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ASHBY CROQUET CLUB |
2007 NEWS ARCHIVE |
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GOING FOR GOLD Rachel received
her Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award at St James' Palace on 5th December. Judith
was invited as a guest. The awards were presented to Rachel's group by
Tim Campbell, the winner of the first series of 'The Apprentice' on BBC1, the
guy in the middle of the photo at the front. The Duke of Edinburgh came round
to chat to all the groups. In the
afternoon, Rachel & Judith visited the 'Terracotta Army'
exhibition at the Rachel started
playing Croquet at Ashby in 2005 as her sport for the Gold Award. Many congratulations to Rachel from everyone at the club. |
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GOLF CROQUET
RANKINGS For those who are not already aware, the Golf Croquet
national and international rankings are now on the CA website. Ashby Club currently has six players in the
UK Top 100 and two in the International Top 100. |
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Our AGM took
place at Moira on Tuesday 13th November.
The Club reported a surplus for the year of £251 thanks to many
generous donations from members; also Taster Sessions have generated
significant income for the club.
Thanks to our CASC status, we can now claim tax benefit on donations
to the club through the Gift Aid scheme.
Purchase is in hand of further sets of The meeting
agreed an increase in subscription rates to reflect the high costs of
maintaining the lawns, and also the introduction of a Casual membership
category, aimed at occasional players (up to ten times per season). Also, the upper age limit of the Junior
category is to be increased from 18 to 21 to bring us into line with the CA
Junior membership definition. The Committee was
re-elected, with the addition of Ben Haytack as a new committee member. A discussion then
followed about the proposed improvements to Lawn 3 and possible sources of
funding for the project. The committee
will investigate this further. The picture shows
some of the many trophies that were presented during the evening. Many thanks to Lindsey and Cynthia for the
wonderful buffet.
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CHRISTMAS DINNER This year we
tried a new venue for a change: the Smisby Arms at Smisby – another
excellent event organised by Lindsey, attended by 24 members and guests
– it must be a record turnout for a club Christmas meal! |
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BOTTLE CHALLENGE 2007 (Report by Mike) The Bottle
Challenge had a smaller field this year, with the other eligible members
(Golf Croquet handicap of zero or less) and potential visitors all being
unavailable. Therefore Chris, Ray, Tim, Arthur and Mike fought for the
privilege of taking home the trophy and, far more important, the five bottles
of wine required as entrance fees. There
was perhaps a slight end-of-term feel about the play. Arthur and Ray led the
pack with three wins each, Ray winning overall on the who-beat-who rule,
leaving Arthur as runner-up but having conceded the least number of hoops. One
of the problems I have is the tendency to see everything around whilst taking
a shot. Whenever I was lining up facing the Welfare building I had flashbacks
of the last committee meeting. Does anyone know if I will suffer permanent
damage or is there a cure? |
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Ashby were well
represented at the Yorkshire Open Doubles golf croquet event at Ripon on
October 6th and 7th: three of the four
players in the final were from our club – Tim King and Roy Ware
defeating |
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GOLF CROQUET KNOCKOUT FINAL Unconventionally
but under diary pressure at the end of the season and with the blessing of
the Tournament Manager, who was present, Mick and Tim exported the knockout
final to the hallowed grounds of the Ripon Spa hotel on Friday 5th
October. With the O'Brians and the
Buxtons in attendance, the crowd was possibly as big as was ever going to be
the case but apologies to everyone else who was holding open their diaries to
fit in this pinnacle of the club season.
Tim had a marginal advantage having played three tournaments before at
Ripon but whatever the result Mick could look at the benefits of having
played a serious game before embarking on the real purpose of the weekend:
competing in the Yorkshire Open Doubles. The final was
nothing too memorable. In the
best-of-three thirteen-point games, Tim played with enough consistency and
rhythm to give little away and Mick never really found his very best play to
put any pressure on the lower handicap player. Tim won the first 7-5 without much
drama. He then proceeded to find an
extra gear and was soon 6-1 up in the second.
