June Newsletter

The Season is now well underway. Lots to say ( Sorry to be a bit late with this newsletter).

Themes this month:

- Garway Clube Finals day - 14th September

- Federation results put Garway on the Map

- Lawn

- Equipment

- Club nights

- Competitions

- Eardisley Golf Croquet friendly

Finals Day will be 14th September, see below for more details.

Federation - Tremendous result by the Federation Team (Simon (capt), Mark, Bryan, Steve) beating Cheltenham at home the week before last (picture below). In particular Mark beating an England International player was great and puts Garway on the map. Please read the full report below. 

- Not only that but the Team (Simon, Steve, Andrew and Mark), also beat the Kington Langley Team away, 6-1 this week. They are now top of the League, very well done to all.

- League match schedule is included below. The League finals day is 31st August (note this is not Garway Croquet Club Finals day - see below).

Equipment - a new set of secondary balls has been purchased, one had a piece out of it. We are also sourcing some additional mallets and thanks to Simon and Rachel for providing their spares. We’re trying to build to 2 sets of primary and secondaries in good condition for matches and around 8 mallets.

Lawn - please recognise the effort that Mark (our Secretary) puts into maintaining the lawn, mowing and marking out with help from Bryan and occasionally others. He’s says he’s very happy if people are playing, so please get out there and play. Hopefully the issue with the football nets, seems to have been resolved through a polite note & the council cutting the grass on the rest of the common. Simon has been watering the lawn with regular IBCs, if you walk by and see a hose please move it around the lawn to help with this. 

Club nights - Friday GC is thriving - we’ve had up to 15 people which creates a bit of a log jam. We may need to stagger starts say 4.30 through to 5.30 (we need time for the pub).

- Thursday social AC croquet is underway and is welcoming of new people to join in.

- Monday AC night, John says he’s been there on his own a couple of times so we need to make an effort to participate.

- Croquet England are keen on clubs to introduce Kwik Croquet, a simplified AC, particularly for Golf Croquet players. Alan and I are playing a game this week to make sure we are clear on the rules before rolling it out. Hopefully this will encourage more players to play AC.

Competitions - Finals day will be September 

- Mark has organised singles, 6 hoop and 12 hoop competitions amongst the AC players which have just started. Finals will be played for both on Finals day.

- we would like to have a doubles competition. Last year it was GC rules but previously AC. The main issue is we need a volunteer to organise it. It can be any format (AC, GC, Kwik?, timed eg 1 hour) but rules clear at the start. I’d be grateful if someone could help to organise it. Thank you.

Eardisley - Eardisley Croquet Club have over 60 members and the majority play Golf Croquet. They have invited us for a friendly. It’s a lovely setting and they have 2 very good lawns. Again, it would be good if someone could take this on to organise.

Finally, Simons report on the Federation League result, the Kington Langley result and League schedule. Well done to all.

Hi Guys

Superb result yesterday with a home win over Cheltenham, which gets the campaign off to a strong start. All played superbly, with particular credit to Mark who won both his games against their strongest plays, a 3.5 and a 1 handicap. The 1, Sam, plays off -3 in GC and plays for England! He opened and went straight to peg in one visit leaving Mark no option but to do the same and to then peg him out – truly brilliant and won us the match. Geart performance by the whole team though. 

Cheers, Simon

From Mark: The Federation team won away at Kington Langley near Chippenham yesterday 6-1. Team was Simon, Steve, Andrew and Mark. We are top of the league currently with two wins out of two.

June 10th Home/Cheltenham – Bryan, Steve, Mark, Simon - Garway WON

June 21st Away/Kington Langley – Andrew, Simon, Mark, Steve - Garway WON

Aug 10th Home/Swindon – Bryan, Steve, Mark, Simon

Aug 20th Away/Broadwas – Bryan, Andrew, Steve, Mark (captain)

Aug 31st – this will be the final, please keep it free -