Newport Croquet Club

14/09/2026

So the Handicap AC squad of Mat, Alex, Fran and Nick made the 2-3 hour journey to Nottingham to face Crake Valley in the semifinal of the Longman trophy.
The lawns were in great condition with nicely set hoops and the well-appointed clubhouse made for a most civilised affair. The first round was 2 singles and 1 doubles. Newport Captain Alex triumphed over Crake Valley's captain Chris Williamson 26-13, while Mat's opponent Louise made good progress, backed with a forest of bisques and her lucky socks. She eventually ran out (of bisques, not socks), but 45 mins weren't enough for Mat to make up the deficit. The game finished 21-11 on time. Fran and Nick got off to a good start against Jim and Paul, but once they'd exhausted their bisques, the Crake Valley Boys managed to rein them in 20-16 on time, so it was 2-1 to Crake Valley at the lunch break. With 4 singles games to come, could Newport turn it around? Louise's good form continued, with Nick unable to match her steady 4-ball-break play - going down 26-0. However, Mat made quick work of Chris Williamson with the same 26-0 scoreline before Alex got another one back in a hard fought match against Jim. A flashy break culminating in an "almost" double straight was followed by some questionable play before he was able to seal the game 26-21. So it was 3-all and a very tired Fran facing Paul. It looked like the Crake Valley player was going to win, with his balls for peg and peg, but Fran had a late ventalin-assisted surge, getting to 4b and rover - only to succumb to an overly ambitious hoop shot at rover (having not realised that he'd inadvertently cross-wired Paul's balls). Paul pegged out to take the game 26-20 and a match win for Crake Valley 4-3. They will meet High Wycombe in the final. Newport will come back stronger in 2027!

In the picture:
Jim, Paul, Chris, Louise, Fran, Mat, Alex, Nick

29/08/2026

A belated pic of Enfield's visit to Newport in a hard-fought draw in the EACF Open League. Kim (with bare feet) was the star, but some good performances from all!

29/08/2026

Greening up a little following rainfall

29/08/2026

The AC team are being kept busy.
It was a slightly disappointing season in terms of the EACF league, but in the knockout competitions, we've done well.
Longman Cup - In May we beat St Albans 5-2, then in June we managed a 4-3 win over Nottingham. Then in July we travelled up to Leicester and won against Shrewsbury (we didn't want to travel to Shrewsbury and they didn't want to travel to Newport!). We were supposed to play Crake Valley in August, but holidays made it hard to raise teams, and we are now scheduled to play on 14th at Nottingham!

In the Anderson Shield, we started in the SF, beating Pinchbeck 4-0 so find ourselves in the final against Colchester. That will be at home on 22nd September.

29/08/2026

Facebook is suggesting that I post more frequently. It's true that much has happened in the last few weeks for me (Alex) personally as well as for the club.

1) I played AC for England against Ireland in the McWeeney tournament (which is a kind of friendly/fun event, hence allowing people like me to play). Happy to win 4 of 5 games (2 doubles, 3 singles) but was punished with a handicap reduction. More importantly, England won 17-5 https://www.croquetireland.com/node/630

2) The following week I was TM and played for Beds and Cambs in the GC Inter-counties down at Southwick (Sussex County). The team was Ross Bagni, John Watson, Les Heard, Me and Michael Tideswell. We did OKish, although a few late disappointments (eg. losing to Jersey!) meant that we finished in the bottom half. Good fun, though. https://croquetscores.com/2026/gc/inter-county-championship-blocks

3) Back a few days and then the EACF Open League game against Enfield. They have a strong team with Kim Taylor (0), Thomas Halliday (1), David Frost (2) and Colin Carver (3). We were myself (1), Andrew Gregory (2), Colin Taylor (3), Rod George (3) - so we were up against it. It was nip and tuck all the way, the end result being a draw, which seemed fair. Frustrated to lose a few games 6-7, but that's GC! https://croquetscores.com/2026/gc/eacf-open-league-newport-v-enfield

Inter-County Championship Blocks

10/07/2026

A nice write-up from Peter here. Fresh from his victory at the Wrest Park AC tournament, he showed the breadth of his talent with 4 wins out of 4 in GC.

Pictured: Ross, Terry ,John (official fan club), Anne, Alex, Sir Colin, Sue, Rod, Eric

09/07/2026

Tuesday saw the visit of a Colchester team to play in the EACF handicap league. A hot old day, so a good one to be sitting out. The morning doubles were split with Alex & Nick coming from behind to take the win over Al and Kev at the golden hoop. On the other court, Martin and Ian managed to win over Fran and Chris - also on the golden hoop.
Fran kindly provided Magnums for all at the lunchtime break.
In the afternoon, Alex got off to a good start against Al and ran out the winner with about an hour to spare, while Nick struggled against Kev. There was clear evidence of post prandial malaise there! Fran was unable to make much progress against Martin, while Chris wilted in the heat, Ian claiming victory.
So 4-2 to Colchester.
A very welcome tea with strawberries and cream ended the day on a positive note for all.