To Mick's credit, he did not roll over and capitulate at this point,
winning the next three hoops and getting himself into pole position in the
jaws of hoop 11. However, he failed to
clear Tim's ball that was about four to five yards away on a difficult
angle. Tim was able to pull off a
fittingly superb way to win any match.
The double-banked, non-Ashby players were able to join in the applause
and then realize that they had been sharing the court with such an important
event! With the club matter out of the way, Mick and Tim went on to further battles over the weekend together with their respective playing partners but that is another story. Perhaps the only other way to give the knockout tournament a higher profile would be to make the semi-finals also best-of-three games and put these on the same day as the final. However, this would also require greater diary co-ordination so perhaps this format is an unrealistic dream. Thanks to all who competed this year; good luck for next season! Report by Tim Knockout results |
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BUXTON VASE FINAL (GOLF CROQUET SINGLES LEAGUE) Chris and Mike played the final starting at around 2pm on
a club afternoon. A number of
spectators wandered in as the games progressed. Mike easily won the first game 7-1 with a
range of take outs and jump shots which left some spectators (but not all of
them!) thinking it was effectively all over. Needless to say the performance
didn't last, and Chris moved up a couple of gears to take the next two games
7-4 and 7-3 to become this year’s worthy champion. Buxton Vase page |
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INTER-CLUB GOLF CROQUET FINAL: Ashby
1 - 6 Blewbury (played at ► Full report on the
CA website ► Inter-club
draw/results |
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In the deciding
match of this year’s 14-point league, Ashby’s team (Richard,
Arthur, Rachel and Marilyn) lost to |
BUXTON VASE (GOLF
CROQUET SINGLES LEAGUE) Sixteen people took part in this year’s internal league, split nicely into two blocks of eight. An excellent effort by everyone ensured that every one of the 56 possible games was completed before the closing date with several days to spare! Chris Mounfield and Mike O’Brian were the winners of their respective blocks, and play each other in the final (best of 3 games). Bad luck to Rachel and Arthur who finished on the same number of points as the winners, but lost out on the who-beat-whom rule. (Chris beat Rachel 7-5 and Mike beat Arthur 7-5.) |
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FARRANT SALVER: A
field of seven contested this year’s Farrant Salver, including a guest
appearance by |
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SUCCESS
AT Derek Buxton won the
Nottingham Autumn Handicap event on the weekend of September 15th and 16th
with 5 wins out of 5. As a result of this Derek's handicap
reduced to 9. |
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CLIVE
PEARSON DOUBLES Two new names on
the shield this year: Husband-and-wife team Arthur and Judith won the Clive
Pearson Doubles on Sunday 16th September, with 5 wins out of 7. Match report,
results and pictures on the Clive
Pearson Doubles page. |
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LONGMAN CUP:
Fylde 4 – 3 Ashby
(Sunday 9th September) Ashby’s team of Tim, Derek, Mick and
Jeremy narrowly lost away to Fylde in the quarter-finals of the Longman
Cup. Match
report and picture on the CA website. |
RECENT
TOURNAMENT NEWS Rachel
was the overall winner of the August
Handicap Tournament at Pendle, and Arthur finished as the High Handicap
winner. Details
and pictures on the Pendle website. In Nottingham’s August Tournament,
Derek reached the semi-finals of the Robin Hood Gold Cup (handicap singles),
also the final of the C-level singles, and the semi-finals of the handicap
doubles event. Results
on the CA website. Tim has
played in the National
Golf Croquet Doubles at Surbiton and the Musk Cup at Pendle. Eileen and Mick played in the
inaugural Golf
Croquet Veterans Tournament at Southwick – Eileen claiming a
victory against the eventual winner Derek Old. Richard won the Bretby
Tournament, an annual 14-point competition for former coal industry
employees, held at |
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HOOP LIFTER:
We now have a hoop-lifter (or hoop-puller –
call it what you will). Please use
this for removing hoops especially when they are tight, instead of banging or
wriggling them. The hoop-lifter can be
found hanging up between the mallet rack and the window. Operation of the device should be
self-explanatory. |
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ASHBY BEAT SURBITON IN
TENSE SEMI-FINAL Inter-Club Golf Croquet Championship: SURBITON
3 – 4 ASHBY (played on Monday 27th August) Ashby team:
Tim, Ray, Mike and Derek Another
great team effort from the Ashby crowd (apart from that bloke King who seems
a bit of a waster!); winning away at Surbiton is no mean feat and the team
thoroughly deserves to be back in the final after a two-year gap. Great jump shots from all of the team at
one point or another. Superb support
from Chris, Eileen and Margaret. The
final against Blewbury is on Saturday 29th September at ► Full report on the CA
website |
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CRAZY CROQUET (Sunday 19th August) Barrie
and Dave devised another fiendish course based around the six normal hoops on
Lawn 3, but with added slaloms, tubes, ramps and other obstacles along the
way. Further challenges followed when
the heavens opened halfway through the afternoon, leaving some sections of
the course on the squelchy side, and most people retiring into the
shelter. There were 11 entries in
spite of the terrible weather.
