Budleigh Salterton
Croquet Club
2009 Events - Charles Townshend
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Summer Fair 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. |
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September Handicap
Weekend
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. |
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Budleigh Welcomes the
Vets. 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 player, 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. |
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