CROQUET                                                                                        SIMON CHARRINGTON

Diary dates

Start of Season – PAUSED

As you already know the Croquet Lawns are closed for all play until further notice (this includes for practice).   We appreciate your co-operation and continued support in this for the club.  We are committed to reopening for play as soon as possible, whilst abiding by the Government’s advice and guidelines.  I shall keep in touch with you with regular updates via email.

Lawn care and maintenance

After successful progress with the early spring programme of work, the programme is now much limited by the lockdown requirements and availability of appropriately trained and fit volunteers within walking distance. The formal mowing rota has been abandoned for April, accordingly. The team, however, are in regular contact with each other and will do what is possible and reasonable within the constraints; with individual, family, neighbour and national safety being paramount.  These plans change by the day.

Handicaps & Coaching

Note from Roger Dollimore, by way of reminder:

If you play either AC or GC singles as a competitive or friendly game it should be recorded on your handicap cards. For friendly games a card game should be mutually agreed before the start of play. If you are playing a tutored or coached game then it should not be recorded on your handicap card.

If anyone would like to take one-on-one coaching once we are able to resume then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Publicity and recruitment

We are now listed in ‘Silvergrape – Mid Surrey’, an online and hardcopy magazine, and we are exploring the establishment of a U3A course, as well as starting to use various links and facilities to raise our profile on social media.  Publicity for some open ‘come along and try’ sessions has been paused for now. The CA are suggesting ‘Two ball Match-play’ as a good introduction to croquet generally, with elements of both Golf Croquet and the more complex four-ball AC format  https://www.croquet.org.uk/?p=ca/ncd/ClubInfo   (scroll down to Suggested formats for NCD

Meanwhile,

our thoughts and prayers stay with you all and your families during these uncertain, and suddenly and dramatically changing times which are impacting upon each and all of us in so many, various, the same, and in different ways

Extracted from the Club’s March Newsletter:

Written by SIMON CHARRINGTON

Diary dates

Indoor croquet:  Tuesday 3rd March at 7.30pm – do come along – & All ESC members welcome.

Pre-season social:  Friday 27^th March 7.30pm in the clubhouse – bring a dish, Geraldine will be in touch to co-ordinate.  All being well, season starts Sunday 30 March at 2pm for first AC rollup.

Monthly Barbeques – Sundays:  17^th May, 14^th June; 19^th July; 16^th August; and 20^th September.  In the usual way we’ll be looking for volunteers to run these.

Croquet open sessions: the committee is working on details of dates, format, marketing and publicity.  Further information will follow in due course.

The autumn Ember Players’ production at Walton Playhouse is scheduled for 10^th (and possibly 9^th) to 12^thDecember (and matinee on the Saturday).  We will need volunteers to run the bar for the performances so do, please, mark the dates in your diaries.

FIXTURES

SECF AC ‘B’ League (handicap):  entry made, dates to be arranged and advised in due course

SECF AC Tournament at Southwick:  entry made, 9^th / 10^th May.  We have received confirmations of availability from four members but need one more for the Sunday plus reserves in case of unforeseen circumstances, and competition to put our best foot forward!  While the SECF encourage clubs to draft in players from other clubs should they find themselves short of a full team for the day, it would be far preferable to field a team fully from within ECC.

AELTC GC friendly:  6^th June  (home)

LAWN

Rain, rain go away!   Winter mowing has been monthly rather than weekly.  Periodic swooshing has continued and the new drains at the south east corner have been installed: huge thanks to Steve, Roger S and Roger D for their sterling work on these.   https://www.embersportsclub.org.uk/2020/02/08/croquet-lawn-maintenance/  

The soil samples have been taken and the results are back.  These show that the soil is in pretty good condition.  The advice, looking forward, is that we should consider aerating (tine/slit) to a regular programme, use an alternative moss treatment with less iron content and more effective application and coverage, and reduce the sand content by encouraging natural organic processes and no longer applying annual top dressing.   Cost-wise this involves pluses and minuses which we’ll be working through and making decisions. Ultimately, we have to fit the recommendations to our circumstances of little money, existing stock, but plenty of willingness to do right by the lawn.

Pre-season working parties for lawn, grounds and buildings maintenance:  please keep an eye on your emails for appeals for help in the next few weeks, which may, necessarily, have to be at shortish notice.