Everyone had two turns around the course, with the lower of the two
scores (i.e. number of strokes) counting towards the result. Interestingly the two best-scoring players
– winner Ben on 35 and runner-up Richard on 36 were the last two around
the course, shortly after the heavy downpour, so the soggy ground conditions
seemed to work to their advantage. Ray and Barrie finished not far behind, on
38 strokes. Thanks to Barrie and Dave
for an entertaining event on an otherwise dreary day. |
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INTER-COUNTIES GOLF CROQUET CHAMPIONSHIP 2007 |
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Played
at Report
by Tim King As has been the
case on both occasions since the inception of the team in 2005, Ashby
provided all the members for the Leicestershire team in the Inter-Counties
Golf Croquet Championship. Leicestershire finished seventh in the initial
all-play-all block of matches (one doubles game and two singles games) among
the ten counties but were only one hoop in either of a couple of games from
being fourth. Leicestershire then
played the final four rounds of the tournament in a second block with In total, the Leicestershire team played 39 games
over the weekend, winning 20. Of these
victories, 11 were in singles games (out of 26) and 9 in doubles games (out
of 13). These statistics reflect the
strong team feeling and the successful bonding in the two doubles pairings of
Tim King with Derek Buxton and Ray Mounfield with Improvement in the singles results could have given
Leicestershire the chance to compete in the semi-finals. The individual performance of the weekend was
definitely from Derek.
He ably responded
to suggestions from Tim in the
doubles (including some of the more |
obscure ones!) and as a result they won 5 out of 6
matches (the same as they achieved as a partnership in 2005), only losing to
Ivor Brand and Richard Thompson, who have just won the National Doubles
Championship. Equally impressively,
Derek won 5 out of 7 singles matches.
His best victory was to beat Nick Butler (-3 handicap). Meanwhile, Tim King (3/7) and Ray Mounfield (1/6)
played below their best in their singles matches, although Ray gained a
satisfying victory over Bill Arliss.
