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ASHBY CROQUET CLUB

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www.ashbycroquetclub.org.uk

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Ashby Croquet Club’s

ANNUAL QUIZ

Tuesday 21st February

 

Our Annual Quiz takes place on Tuesday 21st February starting at 7.30 pm in the Lounge at Moira Miners Welfare.

 

There's no need to book in advance - just turn up and join a team on the night or, better still, bring along one or more teams of up to four people each.  Friends, family and visitors welcome.

 

Usual format - general knowledge, pictures, etc.  Prizes for the winning team.

 

Entry fee £2.50 per person including raffle tickets; all proceeds to croquet club funds.

 

 


MOST IMPROVED PLAYER AWARD

 

The Croquet Association has announced the winners of the national awards for the most improved players during 2011.  Congratulations to Will Gee for winning the Spiers Trophy for the most improved Golf Croquet player.

Will wins the Ascot Cup

 


WINTER SOCIAL EVENTS

 

The next Committee Meeting is on Tuesday 31st January.

 

Forthcoming socials include our annual Quiz Night on Tuesday 21st February (details opposite), a Winter Walk on Sunday 26th February, and an Indoor Games/Sports Evening which Cynthia S has kindly offered to host on Tuesday 13th March.  Watch this space for further details.

 

And, by popular demand, Mick will be running another Board Games Evening.

 


COUNTDOWN

 

Taking part in this year's Countdown contest we had five novices, plus five regulars who had all been previous winners or runners-up.  Well done to Eileen who won for the first time, closely followed by Martin in second place and Janet P third.  Thanks to all who took part, and it was nice to see some of our newer members there.


NEW YEAR'S DAY TOURNAMENT


Thirteen players turned up for this fun annual event now in its tenth year on what started as a reasonably mild and dry day but which turned progressively colder and wetter in the latter stages. Martin ran a doubles tournament in which everyone played at least four games, some playing five. The winning pair was Will and Eileen with four straight victories. Joint runners-up were Mike & Richard, and Arthur (who played as a one-man team due to the odd number of entrants). Many thanks to Martin, Eileen and Derek for setting up the lawns in advance, and to everyone for providing well-earned food and drinks.

 

 

CHRISTMAS CHARITY COLLECTION


The charity collection in lieu of Christmas cards, which we organised at the Christmas Dinner, has raised the marvellous sum of £70 for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

 

Many thanks to Martin and Cynthia for organising the collection.

 

Thanks also to Mick for organising the meal which was excellent as always at the Lakeside Restaurant.

 

 

RACHEL IS CROWNED WORLD CHAMPION

 

4th Women's Golf Croquet World Championships

New Zealand, November 19–26 2011

 

Many congratulations to Rachel Rowe who has become the new Women's Golf Croquet World Champion after an extremely tight final against Jenny Clarke of New Zealand. The see-saw final went all the way to the fifth and deciding game, and after a long hard battle Rachel eventually won 7-3, 6-7, 5-7, 7-6, 7-4.

 

Read more on the CA website

 

Ashby player Rachel was one of six England players taking part in the Women's GC Worlds in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.

 

She finished top of her block with 6 match wins out of 6, only dropping one game throughout. She went on to win her first two knockout matches in straight games and her quarter-final against Azza El Khouly of Egypt in three games. In the semi-finals she won 7-3, 7-4, 7-6 against Rosie Graham of Australia.

 

Event website

Results on NZ croquet website


Pictured below is Rachel's winning jump shot.

Photos by Helena Fensome.

 

 

 

LAWN NEWS

 

Lawns 1 and 2 have been seeded and top-dressing applied. Many thanks to all who helped out with this.

 

Lawn 3 is currently available for winter club play, weather permitting – please do not use in frosty or very wet conditions.

 

SUBS & COMPETITION ENTRIES 2012

To help offset our increasing lawn maintenance costs, the AGM agreed an increase in subs (our first for three years) of £5 on the Standard rate to £63 and pro-rata for other categories, but the Casual and Country rates will remain at current levels. We are introducing a new Distant membership category for people living more than 50 miles from the club. The Distant rate is half of the Country/Casual rate, on the basis that Ashby is not their main club.

Internal club competition fees (currently £3 in most cases) will be scrapped next year to try and encourage more members to enter our competitions. This is for a trial period and will be reviewed at the next AGM.

 

 

INTERNAL GC DOUBLES LEAGUE

 

Four pairs entered the doubles league and completed their games.  Arthur and Judith Rowe were the winners with 3 wins.  Runners-up were Martin Wroughton and Liz Riley with 2 wins.

