A Weston Green community group got together on a chilly but sunny morning at Ember Croquet. It had been a while since they had all seen each other socially, so to have the chance of a hot drink, croissant and a gentle game of croquet was the perfect tonic.
Jan, who organised the event, said, “What fun!!! Thanks so much for such a great morning we all loved it! We so look forward to the next one! Could I organise another one with another group of my friends? If you would not mind? Anyway a million thanks it was great getting out and socialising I didn’t realise how much I missed that until today!“
The group arranged themselves into pairs and three games were played simultaneously on three small croquet courts. So all twelve guests were actively involved taking turns to hit a ball across the lawn and through the hoops in a version of the game called Golf Croquet.
Ember Croquet welcomes individuals and groups to come along and have an afternoon of fun playing Golf Croquet. You can also try the traditional game of Association Croquet, either in a group, or with club members on a Sunday afternoon or an early Tuesday evening. You can be assured all precautions are taken to maintain social distance and all equipment sanitised before and after use.
The following press release has been prepared and will appear in several local publications in the next few weeks…
Press release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more details about the project, and photos, please contact Simon Charrington on 07917017453
Ember Croquet club is celebrating, and busily preparing, after being awarded £1,698 of National Lottery funding from Sport England to help people who have been unable play croquet over the last twelve (Covid) months through shielding, self-isolation, key worker status, or through national lockdowns, to return to playing or to try the game for the first time.
The grant is enabling Ember croquet club to enhance its facilities for safe social interaction and playing of the game. As well purchasing additional playing equipment and materials for improving safety, signage and for marketing, the club is adding: a gazebo for socially-distanced outdoor shelter – rain or ‘shine; a hot water urn for providing hot drinks and hot water for cleaning / washing; and new treatments and equipment for lawncare, to enable a good consistent playing surface and maximizing the availability of the courts.
Free instruction / taster sessions for players who are new to the game is available by arrangement.
EMBER CROQUET CLUB maintains two croquets lawns, a full sized 35yd x 28yd lawn and a smaller 20yd x 16yd lawn, plus a croquet pavilion and maintenance sheds. New members are offered all necessary playing equipment, instruction to get started and coaching to develop their skills. The croquet club holds regular roll-up sessions, socials, and internal competitions in the main summer season. The club plays the two main formats of the game, that is GC (Golf Croquet – a quicker form which takes around 45 minutes per game) and AC (Association Croquet – a longer form of the game, typically taking one and a half hours or more), both singles and doubles. Other variations such as ‘One Ball’ and ‘Two Ball match play’ are also played. Toilet and washroom facilities are available in the main Ember sports clubhouse.
Simon Charrington, chairman of Ember Croquet Club, is thrilled to have been awarded the funding:
“We are delighted to have secured this investment which means we can add extra safety features to our facilities to encourage the playing of croquet. Croquet is an excellent and most enjoyable pastime, good for physical health and activity as well as for mental well-being, meeting new people or, simply, playing with friends. Thank you to everyone who plays the National Lottery, we wouldn’t be able to do this without you.”
ENDS
Notes to Editors
For more details about the project, and photos, please contact Simon Charrington on 07917017453.
About Ember Croquet Club
Ember Croquet Club, a section of Ember Sports Club in Weston Green, and the only Croquet Association registered club in Elmbridge – is tucked away off Ember Lane, Grove Way (KT10 8HL) and The Drive (KT10 8DH), a five-minute walk from Esher railway station. The club offers participation in the fun sport of croquet, outdoors in beautiful surroundings, providing beneficial forms of physical exercise, mental stimulation, and social interaction. Players comprise both men and women, youth, and experience. Play is on equal terms and there is a comprehensive handicapping system based on recorded results so that ‘anyone can play anyone’ and have good, competitive, and fun games. One of the Ember members is a qualified croquet coach and referee. Ember won the South East Croquet Federation ‘B’ League in 2019, prevailing from eleven competitor clubs, and remains the current holder.
All the lawn care, equipment and facilities’ maintenance and administration and management are carried out by volunteer members of the club. Bookings are made via the members’ online booking system.
Ember Croquet Club is a section of Ember Sports Club which also boasts Tennis, Bowls and Drama Sections and a shared clubhouse with bar, hall, kitchen facilities, dressing rooms and a committee room.
National Lottery players raise £30m every week for good causes, funding arts, heritage, sports, voluntary and charity projects around the UK. For more information on good causes in your area go to www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk
About Sport England
Sport England is a public body and invests up to £300 million National Lottery and government money each year in projects and programmes that help people get active and play sport.
It wants everyone in England, regardless of age, background, or level of ability, to feel able to engage in sport and physical activity. That’s why a lot of its work is specifically focused on helping people who do no, or very little, physical activity and groups who are typically less active – like women, disabled people and people on lower incomes.
Ember’s 2021 season kicked off on Sunday with a full complement of 24 bowlers on the Green. The sun was out, fun was had, Bar service was available (outdoor seating only) and acquaintances re-made after the lockdowns. If you want to join us check out our website www.embersportsclub.org.uk/bowls for all the information you need.
Our bar – with our new chairs – is now set up ready to welcome our members and their guests once this becomes possible in the weeks ahead. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!