On his debut for the team, The weather remained good throughout the weekend. |
As a final note, Eileen Buxton stepped in at the
last moment to help out the Worcestershire team who were struggling to find a
fourth player. Although Eileen was not eligible for selection for
Worcestershire and, thus, the team could not actually win the Championship,
this stand in substitution epitomises the nature of the event: croquet is always the winner. The Leicestershire team was also grateful
to Christine Mounfield for attending as a reserve and spectator. RESULTS (Leicestershire score first) [Leicestershire winners] Main block CA
Select 3-0 [Ray & Mick, Tim, Derek] Worcestershire 1-2
[Mick] Oxfordshire 2-1
[Ray & Mick, Derek] Northumberland 2-1
[Ray & Mick, Derek] 5th to 7th block |
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TIM ACHIEVES A NOTABLE TRIPLE Tim King has been
announced as one of the first four members of the This is
in addition to qualifying for the English
National Singles tournament (Ascot Cup) and being selected to play in the
Musk Cup (the Golf Croquet
Selectors' Weekend). Tim is
currently 7th in the UK Golf Croquet rankings and recently reached the lowest
possible handicap of -4. Tim comments,
"I am very pleased with my achievements this year but I am sure that the
rest of the season is going to be interesting: everyone will be wanting to beat me,
especially those who also want to be selected for the remaining World
Championship places!" He also
added, "Thank you to everyone at Ashby for supporting me in my
efforts. The quality of our courts and
friendly club atmosphere is an important factor in my success". ► Golf
Croquet UK Rankings ► Golf Croquet International Rankings |
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LONGMAN CUP
(Sunday 22nd July): Ashby (Tim,
Jeremy, Richard, Geoff) 5 – 2
Bury.
King beat Kenworthy +9 The seven-game format
proved, as so often, to provide an exciting day of croquet and the Ashby
courts once again demonstrated excellent drainage properties with having no
ill effect from recent downpours, although slightly less grass would have
been ideal. The weather co-operated and the participants only endured a very
few spots of rain. During the day, Brightmore played the best croquet for
Bury and when he won in the afternoon, this took Bury back to one behind at
2-3. All the attention turned to the matches of Sanville-Hardman and
Ellott-Saunders both on the same court and with plenty of changes of innings.
Saunders was in good shape, having built a strong lead of nine hoops with
both balls on rover. Ellott, however, began finally to discover some form and
claw back, although Saunders did manage the first of his rover hoops. Meanwhile, Sanville had
established a lead but Hardman began his recovery. For twenty minutes or so,
Bury began to look good for a victory from behind. Ellott though sealed the
win for Ashby despite being pegged out and a little later time ran out for
the Hardman recovery to give a slightly generous scoreline for Ashby. (Report by Tim
adds: “A great team effort. I
forgot to say in the report that the turning point of the match was probably
Jeremy coming from one or two hoops down with his break during which time was
called, calmly building a three hoop cushion and setting a leave that was too
good for his opponent's last shot. A
2-1 lead at lunchtime is always a comfortable feeling”. Ashby now face a
trip to |
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MAX MORRIS TROPHY: The Max Morris winner was Arthur Rowe
who beat |
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After two days of
intense competition, the ASHBY
ANNIVERSARY SHIELD has been won by Mick.
Details here |
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GOLF CROQUET OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS 2007 For those
who have been reading the CA website, the reports of the Opens are far more
accurate here: <http://homepage.ntlworld.com/bill.arliss/opens/index.htm>. This page includes pictures by Mike
O'Brian and Ray Mounfield had their successes (Mike won three matches out of
six including beating the highly ranked Evan Newell and only just missed out
on qualification) but Tim made furthest progress. In his block, he beat European Champion
Stephen Mulliner. On the third game,
Mulliner ran hoop 11 to go 6-5 up and leave Tim in a difficult situation, one
ball going to the penalty point. Tim
responded by immediately running hoop 12 from 12 yards with his other ball,
the only advantage with respect to hoop 13 being that Mulliner also had to
play his first ball from the same penalty point. Mulliner put this ball perfectly in
front. Tim made the 24-yard clearance
