Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club
Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club welcomed locals and holidaymakers to their
annual Summer Fair at the end of August. A whole range of stalls and games was
laid around the club's grounds Many people took advantage of the fine
sunny weather to venture on to the lawns to have a try with mallets
or bowls and a number signed up for the late season membership offer. A
useful profit at the end of the
day should go to help in the continuing work of maintaining the ten
lawns, bowling green and other club amenities.
The three day
autumn handicap tournament attracted an entry of 20 players, mostly from the
South West with the Stransham Bowl, prize for the winner of the knockout competition, going
to Marie Lester of Budleigh Salterton who had played consistently well in
the competition. In the final she defeated Ivor Meredith, another local player,
+24 and saw her handicap come down from
12 to 11. The Egyptian competition allowed everyone to have as much play
as they wanted and was won by Anne Peek from Nailsea with Roger Hendy and
Derek Andrew in second and third places. Derek saw his handicap come down from
9 to 8 which was a pleasant reward for
his journey from Crawley and Roger took the prize for the fastest game with a time around 75 minutes that earned him a bottle of wine.
Peter Jones managed the event with his usual air of calm efficiency and Anne
Marshall, the Croquet section chairman, presented the prizes at the conclusion
of a very pleasant event.
On Tuesday this week 22 players from across the country arrived at
Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club to begin the three days intense competition
that is part of the Golf Croquet
Veterans' Championship. It is good that two of our own players , Tom Pyne
and Kay Scales, are among those taking part. A New Zealand accent from a Sydney
based Kiwi is helping to give an international flavour to the event. In their
winter players from Down Under welcome the chance to come and play in
tournaments in the UK; two more New Zealanders are booked in
for the South Western Championships next week.
The very popular 'August Week' beginning on Sunday 2nd has
always attracted players to the delights of Budleigh in high summer (we hope!) and
many are welcomed back year after
year for what is known to be friendly and fun filled seven days of
croquet. There is very high quality entry for the Colman Cup that is
awarded to the South Western Champion, and a large group of players
who are ranked in the next handicap bracket. Every part of the
Tournament is fully subscribed and Mike Town, the brilliant manager, will be kept busy fitting
in all the games (including his own) that will need to be played.
For the first time since last September there will be play on all ten of
the lawns as we bring numbers 3 and 4 back into action for our biggest
event of the season. Last autumn they were laser-levelled and then reseeded to give us two more top
quality playing surfaces. They have now
reached the stage where they still need care and attention as the new
grass knits together but will when really needed give extra space. Their
condition will be watched with great interest by our grounds team and they are
'cautiously optimistic!'
As ever club members will be pulling all the stops out to provide the
usual Budleigh welcome with coffees, lunches, teas and drinks on hand to
sustain the players. The mowing, white lining and hoop setting volunteers also
have to provide the best possible playing conditions.' Exhausting but worth it'
we say, as we pause for breath before the next excitement! Spectators are
always welcome at the club and there will usually be a local member
around during the tournament to explain the action to visitors.