Author: andrewt

Congratulations to the following winners:

Winter 18pt Advanced – Nigel Matthews

Winter 14pt HC – Carol Steinberg

Winter Doubles – David Beddy & Charles Fraser

March 2026

The lawns are set out with 3 FULL lawns and 2 SHORT lawns

Programme of regular roll-up sessions – please sign up on booking system

Monday.   10am-1.15pm  AC for beginners and high handicappers (2 short, 1 full lawn)

Tuesday.   10am-4.45pm  Solomon Grundy AC for lower handicappers (3 full lawns)

Wednesday.   Free

Thursday.  10am-3pm John Saxby AC for all levels (2 short, 3 full lawns)

Friday.         10am-1.15pm Freshers Friday AC for beginners (2 short lawns)

                        3.00pm-6.30pm GC for all levels (2 full lawns)

Saturday.    1.30pm-4.45pm One-Ball for all levels (2 short, 3 full lawns)

Sunday.       Free

The League matches and Tournaments as on the club calendar (see website) take priority over regular sessions

Free play

There will be plenty of availability for individual games and practice on all days. The only roll-ups using all lawns are the Thursday John Saxby 10-3pm, and the Saturday One-ball 1.30-4.30pm

Double banking is encouraged, but not mixing AC and GC on the same lawn. If you see that two AC games are using two separate lawns and you wish to play GC, it is correct to ask(in advance) one AC pair to move to double bank, so freeing up a lawn for your GC game. And vice versa.

There should be sufficient lawn availability for Summer competitions and Box games. If difficult to find a lawn outside of the roll-ups, it is acceptable to join and play your game as part of a roll-up as long as format and time limit is compatible.

The lawns will be reconfigured for the summer on the 19th & 20th March and will therefore be closed on those dates.

Summer Lawns will open on Saturday 21st March using summer start times from 10:00 am.

The “Lawns” section on the booking system is blocked out from the 21st March onwards.

Summer Lawns will be bookable under a new section “Summer Lawns” this is accessed from the drop down menu under the date in the same way as navigating to “competitions”. 

This is available now, feel free to browse the activities planned over the summer. This will also allow you to book ahead (3 week period) from the 1st March.

The default section (the section you see when you open the booking system) will be changed to “Summer Lawns” after the lawn reconfiguration. 

Lawns now open

Our Friday golf croquet practice sessions will move to 11 a.m. from 31^stOctober. Games are fairly short, and you keep moving. So it is a good game for winter. Like Association Croquet, it involves running hoops and hitting other balls, but the strategy is different. Do come along and have some fun, whether you are a proficient golf croquet player, or a beginner.

The Lawns will be reconfigured for the winter season on Tuesday the 14th October.

After this date there will be 5 lawns. Three on the lower level and 2 on the upper level.
These will all be three quarter lawns (no short lawns).

The lawn schedule stays with a 10:00 start until the clock change on 26th October.
After this the start time will move to 11:00, still with 90 minute sessions and 15 minute handover periods.

However the Thursday competitions on the 16th & 23rd October will move to 11:30.

WINTER COMPETITIONS

Entries are now open for the 2 individual knockout competitions as well as the doubles which will be a round robin event. Let Nigel know separately if you have sorted a partner, otherwise he will allocate you one.
Enter via lawn booking system, drop to ‘Winter Comps’. Closing date 24 October.

URGENT APPEAL.

Charles Harding & Alan Mayne have organised a very effective team of volunteers that assist John Greatbanks with mowing duties.

In addition we also now have a group that can mark out lawns & set hoops both for tournaments & winter movements.

However Charles Harding as temporary ground manager has not been working out due to his other commitments.

This function,requiring advanced thinking & planning, has been neglected.

Alan Mayne has resumed this role for the short term.

We urgently need a replacement for Alan as he has already retired once.

The function is not onerous.It requires someone to be constantly aware of the Club’s upcoming events & to consider what operations need carrying out & to make sure that various actions have been organised & to take an interest in the lawn management.

There is absolutely no requirement to be turning up early at the Club every day nor to be carrying out heavy physical work.

We have a replacement for John Greatbanks organised for next Spring.

We urgently need a volunteer to carry out the role outlined above.

Anyone interested please let any committee member know.

The John Saxby Thursday Competition for 29th May is cancelled.

There is a Longman Cup Match that day on Lawns 1 & 2.

The remaining lawns will be cleared for members especially those wishing to get summer internal competition games completed.

During the week of the 24th March all lawns will be reconfigured ready for the summer season starting on 31st March after the clock change.

This will be done in three phases.

Monday and Tuesday (24th/25th) the top lawns will be out of action.

Wednesday and Thursday (26th/27th) the bottom lawns will be out of action.

Friday all lawns will be out of action for final adjustments and white lining.

After the reconfiguration there will be 3 Full lawns (1 & 2 on the lower level, 3 on the upper level) and 2 Short Lawns (A & B) on the upper level.

Lawn 3 and the two short lawns will rotate during the season.

Lawn 3 will become 2 short lawns for short tournaments and matches.

The sharp eyed of you will have noticed that various lawn closures are in place for that week.

Lastly, please note that between now and the beginning of April there will be seven lawns on the Booking System but some will be greyed out in maintenance mode.

This is to facilitate the 3 week book-ahead period for the new configurations.

Lawns 4 & 5 will be removed from the booking system in the first week of April.

Congratulations to the winners of the winter knockout competitions.

The 14 point handicap was won by Graham Abraham, beating Brian Medley +5 in the final.
The 18 point advanced was won by Alan Mayne, beating Andy Jackson +9
The doubles was won by Brian Medley and rising star Heather Cunningham, beating Ed Cheetham and Mike Blackburn in a tight final +1 on time!

There are no trophies to present for winter comps, but the winners can bask in the glory and admiration of their fellow club members 😀

Sorry no Pics of rising star Heather.