with his next ball, putting both balls on the boundary in front of hoop
13. The next two balls did little to
change the situation and Mulliner had first shot at the hoop with his
boundary ball. He missed. With Mulliner's second ball a few feet in
front of the hoop, Tim then ran the hoop with his 7-yard boundary shot. Victory! The
reward for Tim was to be in the same half of the draw as Reg Bamford, Stephen
Mulliner and Marcus Evans. All of the
above won their round of 16 matches and |
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PERRY BOWL: Congratulations to Eileen Buxton who won
the Ladies Day competition on
Fathers’ Day! Report and picture |
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TOURNAMENT
NEWS: Derek Buxton was
runner-up in the Northampton Weekend
Handicap (Association Croquet) Tournament. |
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Jeremy Staley won
the SHAKESPEARE CUP on Sunday 27th
May in atrocious weather. There were only three entries: Jeremy, |
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East Midlands
Golf Croquet League result: SAPCOTE 8
– 4 ASHBY B The match was played at Sapcote on Wednesday May 23rd. Sapcote team:- Pat Wright (1), Christine Ryder (2) and John Hansen (3) Ashby team:-
Evelyn Martin (2), Eileen Buxton (3) and Geoffrey Ellott (4). |
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Dave
who celebrated his 80th on June 21st with a surprise party at the croquet
club. More pictures here |
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NOVICES GOLF CROQUET COMPETITION:
There were only four entries for this competition on Sunday 20th May, but
this enabled an all-play-all format to be played in a leisurely fashion and
in excellent weather. Martin Wroughton
and Rupert Knapton tied on the number of games won, but Rupert came through
as the winner, based on “who beat whom”. Many thanks to |
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Longman Cup: ASHBY 6 – 1 BOWDON Played at Moira on Saturday 19th May. Jeremy Staley (10) and Derek Buxton (11) +7T beat John Wilkinson (4.5) and Lorna Frost (5) Arthur Rowe (14) +23 beat Liz Webb (8)
Jeremy Staley +11 beat John Wilkinson Derek Buxton lost to Liz Webb +15 Arthur Rowe +22 beat Rupert Webb
Arthur Rowe, who had never played a 26 point game
prior to this match (even in practice), can expect a significant handicap
reduction as a result of his performance. |
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CA
Inter-Club Golf Croquet Competition: ASHBY
6 – 1 TYNESIDE Played
at Moira on Sunday 13th May 2007, in progressively worse weather throughout
the course of the match. The Ashby
courts stood up very well to the downpour, losing relatively little pace
despite the large amounts of standing water around the edgings and on the local
roads. Derek
Old was in excellent form (made ASHBY: TYNESIDE:
Derek Old, David Turner, John Moore and Jacob Carr Tim and
Ray v Derek and David . 7-5 , 5-7 , 7-5 Mike
O'Brian v Jacob Carr . 7-4 , 7-4 Chris
Mounfield v John Moore . 5-7 , 6-7 Ray
Mounfield v David Turner . 4-7 , 7-6
, 7-6 Mike
O'Brian v John Moore . 7-4 , 7-6 Chris
Mounfield v Jacob Carr . 7-5 , 6-7
, 7-5 |
ASSOCIATION CROQUET: |
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GOLF CROQUET SUCCESS Eileen won the Pendle and Craven 'B' level
golf croquet tournament
on the weekend of May 5th & 6th. Derek was 3rd. As a result of this
Eileen's handicap is reduced to 3 and Derek's to –1. Report
and pictures on Pendle’s website. Tim was runner-up in the Roehampton Championship which took place the same weekend. |
The JIM KIRBY CUP, played at Moira on May 5th, was won by Nigel
Harding of Woodhall Spa. Report and pictures here. |
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS |
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The ONE BALL TOURNAMENT was won by Arthur, who narrowly defeated
Tim in an exciting deciding game. Picture
and details on the One Ball Tournament
page. |
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Four
teams took part in the Spring Quiz. Mick,
Sheena, Mike and Margaret’s team “Stumped” were the winners
by 8 points. Many thanks to Noel for
another excellent quiz. |
At the Lancashire International Open Golf
Tournament played at |
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LAWNS
NEWS No More Aching Backs! During the
winter, Geoff Ellott has cleaned and overhauled the white-lining machine, lengthening
the handles so aching backs are now a thing of the past! Geoff has also
painted the machine in contrasting colours of yellow and black. It looks
super. Thanks Geoff! Also thanks to Mike O'Brian, Derek Buxton (Lawns Committee) and John Adey for their excellent work on the lawns over the winter. They are looking really good. |
