In a truncated season largely devoid of competitive bowling it was great to see 25 Bowlers, formed into eight teams, competing in a 2-wood triples competition last weekend.
The winning team of Adam Willson, Mary Baker & Aneta Thompson beat Mike Cutts, Enid Gray & Tony Bettsworth in the final. The Plate competition for first round losers was won by Malcolm Baird, Sally Brown & Jim Byrne who beat Tony Baker, Mary Tidmarsh & Anna Hughes.
The competition was played in good weather under Covid-19 playing regulations. As usual the matches were highly competitive.
The day ended splendidly with Pizza slices prepared by Linda Pillman. Well done to everyone involved in the day
The final of the COVID H/C SINGLES was played with in front of a small but enthusiastic group of spectators. The competition followed World Cup formats with a round-robin group stage followed by a final knock-out round: all played under Covid-19 sanitising and social distancing procedures.
The grand final was won by Mike Grimshaw 21 – 11 against Malcolm Studholme, the dark horse who had seen off several lower handicap bowlers on his way to the final. Sadly for Malcolm he came up against Mike on top form.
Both bowlers were presented with a bottle of wine for their efforts and Mike received a Certificate for display in his trophy room.
Roger Stearn had managed to beat stalwart Roger Dollimore on the Saturday, and progresses to the semi-final against last year’s valiant runner-up, Tom Eddy. On Monday, it was the turn of fellow rising star, Simon Charrington, to take on the defending champion, Steve Edney, in the first semi-final.
Steve hit in with his second ball (the yellow) but when taking off over to Simon’s black and blue in the opposite corner of the lawn, the red ball ran and just touched boundary line (bit more levelling required in Autumn!). End of turn. This enabled Simon to build a lead and Steve to continually miss long hit ins. Simon got blue round to 3-back and black to hoop 5, and kindly peeled Steve’s yellow he had blobbed earlier for a solitary point. Simon was sailing and Steve consoled himself with drinking his thermos of coffee, answering a couple of texts and having his turn against his mother at UpWords (you can get so much done during a game of croquet, I find).
However, Simon did eventually fail on a shot and gave Steve a sniff to get started on red, which he duly took, at last finding form, and sped round “Ronnie O’Sullivan-esque” running eleven hoops, and setting up to do likewise on yellow. Simon missed a long hit in, and Steve continued his rich vein of form running yellow round UNTIL… inexplicably, he lost his balance on an easy roll on 3-back. Calamity, but never mind, he could limit the damage by just knocking yellow into the corner, 5 yards from red, at 4-back.
Simon managed a great hit in, black to blue, so he did a take off into the corner. Nicely positioned to rush red to hoop 5. A valiant effort on the roll but not close enough so he joined up with blue. Steve tried to hit yellow, missed, but was safe back in the corner. This was repeated three times until Simon finally ran black through hoop 6, and brilliantly manufactured a couple more after that.
Simon’s turn ended when he could not get position on the next hoop, so Steve had a go with yellow. First attempt, a weak final take off meant he was unable to run the hoop. Simon couldn’t hit in so Steve tried again, this time perfectly in front of the hoop, three feet away. The ball shook against both uprights and doggedly refused to go through. End of turn.
Simon then managed to progress bit by bit until he took the lead. Steve still had chances but could not take them, returning back to his jittery early-game form.
Simon gave Steve one more chance, blobbing blue at the last hoop, with black on the peg. Steve played a take-off with yellow off red on the north boundary trying to get to the south side of blue to push it out. It was too short, but immediately Steve felt he should dislodge blue even if it went through for the chance to rush black to 3-back. He missed the twelve-footer, giving Simon an easy opening to finish the game.
After that, Simon maintained his composure and pegged out as the deserved winner. Well done Simon.
It was a great game, and it could have gone either way. It epitomised Steve’s inconsistent form and it confirmed Simon’s rapid rise this season.
