Category: News

Report by manager Ted Flexman

Well, you happily play croquet in glorious sunshine and sometimes almost too hot days and then, when it is the date of the Yorkshire Croquet Federation Team GC Advantage Day the skies open and heavy showers refresh the ground and soak the players! But did it dampen our spirits? Oh no.

Twelve players made up 4 teams of three to contest rounds of doubles and singles and under Ted’s flexible management all got to play with a partner and on their own.

Congratulation to Penny, Anne and Marion from Ben Rhydding who came from second place to win in the last round.  This was a good test of the Positive Advantage system.  The main disadvantage of the GC Advantage idea is that often more than 13 hoops are required to be played in order to have a clear result and timed games can be unsatisfactory ( certainly for the losers!).

However it was a good occasion;

               “ enjoyed enormously despite the showers.  It is always fun to meet croquet friends old and new in the splendid venue of Studley.”

Surely it won’t rain on us next year!

Report by Debbie James

Yorkshire clubs have helped to make a huge difference to people living with dementia by competing in the Charity 1-ball.

45 clubs from England and Wales, (including the YCF, Sheffield and Huddersfield) played a heat in 2025 to raise the record-breaking sum £8,759.35.

Even the cheque is blue.

Yorkshire Croquet Federation D level (10+)

This level of tournament was introduced this year by Croquet England to encourage more people, playing more croquet and is seen as a natural progression from club play, through friendly matches and Federation matches to an introduction to tournament play.

The tournament attracted 6 players; 2 from Fylde; 2 from Ripon Spa and one each from Sheffield Parkhead and Bishop Monkton. The handicaps ranged from 10 to 14.

The weather was very kind, with a gentle breeze relieving some of the heat.

It was an all-play-all arrangement. The games were not timed so that there would be no extra pressure on players who might be in their first tournament. In the event, only a few matches went beyond the 45 minutes.

After 4 rounds Jill [Bishop Monkton] and Ted [Fylde] each had 4 wins and they met in round 5, where Jill got off to a strong start. Ted battled on, but never regained the lost ground. Jill won 7 – 4 to take the trophy. Ted and Barbara from Fylde came second and third.

All players declared that they had enjoyed the day for various reasons, not least because they were competing with their peers.

mcf 16Jun25

Report by Pete York

Friday evening 16^th May.

A small group of Wisewood Youth Group and staff returned to the club after a successful evening in 2024 to participate in casual play. Played out on a  glorious evening, there was the usual trepidation and nerves regarding ‘going into the unknown’. Such fears were quickly forgotten as the technique for holding the mallet, practicing the swing and hitting the ball in the appropriate direction were explained.  There was time to put those techniques into practice before staff and the youngsters put their new skills into some competitive games.

It was wonderful to witness the increasing confidence in which the games were contested, especially when hoops were scored. A lasting memory for me will be the whoops of joy when a long distance, and it truly was a long distance shot was hooped by one of the lads. His antics as he ran round the court were worthy of scoring the winning goal in the FA Cup. It was also interesting to see how the teams very quickly worked out how to spoil the oppositions shot whilst promoting their team mate. It can be a vicious game!

It was agreed at the end of the evening that it had been a most enjoyable evening and the youngsters looked forward to returning in the future for further games.

If you or your group are interested in coming and ‘having a go’ please contact:

enquiries@sheffieldcroquetclub.uk

Friday 16th May.

Sheffield CC v Ripon Spa

Report by Ki Hulme (team captain)

A beautiful sunny day was a great way to start the YCF Golf Croquet Level Play League campaign with a fixture at home to Ripon Spa. Each team with three players, play a total of twelve games, comprising three doubles and nine singles games.

Sheffield made a bright start and lead by 5 games to 1 at lunch, after the 3 doubles and 3 singles matches of the morning session. The lawn was running very fast, due to the recent spell of warm dry weather and having had a close trim a few days before the match.

Ripon fought back during the afternoon singles session, having begun to get the measure of the lawn and the match finished with a victory for the home team by 8 games to 4. Sheffield won all the doubles games, with John Crossland and Ki Hulme also winning 2 of their 3 singles games. John Tidy winning 1 of his 3 singles games. A good start to the season, and we look forward to the next fixture at home to Bishop Monkton in June.

Charity 1-ball competition at Nottingham on Saturday 17th May

Report by Ki Hulme              

Our club Golf Croquet captain, Ki Hulme, travelled to Nottingham on Saturday 17^th May, for the northern regional final of the annual Charity 1-ball competition. 1-ball croquet is a fun hybrid version of the game, comprising elements of both Association and Golf Croquet.

Ki won 3 out of 6 games and finished midway out of the 16 competitors. But the main point of the day is to raise money for charity, this year’s chosen charity being the Alzheimer’s Association.

It was also an opportunity to play croquet on some of the finest lawns in Northern England. A great day out, good company, great lawns, and the sun came out for the afternoons play.

Congratulations to the 2025 winner, Ken Knock from Pinchbeck, who played Philip from Bowdon in the final.

Club members compete in Semi Final

Report by Margaret Crossland

Three of our club members ventured across the Pennines to a sunny Bury, two to play and one to referee in a Golf (GC) B level play tournament on Sunday 18^th May.

A good day was had by all with some exciting games played on firm but mostly flat lawns. Both club members John Tidy and Margaret Crossland won 2 of 6 games with Margaret just beating John to take 3^rd place overall.

The final was between Frank Sharps of Bury and Robert Strover of Bishop Monkton with Robert just winning 7-6. The tournament was ably refereed by John Crossland who was only troubled by the hoops that were too tight.

The Longman Cup

Pendle and Craven CC v Bowdon CC at Bowdon on 29th May

Report by Libby Dixon

The day started out unpromising with drizzle but was forecast to improve as it did with the weather turning hot and dry by the afternoon making the lawns speed up noticeably.

The Pendle and Craven team consisted of Paul Dowdall( 7), Catherine Parnell (8), Andrew Gould (10) and Mark Kerr (12) with Mark, Andrew and Paul travelling to Bowdon together whilst Catherine travelled on her own from Bury

The Bowdon team were Andrew Thomson (4), Lorna Frost (11), John Bagnall (16) and Mike Blackburn (18).

The morning matches went well with Paul & Mark playing against Andrew & Lorna winning +1 on time. The others also won, Andrew beating Mike +9 and Catherine beating John +5 on time. This left the team three nil up at lunch with only one win needed to secure the win.

The afternoon matches were all singles and all went our way:

Paul beat Andrew +12
Catherine beat Lorna +12T
Andrew beat John +3T
Mark beat Mike +1T

This gave us a seemingly convincing 7-0 win but most of the games were very close and could easily have gone the other way.

Thanks to all the team, as well as to Libby Dixon, our non-playing captain.

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.