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LAWN AVAILABILITY FOR THE 2007 SEASON The
new season started on Sunday 1st April. The main club sessions are Tuesday & Thursday
evenings from 6 pm (although many usually arrive earlier in the afternoon)
and Sunday afternoons, although lawn availability may be restricted at times
on Sundays when tournaments or league matches are being played. Please note that the lawns are
closed for play on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings until 12.00
noon. This is
to allow the groundsman uninterrupted access for lawn maintenance and
watering. Apologies for any
inconvenience, but we hope that the loss of four mornings’ play will be
compensated by the increased maintenance and even better quality lawns as a
result. Access
will be available for members on Wednesday mornings, subject to the same
conditions that apply at all other times, i.e. the committee may arrange club
events and the groundsman or the lawn committee may close the lawns without
prior notice. |
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Burton
Sailing Club has been invited to a taster session and in response have asked if
we would like a taster at sailing. It would be in a keel boat (ones that
don’t fall over). Anyone interested please contact Derek or Lindsey. |
No Mick or Sheena
this year which left the field wide open. We had two evenly-matched teams of
five. Mike was the top individual scorer, averaging 114, and Eileen the top
female averaging 98. The highest score
in a single game was Allan with 141, with Chris not far behind achieving an
excellent score of 136 in Game 2 – a dramatic improvement after only 54
in Game 1! Special mention to Dave
Davis who averaged over 100, and scored 6 strikes overall – more than
anyone else. |
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ASTROTURF COMPETITION: The Ashby “Seniors” team of Arthur,
Mick and Chris won the Bass Shield team competition, and Chris also won the
Coors Cup individual competition. Details
and pictures, including Ray’s tournament report |
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GIFT AID: We are now registered as a
Community Amateur Sports Club (CASC), allowing us to claim Gift Aid on
any current and future donations made to the club by income tax payers. Unfortunately we can’t reclaim tax on
club membership fee payments, but for any members who wish to make an
additional voluntary donation to the club, we can reclaim the basic rate tax,
making every £1.00 donated worth £1.28 to the club. Anyone who would like to make a donation
will need to fill in a Gift Aid Declaration.
The membership renewal form will be modified to include this. |
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LAWN AVAILABILITY FOR THE 2007 SEASON The
new season started on Sunday 1st April. The main club sessions are Tuesday & Thursday
evenings from 6 pm (although many usually arrive earlier in the afternoon)
and Sunday afternoons, although lawn availability may be restricted at times
on Sundays when tournaments or league matches are being played. Please note that the lawns are
closed for play on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings until 12.00
noon. This is
to allow the groundsman uninterrupted access for lawn maintenance and
watering. Apologies for any
inconvenience, but we hope that the loss of four mornings’ play will be
compensated by the increased maintenance and even better quality lawns as a
result. Access
will be available for members on Wednesday mornings, subject to the same
conditions that apply at all other times, i.e. the committee may arrange club
events and the groundsman or the lawn committee may close the lawns without
prior notice. |
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Enjoy a discounted holiday in As he
mentioned at our AGM, The
luxury apartment (Pinara Sofina, No16) is on the edge of the The
apartment details are on a number of websites, for example www.holiday-rentals.co.uk and www.A1villas.com. Prices
for the apartment are from £215 to £315 per week, less the 10% discount
of course. There’s
also a possibility of future holiday rentals being available in the future at
If
you have any questions then please give |
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CHARADES Well done Lindsey
and Dave! A select group of Club members attended the
Charades Evening. Those of you who didn't missed a treat. Lindsey and Dave
had a huge selection of film, book, opera and song titles for us to guess.
We played in two groups, "The
Hearts" and "The Spades". (Eileen, Chris and Ray against
Derek, Richard and Mick H.) Lindsey, the scorer, kept us in check
ably assisted by Dave who was also the Timekeeper.
