At Croquet Tournaments - July/August 2008
Cheltenham – 21 July
Pauline organized a pleasant self catering hotel in Cheltenham for our tournament there. It was a listed building so there were restrictions about the windows and no possibility of installing air conditioning. We struck the only fine week so far this summer and found the nights incredibly hot! Adding to the misery, there was a Turkish pizza place opposite the hotel which remained open until 4.00 a.m. Even three floors above the road, the noise some nights was indescribable!
Playing croquet in England is a very different experience. The people are very friendly, the lawns are lovely (if a little fast for me who’s used to the slow lawns of Plimmerton)
and no-one seems to worry in the least about time! We had to walk 2 miles to the club (which is now the centre of the Croquet Association in England). We were both greeted very enthusiastically and told who our first opponents were. There was no introduction from the Manager and no words of counsel from the Referee of the Tournament. It was refreshingly laid back, but I felt a little uninformed!
Games were 3¼ hours long and 3½ if it was double banking Games don’t begin until (approximately) 9.30 so it’s lunch time by the end of the first game. Everyone makes their way into the club house where a two course lunch is available for purchase. The cost was about £8-10. Whoever wins offers the loser a drink.
Our first day comprised a handicap single, a handicap double and a level single within grades. Mixing up the various tournaments can be confusing!! I won my handicap single, Pauline and I won our handicap doubles but I narrowly lost my open single so was out of the main draw.
Because we started so late (compared to 8.0 or 8.30 in New Zealand) and played longer games, I didn’t finish my last game until 9.20 p.m! And my feet (not to mention my knees, hips and back!) hurt after the first day in trainers (sneakers) since the end of April! Fortunately, a kind spectator gave me a lift home – Pauline had already gone!
On the second day, and another 2 mile walk to the lawns, Pauline and I won our second round of doubles and I lost the second round of the handicap singles. I could have opted to play a third ‘fun’ game in the open singles but decided that two games was enough and went home early with my kind opponent. My feet were dreadfully sore but I got a bit of relief by drawing the fluid out of all the blisters under my toe nails and decided that I’d definitely be playing in sandals the following day! Pauline arrived home very late and tired.
On Wednesday we found a bus to the ground (which couldn’t bring us back because it stopped running at 3.25 p.m.) but that got the day off to a much better start! Pauline and I had another win in the doubles so felt quite good about that!
Thursday dawned bight and sunny and sufficiently hot to wear a singlet! We won our doubles yet again and found that we were in the finals on Friday. And I finally won a singles game too! There was a lovely dinner put on for all the competitors in the evening for only £5, which was very delicious and then Tony and Janet arrived at the grounds and we all went off to the cinema to a late performance of Mamma Mia. It isn’t really a chick flick but Tony said he did feel a bit outnumbered in the cinema!
Friday was our last day as Saturday had been reserved for finals. The Manager had kindly allowed our final to be played on the Friday because I said I’d like to leave that day as I had the opportunity to spend the weekend with my brother. As it turned out our opponents were far too good on the day and we didn’t get many opportunities to play because they had the bisques. They deserved the win. The surprise was that there was a special prize giving then and there, and although they were awarded a handsome trophy, we were thrilled to be given a glass tankard each to take home, engraved with the Cheltenham Croquet Club logo.
So that was Cheltenham. We made some good friends, exchanged addresses and hope to meet them again one day, perhaps even in New Zealand. One already spends quite a bit of time in New Zealand so we’re sure to see him this coming season.
Hurlingham – 4 August
And so it was on to seven days of tournament at Hurlingham, one time home of the Croquet Association but not any longer now that the Club is being run by a management company to whom croquet is just another event in their enormous calendar of events.
Pauline had also arrived to stay at Jules’ house and we set off to walk to Ealing South tube station, took the Piccadilly Line to Earls Court and then the District Line to Putney Bridge. It was actually about the only time we had to use public transport because another competitor, who also lives in Ealing, very kindly transported us morning and evening.
From Putney Bridge station, it’s about 200 metres to the Hurlingham gates but another 300 metres through the beautiful grounds, passing fountains and statues
beautifully manicured lawns and cared for gardens
to the club house - and I use the term loosely!