Who will Simon meet in the final? The favourite surely is Roger Stearn, who like Simon, has really come on leaps and bounds this year. However, Tom is certainly no pushover and of course has years’ more experience. Whichever way it goes, there will be a new name on the Ember Croquet Club Open Singles Rose Bowl this year.
From scorching heat to dowsing rain the lawns are in pretty good shape as the close season approaches and we race to get those competition matches played. There is certainly all to play for in the Open Singles, so do get those games arranged with a view to the final being played on or before Sunday 20th September.
The highlight of the month was our friendly match versus Surbiton CC, the inaugural Mike Lambert Memorial Trophy, reported here: https://www.embersportsclub.org.uk/2020/08/18/mike-lambert-memorial-trophy-v-surbiton-17-august-2020/ Well played to All, and thank you to Steve Edney for his excellent portrait of Mike, and also to our magnificent hosts at Surbiton. Our 6 – 3 victory belied the closeness of the match, with two of the nine games going to just a one point difference, in our favour. Mike was surely looking down on us and chuckling.
The committee are in the process of updating the ECC COVID-19 precaution measures in line with updates from the CA. These will be issued shortly. The main changes, all subject to continuing to maintain essential social distancing, are: double-banking is permitted on the main lawn (providing there are no more than six players on the lawn); and a review of the total number of people who can be at the club at any one time.
It would be nice, if we can make it work, to have had at least one third-Sunday-of-the-month social barbeque, or picnic, at the club before the season closes. If it happens, the date would be Sunday 20th September. We’ll keep you posted by email.
We shall soon need to start our late-summer and autumn programme of maintenance tasks. Thank you, in anticipation, to those who are able to help and, indeed, who have helped throughout the summer to keep everything in order.
As a tribute to Mike, and also to get some game time away from Ember, we arranged a match against Mike’s other croquet club, Surbiton, which boasts seven lawns (plus the bowls green, which they get to use for championships).
Our team was Steve Edney (captain), Roger Stearn and Simon Charrington. We each played three open singles (no bisques) against three Surbiton players.
Steve versus Cliff Hunter, won 21-20, coming from 4 behind after the bell had sounded;
Steve v Steve Parish, lost 22-15, never really got going, canny player;
Steve v Elizabeth Kennedy, won 26-13, we were both worn out by then but I was relaxed enough to rely on auto-pilot to get me round.
Roger v Elizabeth, won 26-9, romped home enjoying it immensely;
Roger v Cliff, won 26-10, another romp!
Roger v Steve Parish, lost 26-12, like Steve E, just couldn’t get going against a wily opponent.
Simon v Steve Parish, won 15-13, got Steve P before he’d properly warmed up but well deserved tight win;
Simon v Elizabeth, won 15-14, another squeeze for Mister Chairman;
Simon v Cliff, lost 21-15, run out of steam perhaps, though Cliff certainly improved through the day.
So we managed to win the first, we hope, of many competitions in honour of Mike. Steve had painted a portrait of Mike, in tribute to their other shared hobby, as a temporary trophy (see photos below). It was a most enjoyable day and our hosts were magnificent. Thanks especially to Barry Holland who arranged the event and to Andy Dibben, the Surbiton Chairman, who came and said hello, watched a lot of the games, and invited us to a one-ball next week.
