End of Season Lunch 2024

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

GC Plate Champion Norman Ellis

AC Singles Champion James Morton

AC Doubles Champions Trish Clayton & Jane Wiggins

All winners

BCC’s own referee!

Congratulations to Art Wardle who has recently successfully completed the referees course and qualified as a bona fide referee.

I understand it was not an easy course so well done Art!

Jane T.

Friendly match news 2024

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.

End of Season Lunch 2023

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

All photographs by Barry Dench

Great News!

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.

Full table here

Latest Friendlies News

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.

Social News

Well – so far so good with my foray into the social secretary role! Since taking on the role I think the few social activities have been fairly successful.

They started with the BBQ in July. This was held at Braggers Wood camp; committee members and some helpers providing the salads. The sausages and chicken were (very successfully) BBQd by John and Brian. Puddings were provided by a selection of members – Marys’ pavlova being the most popular – again! The venue made the whole venture easier as there was no need to transport the BBQ there or erect a marquee! Fortunately, the rain held off and the temperature was okay!

On reflection we should have started earlier as it suddenly seemed to get dark and we hadn’t called the raffle! Also this made clearing up awkward with a ‘nibbles’ dish being lost!! If anyone has it please leave it in the cupboard! Hopefully we can go there again next year!

Since then there have been two social visits – one by Probus and one by the Townswomen’s Guild. For Probus the weather was good and we managed 2 games (more or less) per group. For the TWG the weather veered between not too bad to awful. At one time we thought we’d just let Brian do one of his famous quizzes and then have tea. However, they’re a hardy (or just mad) lot the TWG and they opted to play!  As you can see from the photos we all had a great, if damp, time!

On both occasions tea was greatly enjoyed and I even managed to grab some cake!

We have one more social to go – a group called Ladies who love to…. This is being hosted by Jane Wiggins on 30th August as I will be on holiday! After that will be the end of season lunch. I don’t have a date yet as I’m exploring venue options but aiming towards the end of October.

We are already getting enquiries for social visits next year so if you know of any interested then you need to let us know as there is a limit to how many we can hold!

See you all on the lawns and hope my biscuit selections have been okay!

Two more friendly matches in quick succession …

Two more friendly matches in quick succession …

First off, a return fixture welcoming back Test Valley. Our visitors claimed a team of reduced strength, with one 5 and three 10 handicaps. We tried to reciprocate, but had the edge on this basis …. and the edge in the match which went our way by the narrowest of margins, 7-5. Thanks to Sheila Davies for contributing three points out of three, as well as fortifying the inner man – and woman – after the match with a splendid tea. Thanks also to Brian Davies Alan Smith and Barry Jolly for their contributions to the score.

Tisbury is a new croquet club – its near Salisbury if you have to look it up on the map – having started just last year. It was a pleasure to welcome a team of four for what we hope, on both sides, will prove to be the first of many. Alan Smith and Barry Jolly led the way with two wins apiece from three, with George Baylis and Jane Tivey contributing the rest of our points. Because of some slow play, the last round has to be truncated to meet the five o’clock curfew, with two games finishing decisively enough on 6-3, and the other teetering at 4-4. The overall outcome was a narrow victory of 6.5-5.5 (narrower than the narrowest of margins!), followed by another of Sheila’s splendid teas.

Friendly matches

Our first match of the season, away to Lymington, has been postponed at the request of our hosts, but will now take place on Tuesday 4th July.

In the interim, we travelled to Test Valley – at Timsbury, two miles north of Romsey – on Friday in the hope of doing rather better than last year when we were walloped on courts more brown than green. With a more judiciously selected team this time, we ran out 8 games each. All in all, a very enjoyable outing at a very hospitable venue. Congratulations to Ruth Elkins on winning three from four, and thanks also to contributions from Tony Cumes and Alan Smith.

Two more matches in June, both at home:

Friday 23rd: A return match against Test Valley, when we have been told to expect some less experienced players.

Friday 30th: A match against new opponents, Tisbury – one mile west of Blandford Forum –  which is a new club only two years old. Again, we have been told to expect inexperienced players, but enthusiasm is not in doubt.

Barry Jolly                                       

Draw Evening 2023

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.