16/06/2026

Another day of croquet, this time at home and AC rather than GC. The Longman Cup is a nationwide competition played on a handicapped basis, particularly suiting up-coming talent. In the past we have benefitted from students from Cambridge University (notably Jerome Gasson) but no students this year. Instead, this year we have some "home-grown" talent in the shape of Rod George - he's been playing GC for about 4-5 years and his precise swing have seen him rise up to a hcap 4. But he's new to AC this year, and seems to have been bitten by the bug of the complexities of AC tactics. With just one game on his card, it was a bit of a baptism of fire, but playing alternative strokes doubles with Alex (hcap 6) meant that he could focus on hitting in, running hoops, as well as trying some split rolls, take-offs, etc. A win for Alex and Rod (with 6 bisques) over the Nottingham pair of Ben and Roger. The guys playing singles also secured wins over their Nottingham oppo - Mat Hardy was on fire, making fewer errors than opposite number Tom Dewar to win +15. Nick Jones also used his 3 bisques to good effect in a win over Sarah Butler.
3-0 at lunch (a shared ploughmansish kind of spread devoured with an alacrity seemingly unique to AC players!). Nottingham's mission was now clear - they needed to win all 4 singles.
It was looking good for Nottingham on Court 1 when, after a strong start from Mat, Roger found his mojo to take both balls around to win the game +15; 5 bisques being plenty!
Similarly on court 2, Alex missed a 2 yard roquet, blaming it on post-prandial lapse of reason, and let Tom in. He rattled around to peg, and set up a perfect cross-wiring on the peg. Alex was unable to do anything with it and Tom resumed with his second ball. Some admittedly hairy break-making ensued, but Tom's Disaster Recovery skills were up to it. He did eventually break down on 2-back.
Alex was 19 points behind and yet to score a hoop.
The other match on court 2 saw Rod with a forest of bisques up against Sarah Butler. Her canny play, putting balls into corners 2 and 4 left Rod wondering what to do. He managed to make progress in fits and starts, but when the bisques ran out, Sarah was able to make her experience tell, winning +15.
The last match on court 1 saw Nick and his 7 bisques up against Ben (who'd shown in the doubles that he is a talented player with excellent long hit-ins and general precision play). Nick got up to Rover and 4-back before the bisques ran out, and Ben started making in-roads.
Back to Court 2 where Alex somehow managed to put some breaks together, going around and pe***ng out Tom's peg ball. So now it was Tom on box and 2-back v Alex on peg and 1-back. Could the fight-back be on? Keeping Tom's ball at arm's length 1-back and 2-back were run, before Tom managed to hit in a 20-yarder that was almost wired by the peg (it had looked like a great leave, but maybe knowing that just missing the peg by a ball-width would result in a roquet might have been useful guidance for Tom. He managed to run 2-back, 3-back and 4-back with a 2-ball break. Blobbing Penult enabled Alex to get back in, but a disastrous missed rush gave Tom a 7-yard hit-in chance at the middle of the North boundary. That was enough for Tom to finish.
The match situation was now 3-3, with Nick and Ben's game still in play.
Nick now on Rover and 4-back, Ben on Rover and 6 and only about 25 mins to go. Nick decided to go for a policy of making it hard to Ben to get a break by putting his balls in corners, but it seemed that Ben was up to it - until, with just 5 mins on the clock and just one point adrift, a corner cannon went wrong, the croqueted ball veering over the boundary. Nick hit in, ran penult to edge ahead by 2 before striking his ball into corner 2 on the stroke of the bell. Ben was unable to hit-in with his final stroke - +2 on time to Nick and thus 4-3 to Newport.
A match played with great sportsmanship and friendliness, but competitive to the last.
Newport will now face Shrewsbury or Leicester in the quarter finals. And we hope that Rod will be keen to continue, rather than running away screaming!

Pic shows Roger, Rod, Ben, Sarah, Tom, Nick, Alex

15/06/2026

A fun, although ultimately disappointing day out for the Murphy Shield team of Alex (1), Andrew (2), Colin T (3) and Colin C (3). We faced a strong Watford team of Brian (2), Geoff (2), Arthur (2) and John (3). A very closely fought battle in the doubles went to 3 games, although all the other best-of-three contests were decided in two. A good start by Watford saw them 3-0 up at lunchtime. However, despite a great rearguard attack by the Newport boys, winning 3-1 in the afternoon, it ended up as a 4-3 win to Watford. Good luck to Watford in the next round (against Leighton-Linslade or Enfield)

Arthur, John, Brian, Andrew, Colin C, Colin T, Alex, Geoff

14/06/2026

Our Open AC competition was cancelled this year, but the B-Class was a great success, with Martin Lester of Oxford University (old boys?!) emerging victorious in every game. He wins a glass tankard, although the box is probably even more impressive than the crystal!
Well done to Andrew Gregory for organising. Excellent that very few games went over 2 hours and we were done by 4pm on Sunday (including tea).
https://croquetscores.com/2026/ac/newport-b-class-weekend/competition/block