Category: NWF Competitions

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

The match report below is provided by Margaret Moss and is much appreciated.

“Bowdon Bounders handicap golf croquet team enjoyed their visit to Craig y Don for their third international match of the year, and the first ever visit to the club by a Bowdon team. They played under the watchful eye of the Welsh dragon flag, while the seagull shared the lawns and ignored the players. The goats decided not to appear. Bowdon won the two doubles games, but Craig y Don won 10 of the 16 singles, making the score Craig y Don 10, Bowdon 8.”

Perhaps we need to have a HGC Doubles League in Croquet North West?

Our team is shown below, and thanks to Monica for agreeing to play at short notice:

The match scoresheet is shown below, as provided by Craig y Don.

Bowdon Bounders play at Craggy Dons in the Croquet North West League South Golf Croquet League on Tuesday 24th Sept. Currently the Bounders lie in 6th place in the league, but a win would take them up to 3rd.

The Bounders’ team is:

We wish them good luck and fine weather.

Bowdon Angels lost 1 – 4, against a Bury team that played very well indeed. On paper Bowdon should have won, with our total handicaps adding up to 6, compared with Bury’s 14. However, croquet does not always have favourites winning. The morning results saw Bury win the double and single games. In the afternoon the only win for the Angels was Brian Medley’s win over Ken Jones. Richard Leach, on the highest handicap, played extremely well in the morning doubles and the afternoon singles. He has not yet learned that 20 yard roquets, 20 yard angled rushes and 3 yard angled hoops are meant to be difficult. In the League, Bowdon Angels are left in third position, behind Crake Valley and the top team Chester. Bury are just below Bowdon Angels on net games score.

The Bowdon Angels’ team was:

Bury’s team was; Paul Kenworthy 1, Ken Jones 3 and Richard Leach 10

In the morning doubles Charles and John lost to Ken and Richard 9-22

In the morning singles Brian lost to Paul 13-26

In the afternoon:

Charles lost to Paul 13-26, John lost to Richard 6-26 and Brian beat Ken 26-4.

Bowdon Angels play their final match of the season against Bury in the Croquet North west B-Advanced League on Sunday 22nd September. Currently the Angels, with 6 points, lie in third place behind second placed Crake Lakes, who have played all their matches, and also have 6 points but a better net games score than the Angels. Topping the table is Chester who have played all their matches and have 8 points. So the Angels can catch Chester on 8 points, but Chester have the better net games score, 9 versus the Angels’ 6. This means that Bowdon need to win by 5-0 to win the league. If the Angels won by 4-1 then they would be equal with Chester on match points and game scores, so the result of their match against Chester would be the deciding factor and Chester won that so Chester would win the league.

A very big ask! But the Angels are putting out an experienced team of gnarly warriors, as below;

The Bowdon Bullets were locked in a 3-way tie at the top of the CNW Short league this season. They won this, their final, match 11 -5 against Chester to leap above Westmorland and claim second place. The match did not start well for the Bullets, when they lost 3 out of 4 games in the first round. They showed their battling qualities by winning 10 of the remaining 12 games. They finished second in the league to the Bowdon Blanks by the narrowest of margins. Both our Short teams ended the season with 12 points, and had to be separated by net games’ scores. The Bullets had a net games’ score of 71 -57 whilst the Blanks had 75-46 to be declared champions. Amazing success for both teams and their squads of Short players. You have done Bowdon CC proud!

The Bullets had a strong team, as below:

Chester’s team was; Helen Brophy 3, Sally Slater 4, Jayne Taylor 5 and Sarah Clements 7.

Cas beat Helen 14-2, Sarah 14-3 and Jayne 11-8, but lost to Sally 3-14

Liz beat Sarah 14-4, Sally 9-8 and Helen 7-6, but lost to Jayne 9-10

Charles beat Jayne 8-6, Helen 14-3 and Sally 14-9, but lost to Sarah 7-14

Garth beat Helen 7-6 and Jayne 10-9, but lost to Sally 6-14 and Sarah 6-14

Bowdon Blanks won their final match at Chester to become champions of the Croquet North West Short Croquet League, with their second match in 2 days. The final score was 11- 5 to the Blanks, which took them away from Westmorland, who were in second place at the start of the day. Bowdon Blanks are a new team in this their debut season, so congratulations are due to the team on the day and all those squad members who have played in the matches. Very well done Bowdon Blanks. Bowdon CC is proud of you.

Read the report on the Bullets’ last match to see how narrow was the margin by which Blanks won the title.

The Blanks fielded a strong team, as below:

Chester’s team was; Derek Bell-Jones 2.5, Andy Wilson-Chalon 3, Sally Slater 4 and Jayne Taylor 5

Nigel beat Sally 14-9, Derek 10-7 and Andy 10-8, but lost to Jayne 9-14

Alan beat Jayne 10-7, Andy 14-5 and Derek 14-4, but lost to Sally 8-14

Charles beat Andy 14-7 and Jayne 9-8, but lost to Derek 7-11 and Sally 9-14

Kay beat Andy 14-7, Derek 8-7 and Jayne 14-9, buy lost to Sally 3-14

Bowdon Blanks are bidding to win the Croquet North West Short Croquet League. They won their penultimate match at home against Southport, 10 – 6, on Friday 13th September. Their last match of the season will be on 14th September, after which we will know how if they achieve being Champions. Well done Blanks.

Congratulations are due to Brian Storey, for his performance in winning all 4 of his games.

Fortunately the Blanks fielded a strong team, as below:

The Southport team was; Barbara Haslam 0.5, Bill Nichol 1.5, Brian Lewis 2.5 and Gail Moors 3.5

Nigel beat Brian 14-3, Gail 14-7 and Bill 14-10, but lost to Barbara 0-14

Brian beat Gail 11-9, Brian 14-6, Barbara 14-5 and Bill 14-12

Carol beat Bill 10-9, and lost to Barbara 8-9, Gail 11-14 and Brian 3-14

Robert beat Brian 14-9 and Gail 14-6, but lost to Bill 9-14 and Barbara 8-11

The Bowdon Bombers have won the Croquet North West Level Play Golf Croquet League. They won against the Chester Centurions, the only team that could possibly have overtaken them. The match was curtailed by horrendous weather, culminating in a hailstorm and prolonged heavy rain, rendering the lawns unplayable. Because at least half the games were completed the result was declared valid, with Bowdon having a 7 – 2 lead. Well done the team on the day, and all the squad members who have contributed to this success over the season. You have done Bowdon proud.

The team that concluded an excellent season for the Bombers was:

The game results that were completed are shown below, courtesy of the Croquet Scores website.

The Bullets are locked in a 3-way tie at the top of the CNW Short league this season. This is their final match so it is all to play for. Currently Westmorland are above them on the net games score, with Westmorland on 17 and the Bullets on 12, which gives Westmorland an advantage. The Bullets need a big win! Spectators will be very welcome, but may need to take sedatives before watching this high-stakes match.

The Bullets have a strong team, as below:

We wish them good luck and fine weather.