.

Stuart Smith

The club held its annual one-ball  Ryland Trophy competition at Stoney Ley on Tuesday.

Always a popular internal event, the tournament attracted sixteen players this year – all keen to pursue hoops with just the one croquet ball each at their disposal, in games lasting just twenty minutes.  If you really want to learn what playing with ‘reasonable despatch’ means, this is the competition to enter in 2027.

The competition, which still uses marbles to iron out handicap differences, was organised again by Jean Faulkner, with organisational assistance given by club captain John Guy, competitors each played ten multiple rigidly timed singles games over all five lawns. Assisting with organisation and timekeeping was club coach Jeff Faulkner who was also on hand to referee.

Because of the rate at which play proceeds and the fact that there were two games proceeding on most lawns, players sometimes had to choose very quickly which hoop they would contest next so that delays were avoided. There is no ‘hoop in order’ in the John Ryland tournament!

The John Ryland Memorial Trophy was donated in memory of John Ryland, an original founder member of Broadwas Croquet Club.  This year’s tournament was postponed in July because of  the extreme heat.

After some spirited croquet played by all of the enthusiastic entrants, Fran Wall emerged as the overall winner, with John Guy as runner-up. (The final leaderboard can be found below).

Players were refreshed with wine and cake at the end of the afternoon. Many thanks to those like Alison Disley, who contributed cakes to mark the end of the day. Apologies to anyone not mentioned.

Many thanks again to Jean Faulkner for organising a most enjoyable day and to John Guy and Jeff Faulkner for their assistance. The playing order sheets produced by John looked like something Albert Einstein would have had to create in order to come up with the Theory of Relativity!

It’s well worth thinking about entering the competition next season. It’s a fun day, you get to know a wide range of other members and it doesn’t matter if you lose! Nothing is entered on your handicap card! Give it some thought.

Paul Felton

On 27^th August the Broadwas West Midlands AC team entertained Kenilworth in a match in the West Midlands AC League. There was definitely ‘something in the air’ – it was rain!!!

As well as missing normal ‘number 1’ Stuart Smith, Ian Lambert had ‘called in sick’ so David Kaner (handicap 10) valiantly stood in at the eleventh hour. The rest of the team was Ian Dampney (handicap 6), Tom Ringrose (9) and captain John Guy (4.5) They faced the Kenilworth side comprising Adrian Morris  (2.5), Pauline Hughes (14), Jon Hodge (14) and captain Mervyn Hughes (7).

All the morning games were played in almost constant rain, but at least the wet ground made ball positioning a little easier. In the first of the morning singles, Ian had to play Jon and give him 8 bisques. In what Ian described as a ‘fairly uneventful game’, Ian kept in front to win 20 – 13.

The second morning singles saw Tom having 6.5 bisques against Kenilworth’s best player, Adrian. This was a very close game but good use of his bisques allowed Tom to win 15 – 13.

In the morning doubles, the pairing of David and John took on Mervyn and Pauline who had 3 more bisques than the Broadwas pair. David and John didn’t quite gel together and kept ‘blobbing’ hoops but were still one up with about 7 minutes left. Kenilworth used the bisque they had left to score 2 points and run out winners 14 – 13. So, 2 – 1 to Broadwas at lunch.

While everyone was drying off a little over lunch, the rain decided to give us a break, so most of the afternoon was rain free.

The afternoon singles are played in handicap order, so John had to take on Adrian. John started well and built up a lead but Adrian fought back and after 2 hours the scores were level at 15 each. John then got a little run going and kept Adrian’s balls far apart, to eventually ‘peg out’ with 15 minutes left and win 26 – 17. This was the first time in the last 3 league matches that anyone had ‘pegged out’, which shows the difference the rain had made to the lawns.

The second match saw Ian take on Mervyn and Ian just kept getting small breaks and easing further and further in front to romp home 23 – 12.

Tom played Jon who had 5 more bisques, and, for once, Tom found himself in a titanic struggle. With about 10 minutes left Tom was about 4 hoops down, but fought back to draw level. On his very last turn Tom scored another hoop to triumph 16 – 15.

