The shock of having to be at Colchester by 9.30am for our Handicap GC match on Friday clearly had a detrimental affect on the Chelmsford Blue squad of Judith Hand(4), Deborah Clark(12), Peter Wilkinson(9) and John Skuse(3) as the 2 doubles and the first series of 4 singles were all lost to give Colchester’s team of Pam Hopper(5), Jill Mills(6), Patricia Drinkwater(9) and Stephanie Sadler(11) a 6-0 advantage. The second set of singles saw a recovery of sorts as 3 of the 4 games were won by the Blues and hopes of at least a draw were high as, after lunch, the 3rd series was also won 3-1 to make the score Colchester 8 Chelmsford Blue 6 before the final games were played. Alas despite 2 of the encounters going to the 13th hoop all four games were lost to make the final score Colchester 12 Chelmsford Blue 6 with a hoop difference of 111 to 93. A long day’s croquet played on very fast lawns with narrowish hoops concluded with refreshments kindly supplied by Colchester before we said our goodbyes and departed shortly before 5pm.

Chelmsford’s second fixture in the GC B League took place at Writtle on a fine day for croquet. With lawns freshly cut judgment of pace was important as the home team took a 2-1 lead by lunchtime. Paul Bridgman (3) and John Skuse (3) exercised great control in winning their doubles game versus Noel Gill (4) and Bryan Saddington (5) 7-3 7-4 whilst Tony Frewin (3) had no trouble in overcoming a newcomer to competitive croquet Ian Wilson (12) winning 7-1 7-0. Only Judith Hand (4) playing David Boxell (6) had to concede over 3 tightly fought games 6-7 7-5 3-7. After lunch Tony had little trouble beating David 7-4 7-3 and Judith had a 7-1 7-2 win over Ian Wilson to establish a winning score. On the lower lawn John beat Bryan 7-3 7-4 whilst Paul and Noel shared the spoils 7-6 5-7. It was now time for tea and cake before sending the very friendly Hunstanton quartet + 1 home with our best wishes for a safe trip back to Norfolk. Thanks go to all who helped during the day in the provision of refreshments. Result Chelmsford 5 Hunstanton 1.

Four intrepid members of Chelmsford Croquet Club travelled to Hunstanton last week to represent Essex in the Ken Wheeler Shield event. Namely Judith Hand (Capt) John Skuse, John Mariner and Karen Jones accompanied by Trevor Hand who acted as catering officer and photographer. Saturday morning’s weather forecast threatened thunder and lightning throughout most of the day and by 9am the heavens had opened with heavy and persistent rain. Oh the joy of playing croquet in sunny Hunstanton! Fortunately the rain stopped before mid-day and the thunderstorms by-passed this delightful corner of north Norfolk so play continued throughout the day save for a short breaks for lunch and afternoon tea. Play started with 3 rounds of doubles followed by 3 rounds of singles versus the other counties taking part. Eventually Essex took part in a final Gold Medal doubles competition with Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to establish final placings. With all the team giving their utmost it is pleasing to report that Essex finished as runners-up, our highest ever position in this friendly competition.

Last Friday Chelmsford entertained Colchester in an East Anglian B Level match played in ideal conditions for croquet. Our team of Paul Bridgman, John Skuse, Tony Frewin and David Dawsey started well and by lunch led by 3 games to nil. The second half of the fixture continued in similar vein apart from a sterling effort by Colchester’s 4th player Pat Drinkwater who managed a 3 set win over David Dawsey 7-5 5-7 7-4. In fact this was one of 5 games that went to best of 3 with the closest being that of Paul Bridgman overcoming Jill Waters 2-7 7-3 7-6. Other Colchester players taking part were Lydia Vaux and Stephen Scrase. Final score Chelmsford 6 Colchester 1. Thanks must go to Anne Skuse for providing a regular supply of teas and coffees throughout the day and to Marion Manning of Colchester for her help in keeping a check on the scores.

Chelmsford Blue v Chelmsford Green GC Handicap League Match – Thursday May 10th The seasons opening GC handicap league match took place at home on Thursday with the two home sides playing each other. The Blue team of Peter Wilkinson (handicap 9), June Brown (9) and Deb Clarke (11) was lead by Judith (4), while the Green team of Paul Bridgeman (3), Tony Frewin (4) and Linda Murrell (10) was lead by David Dawsey (7). Greens just won the initial doubles by the close margin of 7-6, but thereafter, pulled away to comfortably win the match by 14 games to 4. Thank you ladies for the lovely cakes, Lesley for timing the matches and to Judith’s friend for match scoring and updating handicap cards.

