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.

The club welcomes enquiries about introductory taster sessions as well as applications for membership. Visit our website for more information  Croquet (embersportsclub.org.uk) and follow us on social media  Ember Croquet Club (@ember_croquet_club) • Instagram photos and videos  Ember Sports Club | Facebook

About National Lottery

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.

www.sportengland.org

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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.

…  some levelling along the East boundary

Diary dates, in line with the Government’s current road map:

Step 1 – 29^th March

Monday 29^th March:  the lawns will be open for play

Tuesday 30^th March from 4pm:  first roll-up of the season

Thursday 1^st April from 2pm:  first GC roll-up of the season

Sunday 4^th April (Easter Day) from 2pm:  first Sunday roll-up of the season (no tea though)

Step 2 – 12^th April

Sunday 18^th April from 2pm:  first Sunday roll-up with tea

Sunday 25^th April – 10.30am to 1.00pm: outside group booking

Step 3 – 17^th May

Sunday Barbeques:

23^th May

27^th June (note change of date)

18^th July

15^th August

19^th 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 29^th 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 18^th April being stage 1 (with tea); and 23^rd 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. 

Child Safeguarding Roles (croquet.org.uk)

Child Safeguarding Policy (croquet.org.uk)

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 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.

Ember Croquet Club (@ember_croquet_club) • Instagram photos and videos

Ember Croquet Club – Home (facebook.com)

Keep well, stay safe, see you soon

Simon