 

 

COMPETITION WINNERS 2011

 

Trophies were presented to the winners of the year's competitions at the AGM.  The indisputable star of the season was Will Gee, and in his absence he was awarded with the Player of the Year award.

 

List of competition winners 2011 (PDF)

 

 

ASHBY WELL-REPRESENTED IN YORKSHIRE DOUBLES FINAL

 

Three Ashby players featured in the Yorkshire Doubles at the Ripon Spa Hotel over the weekend 8th - 9th October. Rachel and Arthur Rowe played together, and Mike O'Brian played with Jacob Carr. There were twelve pairs, divided into two blocks. At the end of Saturday, both the Ashby containing pairs had won 5/5 19 point games and topped their blocks, winning most games easily, apart from the game between Rachel and Arthur and Sam Thompson and Freda Vitty which finished 10-9 to the Ashby pair. The weather was not great, with steady drizzle all day on Saturday.

 

The top four from each block progressed to the knockout stage on Sunday, when the weather was slightly warmer and less rainy. Rachel and Arthur easily won their quarter and semi-final games; Mike and Jacob took 3 games to beat Sam and Freda in their semi-final. By this time Jacob was in fine form and hit some spectacular jump shots.

 

Jacob and Mike took the first game of the final 7-5. Rachel and Arthur fought back in the second to be 6-4 up, but did not play good enough approach shots to hoops 12 and 13 (partly due to some large hills on Lawn 1), and lost the second game 7-6, leaving Mike and Jacob the winners.



Mike, Jacob and Sam



Sam, Arthur and Rachel

 

INTER-CLUB GC FINAL: Surbiton 4–3 Ashby

Played at Letchworth on Sat 1st October

 

Surbiton beat Ashby 4-3 in a very closely-fought contest to win the GC Inter-Club Trophy for the fifth time.

 

Surbiton were only one hoop away from a 5-2 victory. But Ashby were only one hoop away from a 4-3 victory and two away from 5-2! Ashby also won 16 more hoops than Surbiton across the 17 games in the match. However, Surbiton team captain Don Beck brought home the victory in a tight finish against Rachel Rowe, after John Spiers had hung on for a vital win in the morning against Ray Mounfield (from 1-4 down in third game) and Samir Patel had been assured in defeating both Ray and Tim King.

 

Letchworth proved to be a perfect venue for the final. The club was hospitable, members formed a decent-sized crowd of spectators, operated scoreboards and (most important of all) the two courts were in fantastic condition, with a fast, true surface that was a fair test of croquet ability.

 

Results

William Gee (0) & Rachel Rowe (1) beat Howard Cheyne (0) & Don Beck (0): 7-1, 6-7, 7-6

Tim King (1) lost to Samir Patel (1): 3-7, 6-7

Ray Mounfield (2) lost to John Spiers (1): 7-1, 6-7, 6-7

 



William Gee beat Howard Cheyne: 7-4, 7-1

Rachel Rowe lost to Don Beck: 7-3, 6-7, 5-7

Tim King beat John Spiers: 7-4, 7-3

Ray Mounfield lost to Samir Patel: 4-7, 4-7

 

WILL WINS THE ASCOT CUP

 

Will Gee has capped an amazingly successful 2011 with victory in the Ascot Cup (English National GC Championships).

 

Rachel and Will travelled to Colchester to play in the Ascot Cup on 24-25 September. Whilst Rachel got off to a good start by winning two tough opening games, Will was playing much more shakily, having a 10-9 scare in the opening game, before losing his second. From then on however, Will played much more consistently, winning all his remaining games on Saturday, including beating Jack Wicks 10-0. On Sunday morning, whilst the qualifiers from Rachel’s block had been decided, two of Will, Jack Wicks and Stephen Mulliner would qualify from Will’s block. Will had to beat Stephen in his last block game to be sure of qualifying. Will played solidly to beat Stephen 10-6, placing him top of his block.

 

In the semi final, Will was pitted against Howard Cheyne, who he had played 14 times that season already. After going 3-0 down in the first game, Will turned the match around, winning the match 7-4, 7-3 to secure a place in the final against Robert Fulford. In the final, Will took an early lead and held onto it in both matches, winning 7-4, 7-5.

 

Will's Ascot Cup success is the culmination of a successful year which also saw victories for Will in the Bottle Challenge, the Surbiton and the Roehampton GC Opens and the National Forest GC Trophy. Also together with Rachel Rowe he won the national doubles championship at Wrest Park.

 

OLDER NEWS ITEMS HAVE BEEN MOVED TO THE 2011 NEWS ARCHIVE PAGE.