John Saxby Competition – Facts and Figures

Hopefully members will have been watching the progress of this years John Saxby competition. A days effort with a slice of Mars Bar as the prize, what’s not to like.

You will have noticed that this year Andy Jackson was in lead position for most of the season, only to be pipped on the last day of competition by Cas Sinclair.

Cas Sinclair – Winner Week 23 and Champion – John Saxby 2024

Well done to Cas, pop along to the AGM on Saturday 2nd November to see Cas get her trophy, along with all the winners of this years internal competitions.

In the meantime, here’s some facts and figures about this years competition.

Nos of Weeks played23
Nos of Members played43
Nos of Games played972
Overall Winner619ptsCas Sinclair
Second Place606ptsAndy Jackson
Third Place585ptsRobert Cutts-Watson
Highest Winning Score96ptsMike Steer (Week 13)
Lowest Winning Score70ptsLouise Cheyne (Week 8)
Highest Score not to win89ptsLiz Webb (Week 3)
Most Weeks Played19Cas Sinclair
Highest Average Score69ptsLiz Webb
(> 5 games played)
Most Wins3Cas Sinclair,
Andy Jackson,
Mike Steer
Mosts Weeks in First Place19Andy Jackson
John Saxby (2024) – Facts and Figures

Southport Festival – Role of Manager

The annual Festival of Croquet in Southport has become a highlight of the season in the North West.  It is arguably one of the biggest events in the croquet calendar.  We are still looking for a new Festival Manager to lead the team organising the 2025 Festival.  If you know anyone who may be interested, please ask them to consider the role.  The retiring manager, David Cornes, is happy to provide further details.

Ideally, we would like to have a new manager confirmed at the Autumn General Meeting.  If the position is still vacant at the Spring meeting, then there is a real risk that the event will not happen next year.

David has provided a brief synopsis of what’s involved:

“The skills needed are really just about co-ordination and ensuring all aspects of the Festival logistics are covered.  If you take the role on then the first job is reviewing feedback from 2024 evaluation responses and the planning notes from 2024 meetings.

Much of the work is undertaken by Southport, so as manager the first year is very much about learning the role “on the job” so gets easier in year 2 onwards. You do need half a dozen helpers for the smooth running of the Festival (i.e. one per playing format) but these can come from your own club and / or other clubs.”

As members know for croquet to continue needs volunteers to help run clubs, federation and Festivals. If you’ve enjoyed playing at the Festival in recent years and would like to get involved in ensuring it continues, you can talk to David about it. The papers referred to able can be made available too.

Many thanks

Mike Flannery

John Saxby Competition: Week 24 – 26th September 2024

The final week of this years John Saxby, took place last Thursday. A fun time was had by 9 members, and nowhere near as wet as forecast. This week’s competition was just for fun and the scores didn’t count towards the overall competition. Mike Steer came out on top with 86 points, followed by Cas, this years overall winner, with 76 points and John Lucas was third with 48.

Cas Sinclair won the overall competition, well done Cas. Cas will receive her trophy at the AGM.

The top five finished like this:

PositionMemberScoreWins
1Cas Sinclair6193
2Andy Jackson6063
3Robert Cutts-Watson5852
4Liz Webb5542
5Kay Martin524
John Saxby – Final Top Five

The final table can be found here

John Saxby Competition: Week 23 – 19th September 2024

On a beautiful day for playing croquet, 16 members turned up to play the final scoring round of this years competition. Andy Jackson had been virtually top of the table all season, could he be toppled at the last minute? Well, unfortunately for Andy he could! Cas Sinclair who has been second pretty much for the whole competition pipped Andy to the post with a score of 89. Cas’s 3rd win of the year. Second was Robert Cutts-Watson with 80 points and third Sylvia Steer with 71. Well done Cas and commiserations to Andy.

Cas Sinclair – Winner Week 23 John Saxby

The top five of the table now looks like this:

PositionMemberScoreMovementWins
1Cas Sinclair619+13
2Andy Jackson606-13
3Robert Cutts-Watson585=2
4Liz Webb554+22
5Kay Martin524= 
John Saxby – Final Top Five

The final table can be found here

John Saxby Competition: Week 22 – 12th September 2024

Nine players arrived at the club all intent on winning a Mars bar. In the end John Lucas prevailed, with a score of 84. Brian Storey came second with 65 points, and Andy Jackson was third with 63.

Andy Jackson remains in first place, with Cas a close second place. Don’t forget that next week is the final opportunity to record a score. A good win from Cas might be enough to steal the overall win from Andy Jackson. Nail biting stuff!!