Before play starts it’s common practice to sit in the outside bar area, have a coffee and soak in the environment!
Sometimes we had the company of the feathered variety!
Hurlingham is an outstanding venue at which to do almost anything, I imagine, including playing croquet. A club was first formed there in 1869 as ‘an agreeable country resort to promote pigeon shooting’ and the pigeon is still the Club’s crest. Other pastimes have included polo, pony shows, car rallies, balloon ascents, archery and bicycle competitions in the early 20th Century. Lawn tennis began in 1877 and croquet in about 1900 and from 1903 there was a programme of concerts and pastoral plays. The Hurlingham Ball (to which I went as a young thing) can be traced back to 1908. An outdoor swimming pool was built in 1933, squash courts were constructed in 1934 and bowls lawns put down in 1935. The Club was opened in winter with the re-establishment of a nine-hole golf course. Amazingly the main polo ground was turned into allotments during the war! After the war the London County Council purchased the polo grounds compulsorily and the Club was left with the residue of the original estate – about 42 acres – as it is today.
Tennis has flourished since the war and the cricket field was opened in 1951. We played on the cricket field where the four lawns are slightly heavier. In this photo you can see a plane coming down to land in London airport. These come past every 90 seconds!!
I never did manage to count all the tennis courts, but there are heaps! The Croquet Association had its headquarters there since 1959 until quite recently (it’s now at Cheltenham). There are ten croquet lawns (four of which are situated on the cricket pitch area) and six on the fronts. There are also two bowling greens between lawns 5 and 6. The Club has more than 10,000 members and great numbers of guests and visitors.
Hurlingham exudes an old world charm and there are very definite ‘rules’ which must be obeyed! Cell phones are only allowed in the car park. No sporting equipment can be taken into the bar. Nothing can be eaten on or around the lawns. Anyone playing in a tournament becomes an automatic member for the duration and can sign in a maximum of two visitors. And so on. The hospitality is second to none and made one believe that the croquet was a secondary consideration! We met some lovely people with whom we’ll doubtless remain in touch. A lot of time was spent in the bar or the restaurant enjoying the company of fellow competitors and chilling out.
Before we left New Zealand we’d corresponded at length with Hurlingham to try and find mixed doubles partners for both the handicap doubles and the ‘Class’ doubles which is a seriously senior event! Pauline had found someone she’d met the previous year for the handicap doubles and a lovely man called Richard Hoskins agreed to play with me. Richard plays off an English 1.5 (the grades in England are two above those in New Zealand and no-one knows quite why as every other country conforms with England! Pauline, who’s a scratch in New Zealand is a 2 over here and I’m a 5 in England for the same reason).
Richard and I won four out of our six games – and so did Pauline and Alain – so that was a fairly good start to our week.
The following two days were spent playing handicap singles and I had to give up a lot of bisques to very capable players! At the end of two days I found myself in the final of the plate which could have gone either way but eventually went to Gina Lewis by two hoops – she played beautifully. At the presentation, only the winner received a prize – a tumbler engraved with the Hurlingham logo. Gina received this but insisted that I take hers home as a memento (and confided that she’d already won heaps by playing in so many tournaments there!!). So now I have a tankard and a tumbler – so don’t be surprised if you drink out of one of them when you come for a visit!
The next two days Pauline and I both played in ‘class singles’ which is where everyone is divided into their grade range. In this tournament I played two of the best games I’ve ever played but also two of the worst so ended up out of the prizes!
The final day was spent playing in the Championship Mixed Doubles with two partners who’d been found for us. Pauline played with Nelson Morrow – a New Zealander who’s been living in England for some time but who often goes over to New Zealand to play in senior events.
My partner was Nigel Polhill with a handicap of minus .5 (remember that’s 2 higher than in New Zealand!). Seriously good. However, on the day neither of us performed to anything like our potential so we bombed out. Still, Nigel gave me a lift home in his dark green Mazda MX5 with the roof down.
What a treat, which brought back memories of driving my MGB all those years ago when I was really young!
