Garway win over Broadwas to make 2nd round of Secretaries CQE Shield
On Sunday 3rd May (coincidently National Croquet Day!) Garway faced Broadwas in the 1st round of the Secretaries CQE Shield, a National Competition they were invited to play in after their success winning the SW Federation competition in 2025.
Late in the day Broadwas was only able to field a squad of 3, so 4 of the Garway team took to the lawns over the day (Simon Collinson, Mark Oldale, Andrew Bailey & Bryan Gidley). The morning sessions saw Mark & Andrew play doubles against Stuart Smith & Ian Dampney on the common. Whilst Bryan drew David Kaner playing at Brent Watkins lawn.
The doubles game was nip and tuck, with some mistakes on both sides, Andrew struggled with hoop 2, facing it 4 times and unable to get through, Broadwas attempted to peel through 1 back, and got stuck, there were also some great hit ins from both teams. As the clock counted down three balls were all on 4 back with one of the Broadwas balls on penalt, Broadwas had both their balls in the corner close together, as the timer had gone, Garway had one last play on the lawn, meaning they needed to run 3 hoops to win, or face Broadwas coming back on to play golden hoop (with their balls within a foot of each other). Or take maybe the more standard view and go and spilt up Broadwas in case they did not make the three hoops. Andrew stepped up to take his red though 4 back, then using only the yellow went through penalt, it meant he had a long shot to get though rover and win the game, what a shot.
Bryan struggled to get into a rhythm in his singles game, and though he made some good breaks, David Kaner took the win for Broadwas. That meant going into the 3 afternoon single games it was all square at 1-1.
Broadwas opted to play two of the singles on Brents law for the afternoon, so Simon Collinson face Ian Dampney and Andrew Bailey faced David Kaner. Mark Oldale and Stuart Smith played on the common.
Again there was some fantastic play on both lawns, Simon secured the first win for Garway going to peg, winning 26-11. That meant Garway needed just one more win to secure victory. As news filtered down to the common about Simons win, Mark missing 4 back, Stuart needing to get a long hit in, it was left that Mark had the chance to rush his red to peg, and with a 8ft croquet shot was able to peg out his red and then yellow, meaning Garway secured the overall victory. Andrew had to give away bisques to his opposition, but he fought back and only lost by 1 point, 17-18.
A brilliant result for Garway to have invited to play and then to progress to the next round, which is looking like Old Brentford. A huge thanks to Brent Watkins for the use of his lawn and his hospitality. Thank you to all those that came by and supported the players on the lawn, enjoying some really exciting play. Thank you to the Garway Moon for the use of their facilities as well.
And of course big thanks to the Broadwas team for making it such a thrilling day, we shall see you again in the Federation competition!
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