The article appears in the Friday 17th July edition of the paper. The text is shown below:
“EMBER Croquet Club say they can now “look forward in confidence” after being awarded £908 of National Lottery funding from Sport England’s Community Emergency Fund, towards the club’s essential running and maintenance costs during the ongoing Covid19 pandemic. The outbreak of the virus and the consequent shutdown of businesses as of March 23 has left the sport and physical activity sector facing a period of uncertainty. In response, on March 31 Sport England announced a £195 million package to help the sport and physi cal activity sector. Within the package is a $20m Community Emergency Fund, of National Lottery money, to deliver immediate funding to those who have a role in supporting the nation to be active, but are experiencing short-term financial hardship or the ceasing of operations due to the impact of coronavirus. The grant will allow Ember Croquet Club, who are based in Weston Green, Esher, to cover insurance and essential lawn care and mainte nance costs over the spring and summer months. This will make a big difference to this small club, meaning that with their otherwise much reduced income this season they shall never theless be able to maintain the health of their lawns, without signifi cant setback, which is crucial for playing. Chairman of Ember Croquet Club Simon Charrington said: “The support from Sport England Community Emergency Fund is very gratefully received here at Ember Croquet Club in these exceptional times. “We are pleased that our budget for essential lawn care, maintenance and other costs is now covered for the early summer months and we can look forward with confidence with all in good order. “The club lawns, toilets and bar facilities have progressively opened in line with government guidance; and an increasing number of members are now playing as lockdown has eased. We enjoy introducing less experienced players to the finer arts of this fascinating game and wel come prospective new members.” Tim Hollingsworth, Sport England’s chief executive, said: “As the body responsible for the growth of sport and physical activity participa tion, we want the vital grass-roots organisations that make sport and physical activity happen in this country to not just to come through this crisis but to be in a position to thrive again in the future. “The £20m Community Emergency fund, made possible by National Lottery players, is part of a multi-million pound package of support we are providing to ease the pressure on a huge number of the organisations who are central to the nation’s health and well-being. “We are proud to be able to provide vital funding to Ember Croquet Club to help it through these extremely challenging times.” For more information about joining the club, email croquet@embersportsclub.org.uk or call 07917 017 453.”
Following the relaxation of guidance Monday’s Club Nights are back from tonight. Although Social Distancing is still the order of the day the Clubhouse and Bar will be open and tables and chairs will be available for a drink and a chat. And there will be the usual roll-up. Come and join us.
Mike Lambert died in his sleep in the early hours of Monday 15th June. Mike read Engineering at Edinburgh University and then joined Rolls Royce in Bristol as a Graduate Apprentice. He then worked for many years in the IT field for various companies.
Mike had been a long-time member of the croquet section showing a passing interest as early as 1989 and joining Ember Sports Club as a member just after the major re-alignment of tennis courts 6&7 and the construction of the new full-size croquet lawn in 1996. His participation in all aspects of Ember club life was significant and he contributed to the croquet section with his knowledge and skill on the lawn, as an 11 handicap player, and his enthusiasm as a woodworker and for DIY.
Mike served as Chairman of the croquet section from 2007 until 2011 and as such also served on the Club Management Committee. Mike’s main interest for croquet however lay with Surbiton Croquet club where he played most of his croquet and where he served on the committee, the last couple of years as their secretary. Mike was interactive with many of the Croquet Association Council members and was always mindful of Ember Croquet Club. His work for both Surbiton and Ember was invaluable when the CA started their IT register of members, actively assisting with the usage of the CA application. His main professional occupation had been in IT and he had set up numerous little applications for Ember to enable simple control of the various knockout competitions that we run.
Mike was also very active around Elmbridge as a keen amateur artist with both Molesey Art Society and Chertsey Artists, as secretary of Molesey & District Antiques Society and involved in a music appreciation society. Mike viewed Ember as a very convenient social venue for Sunday afternoon and evening croquet being able to access the club from the back gate of his house adjacent to tennis court 5, and in the winter appearing at the clubhouse from beside the tennis courts for indoor croquet wearing his head light. Mike was also a very keen participant at the monthly BBQ’s usually bearing his infamous pineapple for dessert. Mike was also an accomplished cook preparing various quiches for informal gatherings.
Mike had been coping very well with cancer for some 15 years but was informed last autumn that it had now turned more aggressive and that there was now very little the medics could do to stop the progress. Mike was a family man and leaves wife Linda, son Matthew and daughter Sarah, both married just two years ago and a granddaughter Felicity born just last year.
