Newport Croquet Club

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, a great rearguard attack by the Newport boys, winning 3-1 in the afternoon 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

08/06/2026

I'm thinking that it would be nice to get up to 100 followers so that we can go live on Facebook. Although it's arguable that YouTube would be more useful, we don't really have a YouTube channel yet.
So if you might be interested in watching some live croquet (maybe not of an International standard) please follow and tell your friends!

04/06/2026

An exciting day at Newport Croquet Club where our team of Tony, Judith, David and Julie took on the home side in the B-Level croquet league. It was neck and neck for most of the day and at the close it was a draw at 9 games all. Amazingly both sides scored the same number of hoops - 103 each! Thanks for having us and see you soon!
Community Sport & Wellbeing Chelmsford Croquet Hub Croquet England

05/05/2026

St Albans came to visit today for the first round of the Longman Cup - a nationwide handicap AC competition. Terrible traffic on the A1 meant that the start was delayed by 30 mins and we had to slightly reduce the time limit (from 3hrs15 to 3hrs). We fielded a reasonably strong team of Mat (4), Alex (6), Fran (8) and Nick (14). We were up against a slightly lower rated team of Brian (8), Roger (9), Stuart (9) and Roger (14). However, with handicap games, you never know how good the oppo really are until you play.
Our doubles team (Alex and Fran) found themselves behind from the off as Brian and Roger used their bisques to set up a 4 ball break and go around to 4-back. However, once the bisques had run out, it became a bit more of a cautious game of keeping oppo separated, and Alex & Fran managed to combine this with a few modest 2 and 3 ball breaks. Once we'd established a lead, we gradually extended it, although progress was slow. A win to Newport +7 on time. However, the singles games hadn't gone so well. Mat's wife had taken the car with his mallet in the boot, so he had to find the mallet he'd used in childhood - and it was somewhat short for him (Solomon grip and over 6ft generally means a long handle!). He lost 3T to Roger Bowman, while Nick lost by an agonising single point to Stuart Stafford. So St Albans were 2-1 up at lunchtime.
Would Newport be able to win 3 of the 4 singles games to take the tie? Alex and Fran got off to good starts against Roger Bowman and Stuart, but Nick and Mat were struggling - St Albans were stringing together some useful breaks. However, Mat eventually got the hang of his mini mallet and put two long breaks together to go ahead. Alex managed to actually finish a game in 2 and a half hours, beating Roger +17. Fran had a handy lead, although Stuart played doggedly to mount something of a come-back.
As the 5pm deadline loomed, it seemed that Newport were up in all 3 outstanding games, and the timers going off sealed it. Wins on time of +5T, +7T and +3T added to Alex's meaning a 6-2 overall victory to Newport.
The usual tea followed, although we were invaded by the Brownies before everyone headed for home.

29/04/2026

Another trip to Watford today, this time GC Open League. The Watford team of John Taylor (-1), Eddie Chung (0), Simon Hathrell (1) and Geoff Johnson (2) looked to be strong favourites over the slightly depleted Newport squad of Alex Lake (1), Colin Carr (3), Colin Taylor (3) and Rod George (3).
And so it proved. Watford took both doubles games and all the singles in the morning. Alex came close to defeating Eddie before securing wins over Simon and Geoff, while Colin Carr and Colin Taylor also came close to pulling off upsets over Geoff and John, but couldn't quite maintain their leads.
I would commend players of our level to observe John Taylor's play. Very subtle tactics and, while he can pull off long range clearances and hoop runs, it's the sudden "Hang on, I thought I was on top in this hoop" thought that makes one realise that the earlier, apparently harmless (even wayward), shot was actually a trap!
There was a good spirit of sportsmanship and the wind blowing a right old hooley mimicking the legendary Watford loo hand dryer...
Thanks Watford - see you in Murphy Shield Round 2!

28/04/2026

A little video about our Cecilia Gordon tournament. CG GC, if you like

Newport Croquet Club Cecilia Gordon Tournament 2026GC 0+

28/01/2026

A bit frosty. Let’s hope the sun burns that off…