Manager: Brian Medley.

Reporter: Liz Wilson.

Wonderful weather and interesting lawns welcomed 12 players to Pendle.  One of the original 12 entrants had to pull out with 24 hours’ notice due to injury but Bowdon’s Adrian Apps stepped up at short notice to avoid a Manager’s nightmare!  The tournament was run as a 5 round Swiss Amalfi by Brian Medley in his 2nd year of Tournament Management. 

With the sun beating down constantly for the whole weekend at times it felt like we were on the Amalfi Coast!  Handicaps ranged from scratch to 10 – the C Level competitors being in the range 6+.   Surprising giant killer results started to appear in the first round with Peter Wilson (3.5) beating Brian Medley (0.5), Steve Skelton (3.5) beating Charles Harding (0), Andrew Gould (10) beating Stephen Pratt (3.5) and Phil Snowden (7) beating Stephan Colling (0.5).  In the 2nd round Phil continued his onslaught beating Steve Skelton whilst the other matches went with handicaps.  The final round was played in the evening sunshine where the only surprise was a very lucky win for Liz Wilson (4) vs Charles (0) who in the time turn needed to scoop off penult and rover and peg out in a 3-ball ending.  Two hoops negotiated but the roquet on reception ball was missed only for the strike ball to trickle to corner one where Charles had “safely” left his ball – fluke roquet of the year gave Liz the win! 

Day 2 started with Adrian Apps and Peter on 3 wins each.  Phil Snowden had to take on his coach and mentor Liz and was beaten on the golden hoop (age and experience wins over youth) who for once didn’t want him to win! Scottish visitor Stephan continued to claw back 1 or 2 points per game after his 19-point loss in the first round and joined Liz and Peter Wilson on 3 wins with Adrian on 4.  The Amalfi system is supposed to throw up an exciting final round and so it proved to be.  5 of the 6 games were going to affect the results.  Liz had to play her husband Peter and Stephan played Adrian.  If Stephan won then there would be a 3-way tie of 3 players on 4 wins all of whom had not played each other.  Magnifying glasses were out to read the small print!  Adrian had the upper hand and eventually all he had to do was rush to the peg and finish.  Did you know in B Level hoops often get in the way!  The rush to peg put the croqueted ball in rover.  Adrian took croquet from the ball in the hoop which didn’t quite make the distance to the peg but did stop his strike ball from shooting at it!  A scatter shot sent the two balls in a wide split.  Stephan hit in – just 4 hoops to make and a rover peel – unfortunately 4 back rejected his ball. Game over for Liz and Stephan and the Tournament winner was the unbeaten stand-in, Adrian!  Much fun and B level hacker play made the whole atmosphere quite amusing.  Many swear words as hoops were blobbed and some new terminology (which hoop are you on? 5 back was the reply).

Congratulations to Adrian Apps (B Level winner) and Phil Snowdon (C Level winner and a handicap reduction to 6) and to Alan Dix playing in his first tournament.

Thank you to the hospitable Pendle and Craven Croquet Club and to Brian for excellent management.

The picture shows the competitors including Stephan in black mourning garb due to his handicap going the wrong way! 

Report from Philip Jay

This year’s Short Croquet Team Event was again exceptionally well supported with a full complement of six teams and 24 players competing – York again managed to field an impressive three teams and they were joined by teams from Huddersfield, Beverley and debutants Driffield who were given a warm welcome.

Earlier in the week the weather forecast had looked exceptionally inclement but the rain came overnight, giving the lawns a good watering that made them much more amenable to break building and high scoring games.

After three rounds of play there were still four teams that could potentially win the title, if they won and, apart from Huddersfield whose destiny was in their own hands, other results went in their favour. These teams were all drawn against one of the others in the final round so the outcome was in doubt until the final games were completed. In the end Huddersfield won their final match and were clear winners of the team trophy.

It was a similar situation with the individual trophy – there was only one player who managed a clean sweep of four wins on the day which was Anna Giraud from Huddersfield.

Many thanks to all at York Croquet Club for hosting this event and for all the hard work behind the scenes that made it such an enjoyable day for everyone.

On 19th May 2025, Peter Reed presented the Federation level play trophy for 2024 to Chris Higgins of the victorious Bishop Monkton team.

Report by Cathy O’Brien

“B” Level GC Series on 10th May

A full complement of 16 players from as far afield as Guildford competed in the Pendle and Craven ‘B’ series GC competition. The parched lawns were playing really fast and some very close games resulted in two players from Pendle, Libby Dixon and Andrew Gould, plus two from Bishop Monkton, Jo-Ann Hughes and Robert Strover winning their Round Robin blocks.

After lunch the glorious sunshine continued and the knock out phase of the tournament continued. Congratulations to Jo-Ann who beat Andrew (7-5) in the final. Peter Adams (Guildford) beat Libby 7-6 for third place. Richard Sanville (Ashby) beat Robert for the Shield.

Full results can be seen on Croquet Scores.

Reports by Libby Dixon

“D” Level GC Series on 3rd May

“D” Level series was held on 3rd May 2025. This is a new exciting addition to the CE fixtures calendar to encourage new players to develop their skills.

There were 7 entries with only one other club represented, Fylde.

After the manager’s briefing at 9.00 am and a warm up, play commenced at 9.15. All the competitors were finding the cold conditions difficult after the previous few hot days. Many had not enough layers but managed to warm up with hot drinks.

It was an all play all format with one competitor sitting out each round. The games flowed freely with no game taking longer than 1 hour.

Everyone commented on how surprised they were to enjoy the experience and it was fun. For the majority it was the first Tournament they had ever played. Many games were fiercely fought with six 7/6 games.

In the afternoon the sun came out briefly which had everyone hoping for higher temperatures.

Afternoon tea was enjoyed watching the last match to finish.