Things started
tentatively, no-one wanting to make a fool of themselves! Inhibitions soon
forgotten, the real "acting" began! Verbal encouragement to team players and heckling to opponents soon
became the norm. At half time
the scores were level, I don't remember what they were but can assure you
they were level. Lindsey and Dave acted out one title each for the teams
to guess. Score still level. (Can you feel the tension mounting?) The second half
started. Each team determined to win! Hearts edged ahead, Spades accused them
of having easy titles! We
were just better actors and had superior knowledge! Oh dear, am I getting
biased? Could I be in The Hearts team? Valiantly we soldiered on, The Hearts staying ahead to VICTORY! The
score was 28 to 21, or 27 to 20, or ??
Well, The Hearts won. I
had not heard of some of the titles but I wasn't alone! Where Lindsey and
Dave had found them I don't know. Thanks also to Richard for doing the raffle. I didn't know
what to expect before going to the Charades evening, I had only played
Charades at family parties years ago. Well I thoroughly enjoyed it! Many thanks to Eileen for the report.
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ANNUAL QUIZ: Seven teams took part in our Quiz. The close winners were Mix One (or was it Mick’s Won?) comprising Mick, Sheena, Geoff and Marilyn. Just one point behind were the Flying Buxberries (Derek, Eileen and friends). Many thanks to Noel for running the quiz and all the teams who took part. |
The
formats of the East Midlands Team Leagues for the 2007 season were finalised
at the East Midlands Federation meeting in January. The Golf Croquet League will be divided
into two divisions. The teams which
finished in the top half of last year’s league – including Ashby
A and Ashby B – will be invited to compete in the First Division. The other teams (provisionally) in the top
division will be Sapcote, The
format of the 14 Point Association
Croquet League will remain unchanged, with teams playing each other once,
either at home or away. The time limit
per game has been increased to 1 hr 30 mins. The format will continue to be
handicap play, full bisque to base 3.
Teams of 4 players, but can be reduced to 3 people if both clubs agree
in advance. The 26 Point Association Croquet League
will be held at Ashby
will once again host the Jim Kirby Cup,
the Federation’s individual 14-point handicap tournament. It will be early in the season this year,
on Saturday 5th May. |
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NEW COUNTDOWN CHAMPION Margaret’s four-year reign as
Countdown champion has finally come to an end, and Ashby Croquet Club now has
a new title holder! Although Margaret did still make it to the
final, she then met some tough opposition, and it was Mick who triumphed with
a very impressive performance, after solving both of the numbers puzzles and
the Conundrum in the final. Well done
to Mick, and the runner-up Eileen. The
other finalists were Sheena and Ray (winner of our first Countdown five years
ago.) We had some good words such as meerkat from Eileen (wrongly credited
to Margaret previously – apologies), apricots (from Derek when in the audience) and antelope. Thanks to all for taking part, and those
who helped with the scoring. |
Moira to
Oakthorpe |
This new winter
social event – a six-mile circular walk starting at Moira – attracted
a good crowd and looks set to become an annual event. We strolled
along the Ashby Woulds Heritage Trail to Oakthorpe, and then back along the More details and pictures here. |
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NEW YEAR'S DAY
CROQUET Fourteen brave souls turned up for our traditional New Year's Day
croquet session – a better attendance than many of our club nights in
the height of summer! To keep everyone
warm in between the refreshment breaks, Ray organised an all-play-all doubles
tournament, with six pairs taking part, the pairings drawn at random, and each
game played out to 7 points in total.
We restricted ourselves to just one lawn, which meant triple banking
and consequently the inevitable confusion of having two sets of similar balls
on the lawn at the same time! Three pairs finished the tournament with 4 wins: Mike & Arthur
(who were declared the overall winners, after taking points scored and
results of individual matches into account), Derek & Barrie (very close
runners-up), and Richard & Chris.
Eileen & Rachel finished on 2 wins; Judith & Ray with one win,
and Anthony & Dave did at least get the title of most consistent pair,
losing each of their matches 2-5.
Thanks to everyone for playing – an enjoyable start to the new
year. |
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