The top five looks like this:

PosNameScoreMovementWins
1Andy Jackson606=3
2Cas Sinclair596=2
3Robert Cutts-Watson572=2
4Mike Steer524=3
5Kay Martin523=
John Saxby – Top Five

The full table isn’t available at the moment, but will be arriving here soon, in the meantime you can find last weeks table here.

John Saxby Competition: Week 21 – 5th September 2024

Twelve members turned up this week. Robert Cutts-Watson came out on top for the second time this year, with score of 93. That score was the second highest of the season, after Mike Steer’s 96 in week 13. Robert’s no doubt catching the eyes of the handicap committee!! Well done Robert. Kay Martin was second (87) and Cas Sinclair (86).

NB Please note that whilst the final week of the competition for this season will be Thursday 26th September, the final week for submitting a score will be Thursday 19th September.

As you can probably guess, Andy Jackson is still in pole position and with only two more weeks of scoring is looking pretty safe to win the overall competition. The top five of the overall league looks like this:

PosNameScoreMovementWins
1Andy Jackson625=3
2Cas Sinclair572=2
3Robert Cutts-Watson554+12
4Mike Steer524+13
5Kay Martin523+2 
John Saxby – Top Five

The full table can be found here

John Saxby Competition: Week 20 – 29th August 2024

Ten members turned out to play this weeks competition. Cas Sinclair won for the second time this year, with score of 85 points, Carol Steinberg was second with 63 and John Lucas, third on 55 points.

Andy Jackson is still in pole position in the overall league. Cas’s win today, narrows the gap between her and Andy to just 34 points. Liz Webb is third, 88 points behind Andy, but with only 7 scores,. As such a good win from Liz in the last few weeks of the competition, can put the cat amongst the pigeons!

NB Please note that whilst the final week of the competition for this season will be Thursday 26th September, the final week for submitting a score will be Thursday 19th September.

PosNameScoreMovementWins
1Andy Jackson606=3
2Cas Sinclair572=2
3Liz Webb518=2
4Robert Cutts-Watson507= 
5Mike Steer503=3
John Saxby – Top Five

The full table can be found here

John Saxby Competition: Week 19 – 21th August 2024

Not a usual week this week, the competition was moved to Wednesday, to allow for the lawns to be prepared from this weekends Northern Championships. Ten members turned up but due to various reasons the numbers dwindled during the day. As such with only 4 members managing to complete their three games it was decided not to award a Mars bar for this week. Of the four, Lorna Frost scored highest with 69.

John Saxby- No Mars Bar today!

There hasn’t been much change to the leader board, with Andy still out in the lead. The top five looks like this:

PosNamePointsMovementWins
1Andy Jackson606=3
2Cas Sinclair548=1
3Liz Webb518=2
4Robert Cutts-Watson507= 
5Mike Steer502=3
John Saxby – Top Five

The full table can be found here

John Saxby Competition: Week 18 – 15th August

Twelve members braved the August weather to play this weeks John Saxby. This week Robert Cutts-Watson came first, with a creditable score of 85. Cas Sinclair and Andy Jackson came second and third with scores of 78 and 71.

Andy Jackson remains in first place. Liz Webb has jumped back into the top five, and has only seven scores against her name, so another high scoring visit could put Andy under some pressure for the top spot! Robert’s win today moves him up a couple of places into the top five.

PositionNameScoreMovementWins
1Andy Jackson606=3
2Cas Sinclair548=1
3Liz Webb518+52
4Robert Cutts-Watson507+2 1
5Mike Steer502-23
John Saxby Competition – Top five

Please note that nexts weeks completion will be on Wednesday 21st August, not Thursday.

The full table can be found here

John Saxby Competition: Week 17 – 1st August 2024

With no play last week, twelve members braved the hot weather to take part in week 17 of the competition. Ken Cooper was this weeks winner, his first win of the season, scoring 86 points. Second was Kay Martin with 70 points. Louise Cheyne and Charles Fraser shared third spot with a score of 63.

Andy Jackson remains out front, and Mike Blackburn, despite having his handicap chopped the other week, is creeping up the table and is now in 5th position. The remainder of the top five looks like this:

PosNamePointsMovementWins
1Andy Jackson598=3
2Cas Sinclair529=1
3Mike Steer502=3
4Kay Martin482+1 
5Mike Blackburn478+2 
John Saxby – Top Five

The full table can be found here