The ultimate winner with 5 wins out of 6 games was Leigh Dixon who triggered to an 11.

The manager was thanked for running the Tournament by all the players. The manager thanked all the ground staff and volunteers for all their hard work in watering the lawns so there was grass to play on and setting up the lawns. 

Results can be found on Croquet Scores

GC “C” advantage tournament on 4th May

As an experiment Pendle and Craven Croquet Club introduced a “C” Advantage GC competition into their Tournament programme.
Pendle and Craven CC welcomed Simon A from Bury Croquet Club and Brenda K from Crake Valley Croquet Club, along with four club members.
The day was very cool and despite periods of sunshine the temperature only reached 10deg. Players gathered by 8.45am and after a managers briefing, time was allowed for a warm up on the lawns.
In an all-play-all , no time limits , and using the Advantage 2024/25 framework, play got underway. Despite the initial fear of long games the players played expeditiously. No game went past 45 mins.
At lunch everyone gathered in the clubhouse to warm up. Chatter centered on croquet and
forthcoming competitions for C class players. The afternoon went without any problems and the clear winner was Sharon D with 4 wins out of 5 games.
Sharon was presented with her trophy by Libby Dixon (Tournament Manager).
Competitors all reported they enjoyed the friendly atmosphere and the competition.

Murphy Shield on 1st May

The Murphy Shield is the Inter Club knockout competition for Golf Croquet.

Today the Pendle and Craven Team were victorious over Ashby Croquet Club. The team of Mike Bradbury, Libby Dixon, Andrew Gould and Paul Dowdall travelled down on Wednesday afternoon staying over night so as to be fresh for a full days play. The weather was unseasonably hot (warmest 1st May on record). Our hosts provided an excellent lunch along with cool drinks

The result was a 5-1 win for Pendle and Craven.

Report by Debbie James

Report from Debbie James

Preparing for the Next Generation,

01 March 2025

Yorkshire clubs are embracing the Next Generation project in increasing numbers, building on the model trialled by Ripon Spa and York in recent years. 12 members from six YCF clubs (Ben Rhydding, Driffield, Brodsworth Hall, Ripon Spa, Pendle and York) assembled at York CC for a day of U18 coach training, generously funded by Croquet England.

CqE’s Ian Draper, Paul Francis and Beatrice McGlen tutored us in the special qualities and skills required of U18 coaches, and demonstrated on the York lawns a range of age-appropriate mallet sport activities. The equipment and games have both visual appeal and offer competition and acquisition of mallet & ball skills.

A very valuable day for all attendees who are now equipped with the knowledge and skills to deliver croquet to kids – confidently and enthusiastically.

Thanks to all involved… and there was cake!

A well earned Christmas present.

Report by manager Ted Flexman

Congratulations to the Yorkshire Croquet Federation for continuing the spirit of the Challenge which involves two teams of eight players playing AC Doubles, GC Doubles and One Ball all in a day.  Debbie James managed to muster 16 croquet lovers from across the county (with at least half from York!!) to assemble on a better than expected day of weather at the Scarcroft lawns to settle matters between The Fat Rascals and the Curd Tarts.  Clubs represented were York, Beverley, Bishop Monkton, Driffield and Ripon. Six players were new to this format and it was very good to have them in the group.

The first round produced three victories of +1, +2, and +3 for the Curd Tarts with just the one triumph of +15 to the Fat Rascals.

The second round saw honours even with 4 points per team.

The last round was decisive with the Curd Tarts running out 6 – 2 winners in the one ball.

This meant a clear win for the Curd Tarts 16 – 8.

Special mention and credit must go to Richard Lamborn and Jack Upsall who were both undefeated through the day.

Lionel Stock graciously accepted the Glass Cup from the Tournament Manager Ted Flexman on behalf of the Curd Tarts.

Thanks due to Debbie James for all her work, many of the York members for helping set up and clear the lawns and to the lawn management team who had produced three excellent surfaces on which to play this fine tournament.

We hope that Croquet North will accept our challenge next year but I feel that this Intra Fed Challenge is here to stay – it is good to see players enjoying both codes of croquet and we appeal to more mainly GC players to come and give it a go next year.  It could be that we will get sponsorship to match the team names!

Report on Next Generation for YCF Zoom meeting 12 08 2024 from Ted Flexman of Ripon Spa Croquet Club

For details of our 2023 project, please read the Croquet Gazette issue 406 pages 39 and 40.

Season 2024

As far as the Next Generation project has been concerned this has been a great disappointment.  We had three experienced child protection cleared coaches last year, but were reduced to one this year, completely ruling out completing our schools programme. We had an invited open day at the club targeting the school contacts we had made last year and it turned out to be the wettest day of the season so far with no takers!!

So what do we feel we had achieved? 

Certainly the first objective of raising croquet’s existence to three primary schools. Certainly giving those schools an enrichment to their curriculum which was very positively enjoyed by the children.

Certainly changing the image of croquet to some of the teachers and perhaps changing some negative preconceptions.

What have we learned that we can pass on?

You have to be very committed to take this on.

Perhaps we should have worked with only one school.

We need a larger group of players willing and cleared to work with children.

The four Uber sets are brilliant and very good to use with children eleven years and under.

The fun short games and activities are enjoyed by our players as well as the children.

We went into schools. It would have been so much better in some ways if the schools had been close enough to come to us!

Had illness not prevented us we could have created an after school club which I am convinced would have led to setting up a junior section for our club and I am bitterly disappointed this was not possible.

What next?

We haven’t given up!  We are offering croquet as an activity as part of a Ripon Together Initiative for two mornings later this month and see what this might bring.

We will consider next season and see what is reasonable.

We are willing to help any YCF Clubs considering the Next Generation ideas in any way we can, because we believe in it!