Wednesday 23rd October 2024 at the Colin Nash Restaurant, The Retreat, Lyndhurst Road, Hinton. Everyone seemed to like the venue and the majority enjoyed the meal.
Following lunch, in the absence of the Chairman/Club President (following a knee operation) the club trophy presentations were made by Tony Cumes.
Presentations were as per the following pictures.
GC Singles Champion Sonia Hemsley
GC Doubles Champions Sheila Davies & Trish Clayton
Our first GC friendly of the season took place at home against Winterborne Valley on 10th May, a beautiful day and a thoroughly enjoyable session of croquet in all respects bar the score. Four rounds of doubles play were crammed into our customary three-hour session, with a final outcome of 9-7 in favour of our visitors.
Congratulation to Brian Davies and Paul Burton whose pairing brought in exactly half of our aggregate score. We go again in four weeks’ time on the challenging hillside at Winterborne Stickland, after sampling the more benign court at Woodside Gardens in Lymington.
On April Fools day the 2024 Bransgore Croquet Club season started! Given the day it could have been a disaster. However, once again the sun shone on us and gave us a beautiful start to the season. As you can see it was enjoyed by all who played.
Wednesday 25th October, venue, The Fisherman’s Haunt, Winkton.
Our annual end of season lunch held at a different local venue that had before been untried. It was pretty unanimous that the lunch was a success. The food and service were good and the venue worked to make us welcome and comfortable.
Following the lunch, The Chairman mentioned and thanked members of the Club for their contributions this year.
The club trophy presentations followed as pictured below with Graham Williams, Club President, making the awards.
GC Singles Champion – Ruth Elkins
GC Doubles Champions – Ruth Elkins and Kate Crumpler
GC Plate – Mary Ashworth
AC Singles Champion – Trish Clayton
AC Doubles Champions – Mike Tomkins and Coleen Warren
Terry Huxtable, our Team Captain has confirmed today that Bransgore has finished first and second in our region of the Southern Croquet Federation Advantage GC League.
Hearty congratulations to all who took part in the matches and getting the hang of the advantage rules.
Just one friendly match to report in July, when we entertained Lymington to a return match. Eight per side this time, so invitations went out much further to club members in the expectation of some high handicap players amongst our visitors. Backs to the wall, then, in level play.
In the event, we found ourselves with a significantly higher aggregate handicap (62 to 49), but managed to turn on the style. The first round went 3-1 to the visitors, but three golden hoops in the second round resulted in two games apiece. The other game score was 7-5, so this round was very tight indeed.
So, to the last round, when we ran out 4-0 for an overall match score of 7-5. Congratulations to Brian Davies, Norman Ellis, George Baylis, Jane Tivey, Alan Smith, Lesley Wooltorton and Mary Aldous for their contributions.
Early August has brought two more matches: against Hamptworth and Winterborne Valley. This was our first match against Hamptworth for some years, with agreement reached to play teams of six highish handicap players. Oddly enough, this is not easy for us as we seem to have fewer high handicappers than many others clubs, so we ended up with three mid-range players per side paired with less experienced partners.
This time, it was our turn to have the lower handicaps, with an aggregate of 44 against 52, so our offer of handicap play was accepted. All good and useful practice playing with bisques, as the opportunities tend to be few and far between.
We seemed to be in control pretty well all round, running out 7-2 winners, a result much influenced by good, and not so good, use of the bisques. Afterwards, we were entertained to tea in the plush new clubhouse at Hamptworth.
Congratulations, then, to Norman Ellis, George Baylis, Jane Tivey, Alan Smith, Lesley Wooltorton on a fine performance.
Winterborne Valley is a new, and yet not so new, croquet club, formed by members of Kingston Maurward after being evicted from their former home near Dorchester. The visit of eight of their club members was the opportunity to resume some old friendships. High handicaps were the order of the day again, with the exception of two vastly experienced and at one time top players from Winterborne Valley who came to see old friends.
Even higher handicap count this time: our count being 62 to the visitors’ 70. Bisques all round, then, and generally well used. Each round was tied at 2-2, with the final match score of 6-6 being a friendly and hospitable outcome. Well done, then, to Brian Davies, Norman Ellis, Graham Williams, Sheila Davies, Carol Reed, Janet Williams, and, last but not least, Jenny Monger who stood in at the last minute for her first club match.
We look forward to the return match at Winterborne Stickland at the end of the month.
The draw evening was a successful and enjoyable event. In addition to the GC singles and doubles draws, we enjoyed a glass together, a fine variety of cheeses and accompaniments and a fun game of bingo. Here are a couple of photos from the event.
What a beautiful day for the start of the season. I managed to sneak a couple of photos of our President, Graham Williams kicking off the year with the first ball of the season.
Many members spent a very enjoyable lunch and afternoon at Tyrrells Ford Country Inn and Hotel for the end of season lunch and for the presentation of the trophies to the winners of the club tournaments.
This year’s winners are:
AC Singles – James Moreton GC Singles – George Baylis GC Plate – Ruth Elkins AC Doubles – Peter Warren and James Moreton GC Doubles – Graham Williams and Roger Price
The Trophies for the GC Doubles winners were presented by Janet Williams – The President’s wife, and one of the Founder members with Graham and Roger also founder members.
More pictures in the Photo Gallery in the Member’s Area.