As the season draws to a close many members took the opportunity to visit the lawns on a fine October day. Amongst them Paul Bridgman (handicap 3) and Tony Frewin (4) had a final match to play in this the second running of the Handicap Singles. Unfortunately it took place on the lower lawn and only a handful of members watched what turned out to be a very close contest. After losing the first hoopTony took his one “extra turn” on the second to level but then fell behind 3-1 as they turned towards the 5th. From that moment on Paul maintained this lead until Tony won the 10th and 11th hoops to lead for the first time 6-5. Paul with the first shot to the 12th levelled but Tony with a finely positioned shot to the “golden” hoop that Paul was unable to block or clear ran the hoop from about 8 feet to win 7–6.

Our visitors, prompted by warnings about possible car-parking problems, had arrived by 9.30am and Judith managed proceedings as play got underway in bright sunshine. This Doubles Friendly with our welcome visitors from Leighton Linslade took the form of 4 fixed doubles pairings representing Chelmsford whilst Leighton decided just prior to the match to rotate departing from their normal practice of established pairings throughout the day. Clearly this worked in our favour as Tony and Deb and Bob and Betty both won all their 4 games whilst Karen and Sheila and John M and June only dropped one game making the winning margin 14-2 with a hoop difference of 106 to 63. The sight of 16 immaculately clad players all in white playing on our lawns on a lovely day in October was a sight to behold. This is the second time that Leighton Linslade have visited Writtle for a friendly and one hopes that next year we can raise a team to travel to their courts in Leighton Buzzard for a return match. The day concluded with the usual sharing of refreshments and thanks to our visitors for an enjoyable day’s croquet.

Today John Mariner and John Skuse agreed to the same format as last year in playing the final over 19 hoops following the friendly match versus Leighton Linslade (report later). After a brief flourish from JS in taking the first two hoops JM fought back well with some fine clearances and there was never more than 2 hoops between them as JM with a fine approach took the 13th. He was unfortunate at the 14th as he hit his opponent’s ball through the hoop. This meant that JS led 8-6 with first ball to the 15th which he also won. JM retaliated by winning the 16th but JS positioned his red ball 3 or 4 feet in front of the 17th which stayed in position and ultimately enabled him to win 10-7.

The final of this event was held on the 5th October with conditions ideal for croquet. Paul Bridgman and Linda Murrell played John Skuse and Pete Wilkinson in a 13 point game to decide who would take the honours. After 8 hoops it all appeared to be over as John and Pete led 6-2 thanks to some fine hoop running and clearances by Pete. However Paul and Linda had other ideas as 6-2 became 6-3 6-4 6-5 and, glory be 6-6, which goes to prove a game is never over till it’s over. John, with the first shot to the 13th, obtained a straight 6 foot hoop running position with his Blue which eventually proved decisive. A fine game of croquet and a pity that one side had to lose after such a great fight back.

No fewer than 20 players took part in this event held on 21st and 26th September to determine who would go through to the final which it is hoped will be played on Sunday 8th October following the friendly fixture with Leighton Linslade. Ten players each day were split into 2 blocks of 5 with an all play all in each block of 7 complete hoops with a winner and runner-up going through from each grouping before those successful would play eliminating best of 13 hoop games before a finalist emerged. On both days the weather behaved, the sun shone, and, gratifyingly, there have been several reports of how much members enjoyed the games. In Block A John Skuse (4 wins) and David Dawsey (2 wins) qualified for the quarter finals whilst Joan and Len can feel rather unfortunate in that they each won 2 games but David had a superior hoop difference. Block B resulted in a tie in terms of games won with Linda Murrell and Bob Jones each winning 3 games out of the 4 played. Linda, however, won the group by the narrow margin of +4 hoops to Bob’s +2. Quarter final scores could not have been closer: David 7 Linda 6 and John 7 Bob 6. Finally John played David to determine who would go through to the final. By their own admittance both played well but John, having taken an early lead, seemingly could do no wrong and hands (not throats) were shaken after 7 hoops. Blocks C and D were played on the 26th with Karen Jones winning the first block with wins in all 4 games whilst John Mariner with 3 wins was the runner-up. Pleasingly Sue McDonald, Betty Craig and Janis Owen all won a game and they shared the honours of coming 3rd with identical hoop differences. Block D turned out to be quite exciting in that Tony Frewin and Tess Gossett each won 3 games and had an identical hoop difference of +8. As Tess had beaten Tony by 4 hoops to 3 she went through as winner of the block with Tony as runner-up. In the quarter finals Tony, rather surprisingly had a straightforward 7-1 win over Karen whilst John M after gaining an early lead over Tess was taken to the 12th hoop before winning 7-5. The semi-final between Tony and John M was watched by a crowd in double figures (just) and proved to be an exciting contest. John led 5-3 before Tony levelled taking the next two hoops. John won the 11th but Tony managed to jaws his red ball in the 12th hoop. John’s decision after playing black took some by surprise. Instead of trying to jump red with his blue from about 10ft he simply smashed red to the boundary. Tony, possibly taken aback by this opportunity to have first ball to the 13th hit well but not well enough as the red came to rest 3ft from the hoop. John’s black finished 9ft in front of the hoop and, after a brief exchange of shots he won the hoop and took his place in the final.