Nottingham – 11 August
Sunday morning and it was great to greet the Turkish sailors who’d arrived home in the middle of the night, exuberant and thrilled with their newly acquired skills, but covered in bruises sustained while sailing in very high winds.
Clive and Alexandra kindly took me to the tube and I set off for Victoria Coach Station to meet up with Pauline who’d left the day before to take in a West End Show.
I’ve always preferred trains to buses and this journey absolutely reinforced the reasons why! It’s almost always a tube ride to a train station so the tube has to be negotiated whatever you do. But Victoria Coach Station, central though it is, is quite a hike from the tube and main line stations and it feels as if everyone else is making exactly the same journey. They’re either going the same way as you are – very slowly – or they’re coming towards you!! Negotiating pavements full of people trundling luggage is a very slow process and when you’re trundling a case behind you on both hands, you need even more space if you’re going to pass anyone. I was hot and cross when I finally arrived at Bay 18 of the Coach Station and Pauline was on the point of ringing me to see where I’d got to.
Even when you’re on the coach, you have to wear your seat belt and the journey in this case from London to Nottingham takes 3 hours and 20 minutes (only 1 hour and 20 minutes by train where you can walk through the train unrestricted!). I hope I never have to go by coach anywhere again!
When we lived in Broxbourne we had two lovely neighbours called Roy and Elissa. Soon after we went to New Zealand, they moved up to Cropwell Butler, a village about 20 minutes east of Nottingham. They’d very kindly opened their home to both Pauline and me and we had a week of unbelievable hospitality – and unlimited use of Elissa’s car
which was a huge bonus.
Elissa used to have her own business providing catering to corporate dining rooms, weddings, special occasions and the like, and is a fabulous cook and provider. We felt very pampered, coming home quite late evening after evening and being treated to sumptious fare like the meal she gave us on our last evening - starters of potted shrimps from Morecombe (Elissa told us that the Queen eats these frequently!). And delectable Grape Brulée for dessert
With magnificent roast duck in between (that photo didn’t come out very well and by the time I realized, I’d eaten it all up!!)
The Nottingham tournament was much the same as the other two. The weather was the worst we’d experienced and we spent a lot of time in our waterproofs. The grounds, however, were absolutely stunning with lawns 1-5 stretching out into the distance one way
And magnificent trees surrounding lawns 6 and 7 stretching out the other
On the odd moment when there was a gap between games, it was lovely to wander in the grounds behind the lawns and enjoy the tranquility and the wild life.
Neither Pauline nor I covered ourselves with glory at this tournament and didn’t make the final day on Saturday, so we had a lovely day out with Elissa instead.
She took us to the Workhouse in Southwell.
This was built in 1824 but this exterior picture doesn’t give any indication of the grim reality that existed within, where we weren’t allowed to take photos. The Workhouse concept introduced a harsh and revolutionary system that was designed to cut the cost of caring for the poor. The system started in Southwell and was later adopted across a national network of over 600 Union workhouses. I found the experience very upsetting and saddening.
From the Workhouse we moved on to a lovely garden centre nearby in Southwell where we had a delicious snack lunch (not daring to eat much with Elissa’s cooking to look forward to in the evening)!
And a swan sanctuary in its grounds
Then we drove into the town
And visited the beautiful Minster
Southwell Minster was founded in Saxon times and rebuilt by the Normans as an independent church in the Diocese of York. The different architecture of the two periods is very evident. It was damaged in the Civil War and later restored. It became the Cathedral of Nottinghamshire in 1884.
Intead of returning to Cropwell Butler the way we’d come, Elissa drove us through the centre of Newark with its quaint streets and lovely old buildings
Our coach didn’t leave Nottingham until the afternoon so we had time (and the weather) to spend in their beautiful garden, pulling out the odd weed. Elissa has designed and built a beautiful Japanese area
for which she still has many plans but, situated as it is right outside the spare bedrooms, it’s a very restful sight first thing in the morning when pulling the curtains!
Finally it was time to say goodbye to good friends, who'd been unfailingly kind and hospitable, and Honey,
and return, once more to London to be with Kate and family before going off to Scotland with Suzi for two weeks.