That left David playing Pauline and David started like a train with a 6 hoop break to build an early lead. He was scoring so quickly that, at one point, I thought he was going the wrong way through hoop 6 but he was actually going the right way through hoop 11 (work it out – it’s the same hoop!). The players traded hoops for a while until David made another 6 hoop break to win 23 – 14.

So, an excellent 6 – 1 win for Broadwas to round off the season. I would like to thank all of today’s team as well as Stuart Smith and Ian Lambert who played in some of the earlier matches. They all gave me wholehearted support as well as playing some excellent croquet, leading to us going through the season unbeaten to keep the trophy in Broadwas.

John Guy

The Broadwas High Handicap GC squad wrapped up their 2026 season on Wednesday when they visited Cheltenham Croquet Club.

The squad has welcomed a number of players new to inter-club tournaments this season and their individual performances throughout the season have been encouraging. Some members of the squad had never played on lawns other than those at Stoney Ley.

On Wednesday, the team comprised Paul Felton 11 (captain), Gill Brooks 11, Debbie Kaner 12, Vivien Ellis 20, Peter Dobson 11 and David Creed-Newton 11.

Led by captain Roy Hemming 9, members of the Cheltenham team were Chris Bassett 14, Libby Stewart 10, Bob Knight 9, Pat DiMambro 16, Gundi Bunker and Andy Rollins 11.

Although the Old Bath Road lawns appeared perfectly flat and well-watered, they were running very fast and it was all too easy to overhit the ball at a number of hoops.

Cheltenham almost completely ran away with the first round, winning both doubles games 7-3 and 7-3, while Paul Felton endured a devastating lesson in how to play ruthless GC, from veteran Bob Knight who meted out an 8/8 – 1/7 drubbing.

The first round wasn’t completely lost though, thanks to newcomer to the team this season, Debbie Kaner, who beat 14-handicap Chris Bassett, 7-3.

In the second round of singles, Debbie again saved Broadwas from being whitewashed in the round, by beating Gundi Bunker, 7-3.

Cheltenham were really in their stride by round three and took two of the singles games 7-1 and 6-2, although Gill Brooks battled hard on the lawn in front of the clubhouse, taking Gundi Bunker to thirteen hoops before just losing out 7-6. The only point for Broadwas in the round came from Paul Felton, who beat 10-handicap Libby Stewart,    7-5.

At lunch the score stood at Cheltenham 7 Broadwas 3

Despite the best efforts of the Broadwas players, a now buzzing Cheltenham team took both doubles games in the fourth round, 7-4, 7-4 and both singles games, 7-0, 7-3.

The fifth and final round of singles was tied, with Debbie Kaner beating Bob Knight with an impressive 7/7 – 3/8 scoreline, while Paul Felton beat Chris Bassett 8/8 – 6/7 in a tight game on lawn 8.

The Broadwas players were impressive in their determination to try and beat the home side, but Cheltenham were the markedly better side on the day. Special mention must go to Debbie Kaner who won all three of her singles games.

Final Result: Cheltenham 15 Broadwas 5

The day was thoroughly enjoyable and as always, the Cheltenham team were very welcoming and thanks are due for the hospitality and friendliness of the Cheltenham squad.  I’d like to thank captain Roy Hemming  for his pre-match assistance and hope to see him again next season.

It’s been a joy to captain the Broadwas team this year and I hope that members of the squad have enjoyed the experience. Thanks go to those who put themselves up for selection – Derry Bancroft, Gill Brooks, David Harington, Vivien Ellis, Diana Hill, Gwen Cooke, David Creed-Newton, Peter Dobson, Hazel Felton, Debbie Kaner, Paula Armstrong, Alison Disley and super-sub, Brian Humphreys. Thanks too for the cakes, both baked and donated by members of the squad and for their help in entertaining our guests and helping clear up after matches.

Special thanks go to my vice-captain Malcolm Armstrong who has supported me throughout the season, attending matches and helping with admin and to David Kaner for delivering his invaluable coaching sessions to the squad at the start of the season.

Here’s to 2027!

Paul Felton