The Ember team was captained by Roger Stearn, and his two willing lieutenants – Simon Charrington and Steve Edney – met under the big clock at London Waterloo station to continue their onward journey to Hampstead Heath by the Northern Line to Tufnell Park, and then a twenty minute meander to a municipal park at the edge of the heath.

There we were greeted by Alex Lever, one of the HH players who had setup the lawn atop a bowls rink. Alex was in a work call (it transpired later he worked on defence contracts) so his head was permanently resting against his shoulder as he talked and hit practice balls around the lawn.

Next to arrive was Sandy Nairne, a tall distinguished looking man, whom I googled as soon as I got home. It came up in discussion he had recently become a trustee of the National Trust and that he races punts on the Thames by the Albany pub in Thames Ditton.

We had a practice and noticed that the lawn was true and fast, and that a roll shot was difficult to control. It would probably get faster as it dried out because this was the day after the deluge the day before (idea for a film?)

Finally, on his bicycle a young chap with grey hair whizzed in with effusive apologies. This was the third member of the HH team, Ludo Hunter-Tilney. He hastily explained he was a journalist and had had to get an article sorted before he was allowed to play croquet, and that he might have to check out again at lunchtime. Thoroughly nice chap, as all of them were.

So finally to the croquet, Alex whopped Roger in the singles, 26-6. In the doubles, Simon played well but Steve lurched, blobbing at hoops however brilliant his approach play was. Towards the end Ember were 16-14 down and Steve found some form, only for it to disappear once it was 16-16. An easy chance to pip them at the post was missed. Simon did have one last opportunity but uncharacteristically missed a long hit in. A draw versus Sandy and Ludo.

Lunch was served and it included white wine and Gu pots for puddings (there’s an umlaut on the “u”).

Simon took on Ludo in the singles, and hoped to blitz a win so he could leave early for his singing group that evening. Instead it was Hurricane Ludo, who was as hot as Alcaraz (thanks Annabel Croft) had been at Wimbledon, setting the pace, belying his 14 handicap. Simon got going and did a sublime turn from Hoop 1 to peg, but Ludo got back on and ran out the winner 26-12.

Meanwhile in the doubles against Sandy and Alex, neither Steve nor Roger really got a break. Sandy played defensively after Alex had given us a masterclass turn. Ember could not get into it, though Roger did find some good form towards the end, but time ran out and HH won the final game 21-10.

It was a great day and no shame in losing 3.5 to 0.5 in the match. The hosts were marvellous and the lawn was fantastic. Some bowls players played in the afternoon, including Ross Boatman, once of London’s Burning on ITV, and now I am reliably informed by avid watcher Simon, in Eastenders.

Did I mention Sandy is an Art Historian and was director of the National Portrait Gallery from 2002 to 2015? Ludo, meanwhile is the pop critic for the Financial Times.

Despite another cold June day, Ember Croquet’s GC Fun Tournament went ahead as planned with twelve members and four guests taking part, making eight pairs.  The pairings were formed to balance more/less experience and were divided into two ‘Round Robin’ groups, A & B, with all pairs then to play a final according to their position in their respective group.  Everyone, therefore, had three half-hour games in the Round Robin stage (and a break for tea), followed by a final play-off.  Steve had freshly painted the boundary lines the day before and Roger S had prepared the orders of play, so we were all in good fettle to start. 

The Round Robin groups saw much good play, learning about the game, and some great shots!  At the end of this, the final games matched as follows:

Sue Matthew & Mike Read vs Peter Bramworth & Wendy Beaney;

Tom Eddy & Susan Gill vs Geraldine Dhalke & Lena Vantol;

Simon Charrington & Valerie Coleman vs Louise Russell & Belita Charrington;

And for 1^st/2^nd – Roger Stearn & Philippa Bond vs Pauline Bramworth and Peter Coleman.

The ever-reliable Roger S and newcomer Phil won the closely fought final, over the ever improving and accurate Pauline and newcomer Peter C, to secure official bragging rights til the next tournament.  The ‘official fun’ pairing of Louise and Belita won the third place play-off against chairman Simon and Valerie (valiantly stepping in at the last minute) securing bragging rights no doubt in perpetuity!

All in all, it was a most enjoyable afternoon event, giving all members and guests a chance to play games in a structured but informal and relaxed atmosphere.  Many thanks to Roger for keeping us on track, and to everyone for contributing on the day.