It’s fair to say, Ember Croquet has been traditionally an Association Croquet (AC) club. That’s the version of the game where if one player gets going (like snooker) (s)he can run all the hoops, and the only thing the other players can do is watch and applaud.
In Golf Croquet (GC), four people can be on the lawn all of the time, taking turns to take one shot each. It is just like golf, but without the rough grass and bunkers. Compared to AC, GC is simpler to understand and quicker to pick up and play, but no less tactical and brain-teasing.
We welcome all guests to come along, no pressure to join the club, just give it a go. A fiver well spent, and if you get the Croquet bug, then we are just the club for you.
Meanwhile, we are booked in to a GC competition this year against other clubs in the area, plus we visit Wimbledon Croquet & Tennis Club soon, so we better hone our skills.
Here’s Peter & Sarah from our tennis section getting ready for Saturday’s mix-in. Want to come down and play or find out more about the great game of tennis? Find out how to join here!
Diary dates, in line with the Government’s current road map:
Step 1 – 29th March
Monday 29th March: the lawns will be open for play
Tuesday 30th March from 4pm: first roll-up of the season
Thursday 1st April from 2pm: first GC roll-up of the season
Sunday 4th April (Easter Day) from 2pm: first Sunday roll-up of the season (no tea though)
Step 2 – 12th April
Sunday 18th April from 2pm: first Sunday roll-up with tea
Sunday 25th April – 10.30am to 1.00pm: outside group booking
Step 3 – 17th May
Sunday Barbeques:
23th May
27th June (note change of date)
18th July
15th August
19th September
Friendly match at AELTC Wimbledon: Saturday 17th July
The Mike Lambert Annual Memorial match v Surbiton: tba
Plus the usual roll-ups every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday
SECF ‘B’ league and GC handicap league matches: TBA
Step by step …
… we’re getting there. The lawns are open for play from Monday 29th March. Please use the online system in the croquet members area of the ESC website to book. Our start of season social will be a step by step affair, with the Sunday roll-up on 18th April being stage 1 (with tea); and 23rd May being stage 2 (with BBQ, allbeingwell!). Do come along to one, other, or both if you can, so that we can then map out the internal competitions, matches, rotas and so on for the rest of the year.
New system for membership renewal
You will recently have received information via email from Nick Burges about the new ESC membership renewal system. Hopefully, the process will be straightforward in practice. Should you have any difficulty with it, please do not hesitate to ask for help and, certainly, do not let it stop you playing! The health benefits from croquet, especially after the extraordinary past twelve months, are still here, and this is recognised by the generous support from Sport England / National Lottery, enabling the croquet club to enhance its facilities, keep us all Covid safe, and encourage members to return to playing. Bring your friends, too, and we’ll soon reach that target of fifty people coming along this season, ref my email of 21 March. For now, up to four players are permitted on the small lawn; and up to six on the main lawn, or eight when divided to make it into two small lawns. Indeed, we already have a booking which will use this format.
Child Safeguarding
New CA policies mean that there will soon be a requirement for every club to appoint a Local Safeguarding Officer, irrespective whether clubs have junior members or activities, or not. We shall therefore be looking for a volunteer for this role. See the links, below, for more information.
If this may be something for you, or you know someone who’d be interested, do, please, contact me.
South East Croquet Federation / Croquet Association tournaments and courses 2021
Let David know, please, if you are interested in being available (i.e. in general, appreciating that holidays and other commitments may rule out availability on some days) to represent the club in AC or GC competitions, or both – contact croquet@embersportsclub.org.uk or on 01932 862 841). We have a trophy to defend!
Lawn and facilities maintenance
Work on the lawn has continued mostly as planned. The bore hole water pump is primed and on, and an isolation valve has been installed in the North East corner (thanks to Roger S and Steve, and to Roger D for guidance provided remotely). The hoops will be left in place on the lawns, like we did last year. The lines, initially, will be marked with 1mm white nylon cord to give the repaired corners and boundaries a little more time to recover over the Spring. Pat has done an excellent job of creating a storage shelf for shed 4; and a border frame for the noticeboard in the summerhouse end of the pavilion, which Steve has now turned into a mural
The Croquet Pavilion now has a mural!
The mowing rota for April is shown on the lawn booking system. Tuesdays and Friday mornings, as usual, but with some latitude to be expected depending on weather conditions and relative slow or fast rate of growth of the grass. The white nylon line cord will need to be lifted and moved before mowing. It is suggested that this is done in two halves, so that one half stays in place while the other half is mown, and so on, rather than moving all the cord at once.
Recruitment
All ideas are welcome, so do let me know any thoughts you have, and do spread the word with neighbours, acquaintances, and groups whenever the opportunity presents. You should all have received an ESC disc for your car window. The idea behind this is that, with the club having no road frontage as such, the disc is a way of making the club more visible, locally. Steve, meanwhile, is leading on developing our use of social media for raising the club’s profile. He welcomes a regular supply of content from members: good photos, short texts, and ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ of our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts, both of the Croquet Club and ESC.
Our newly refurbished committee room now is set up ready with our new chairs in place for our members to use as a lounge once indoor socialising becomes possible again.