Meanwhile, the small lawn is operational, on dry days, with holes set for the hoops, and almost visible boundary lines.   Please use the correct hoops and the Barlow balls.  One-ball is a good format to try, and is good for developing and honing skills in positioning in front of hoops, long hit-ins and long hoop running.

South East Croquet Federation – AGM

Steve and I attended the AGM and proudly received the SECF B League trophy for 2019. https://www.embersportsclub.org.uk/2020/02/23/croquet-b-league-2019-trophy-presentation/

In getting our hands on this trophy we were able to check for sure that this is, indeed, the second time we have won it.  Sure enough!  There we are, engraved ‘2009 Ember CC’, so exactly ten years ago! Must be cause for a celebration.

The meeting itself went through the due processes.  We found it informative as regards the formal croquet structures, organisation and governance, and the relationship of the SEFC with the CA.   The Motions in the Agenda were debated and mostly either rejected or withdrawn.

The lunch afterwards provided a good opportunity for networking with members from other clubs and we made new croquet contacts and friends, and we shared experience.  The possibility of some mutual coaching days was mooted, i.e. predominantly GC clubs wanting AC coaching from us, and we wanting GC coaching from them. 

All in all, it was a good event.

Simon Charrington and Steve Edney represented Ember Croquet Club at the South East Croquet Federation (SECF) AGM today (23rd Feb 2020) at Surbiton Croquet Club.

The highlight of the meeting was undoubtedly the presentation of the B League Trophy for the 2019 season to Ember. The picture above shows Steve accepting the trophy from Bill Arliss, chairman of the SECF.

After the meeting, Surbiton supplied a very nice lunch of venison stew and a potato and cheese bake, followed by lemon mousse or cheese. We have made some contacts with other clubs, which may result in some more friendly games in the future.

Taking advantage of the dry sunny weather of the past week, the intrepid trio of Simon Charrington, Roger Stearn and Steve Edney, under the expert tutelage of Roger Dollimore, has installed two land drains under the lawn.

The first trench was dug on the south boundary on a line just to the right of the pavilion, near Hoops 4 and 5. The second trench is moreorless in line with the first Tennis lamp post, from the east boundary towards Hoop 4.

Hopefully this will go a long way to solving the drainage problem we have been experiencing after periods of heavy rain.

We will work tirelessly (tee hee) to make sure the lawn recovers, so Bob can still have success with his epic roll shots to Hoop 1 from that corner, when the new season starts at the end of March!

In the meantime, a couple of us having been honing our skills on the small lawn…

We are starting to prepare for the new season already. The lawn is rather soggy given all that rain we had before Christmas. Thanks to Mike Cutts, from Bowls, we have managed to aerate the lawn, and hope to repeat the tining process a couple of times before the end of March. The south east corner is still waterlogged so we will be digging some new drains in the next week or two. Hopefully that will help! The moss is taking hold too so, again through Mike C, we will take soil samples and get some professional advice

Here are some dates for your diary:

Pre-season social in the clubhouse on Friday 27th March. Bring a dish but not cheese and pineapple on a stick (Bob), or sausages on a stick (Steve), or jam tarts (Hugh). Apologies to the well-loved contributions from others but I particularly like those aforementioned delicacies!

Barbecues are usually on the third Sunday of each month:

May 17th

June 14th (as 21st is Father’s Day)

July 19^th

August 16th

September 20th

The GC match on 6th June HOME against All England Club (Wimbledon) is confirmed, so we are going to give GC a real go this year in preparation for that at least!

We also want to see if there is sufficient demand this year to put a team in for the SECF AC tournament at Southwick, taking place on 9th and 10th May. Please let David know if you are interested as soon as possible, as we have to register sometime in February. David will also confirm our entry into the B League, so we can defend our title.

The presentation of the B League trophy will take place at Surbiton during the SECF AGM on 23 February. Photo to be included in the next instalment, as well as one from the Casa Mia meal (this Friday 31st January), at which we raised a tidy sum for the refurbishment fund.

There are still two more indoor croquet evenings:

February 11th

March 3rd.

Finally, we hope to get the small lawn operational ahead of the official start of the season, potentially from February 3rd onwards. Please make sure you use the correct hoops and the Barlow balls please.

Take care until then!