Roger Stearn vs Adam Newbould:                                                                    26-15

Simon Charrington & Steve Edney vs Tony Besgrove & David Clemenson:   17-16

Simon Charrington vs Tony Besgrove:                                                               26-14

Roger Stearn & Hugh Stephenson vs Adam Newbould & David Clemenson:  18-14

The 4-0 victory to Ember belied the closely fought games throughout the cool but dry day.  First up in the morning round was Ember team captain Roger Stearn against Bromley’s low handicapper Adam Newbould.  With four bisques in hand Roger took an early lead but was then kept at bay for large parts of the game while Adam made inroads.  With time running down Roger made his move to progress his second ball and, using his final bisque, made sure of pegging out both balls for the win.  Simon and Steve’s doubles, meanwhile, went to full time (3 1/4 hours) with the Ember pair scrapping and scraping to a one point lead at the finish.  After lunch Bromley’s Tony took a commanding early lead over a seeming out-of-sorts Simon, who remained nevertheless patient (or asleep) for two hours playing necessarily defensively, while his opponent missed a few chances to get going with his second ball to kill off the game.  With less than half an hour left Simon woke up and found some form, taking blue to rover, and moving black to rover, too.  After an exchange of misses, Simon efficiently pegged out.  With Ember victory secured, Roger and Hugh (substitute for Steve) completed the fourth win of the day.  All in all, a very pleasant day of good competition and humour, with ‘home advantage’ perhaps making just the difference between two well-matched teams.

Tell your friends! Tell your family! Tell neighbours! Tell passers-by!

Come and try croquet, for gentle exercise and companionship. We are holding some taster sessions during April. Details in the link:

TASTER SESSIONS BOOKING FORMS

The Internal Competition awards were awarded by Pauline Bramworth at the 35th Croquet Section AGM on Friday 3rd November 2023. Here is a slideshow of the winners.

RESULTS:

AC Open Singles KO: Simon (v Roger S)

AC Handicap Singles KO: Simon (v Roger S)

AC Handicap Doubles KO: Roger S and Pete (v Roger D & Tom)]

GC Handicap Singles KO: Simon (v Roger S)

GC Handicap Doubles KO: Tom and Pete (v Simon & Louise)

ROLL OF HONOUR UPDATED

Ember Croquet – AC Handicap Singles Knockout Competition Final – 2023 Report

Simon wins the AC handicap singles trophy after two outstanding consecutive turns, firstly running 11 hoops to rover and secondly taking his partner ball from hoop 2 running the remaining 11 hoops plus a peel and pegging out. Congratulations to Simon. This is how it happened.

On a beautiful warm, sunny, late August afternoon, Roger S and Simon took to the lawn to compete the AC Handicap singles final, last contested pre-covid, Roger being the current holder.  Roger has the advantage of a single bisque.  Pete had dutifully mown the lawns in the morning, presenting them in pretty good shape, considering the effects of a variety of summer stresses, and now playing nicely fast and smooth.  Roger and Simon checked the width of hoop 3, which had become slightly too squeezed following recent nightly critter digging activity.  The new hoop clamp (funded by the Tesco grant) proved most useful in providing the necessary precision. 

Roger won the toss and elected to play first.  Simon chose the sunshine colours.  Roger, with the midnight colours, opened to the east boundary, Simon to the west, hitting in with his second shot – yellow to red.  At this point it was concluded that the boundary lines were too faint, having been largely washed out by heavy rain over the previous couple of weeks.  The string line was therefore employed to provide the clear definition needed. 

All now ready, Simon restarts, playing it safe by splitting up blue and black, and joining up with red …  But, not so safe! … Roger hits in, black to blue.  Black makes hoop 1 but slightly over-runs on the approach to hoop 2 so joins up with his partner ball.  Simon misses the consequent long roquet.  Roger gets going with blue, running hoops 1 and 2, but over-running at 3.  Simon hits in, yellow to red, on the west boundary by hoop 2, take off to blue and black by hoop 3, rushes black towards hoop 1, and runs it.  Take off black to get yellow up to red by hoop 2, but misjudges it, yellow running off the west boundary to leave a near-treble target for black.  Roger assuredly makes the long hit in on red but breaks down with a split roll taking black off the west boundary.  Time to take that bisque? … it’s early in the game … save for later … 

Simon sees a chance to get red going, runs 11 hoops to penultimate, leaves black and blue wired from each other at hoops 2 and 3, respectively, and yellow and red joined up south east of hoop 1.  Black shoots at blue, to join up, and a chance of a favourable rub of the green?  Not on this occasion.  Time to take that bisque?  There’s still a long way to go …

Yellow rushes red to pivot position, takes off to blue and black at hoop 3, gets an adequate rush for hoop 2, plays a long split roll and runs it, four-ball break is in place.  The break starts to become slightly out of shape from 1-back, as nerves, tiredness, or doubt creep in.  Simon manages to hold it together but can’t avoid putting partner ball red as pioneer at 4-back, instead of the preferred route to a peel finish, by rover.  The break continues, red is croqueted from 4-back towards peel position at rover.  Simon’s continuation shot after penultimate is slightly hampered by blue, over the better-positioned black.  The necessary improvisation works, getting blue to east side of rover, black to the south west of it, and a decent enough rush position on red.  Yellow peels red, runs the hoop, roquets blue, the croquet shot moves red clear of the hoop.  Roqueting black to get rush position on red is a formality, and pegging out of red and yellow quickly follows.  So, victory, 26-3, for Simon, a new AC Handicap Singles KO champion, his first honour in club handicap competitions.  Commiserations to Roger. 

The two finalists have improved their games markedly this year, having benefitted from the wider variety of play from competing in the SECF ‘S’ League, and from seeing some of the matches at this year’s AC World Championships in action.  Well done to both.