Category: News

On Saturday, 30 of our members attended the club’s annual Christmas lunch and prizegiving in the clubhouse.  A HUGE thank you to Patricia for organising, managing, cooking and general coordination. Once again it’s great to be able to say the food was better than the local hotels!  Thanks also to everyone who helped on the day, to all who brought along food and our Chairman Jonathan who presented the trophies.  And well done to everyone who came along and supported the club.

Once again, Marilyn did a great job in organising a full complement of internal competitions with 9 GC, 13 AC  and 1 One ball – see here for a full list of winners. The most improved player award for AC went to Tony White and for GC to Simon Bird, who reduced his handicap from 6 to 2 in his first full year of playing – a remarkable achievement.  

Also in 2025, Marilyn led our club team to victory in the East Anglia Golf Croquet Handicap League, overcoming 26 other clubs from around the region and once again qualifying for the National Federations Shield competition and cementing our position as one of the premier clubs in the country.

Our Winter League Competition is well underway, and Paul Goodall will be looking to defend his trophy from last year.  Then, in the Spring, we’ll open up for the Club’s Centenary year – watch this space.

Many thanks to everyone who helped make our Coffee Morning on Saturday a great success – we made an amazing £421.50 which will go some way towards our much needed replacement lawnmower and to our Centenary celebrations next year.  A particular shout out to Philippa and Chris for organising the whole event, but also to everyone who contributed by helping out on the day and donating sale items and raffle prizes.   Last but not least, thanks to members and guests who turned out on the day and purchased crafts, cakes, bric-a-brac and raffle tickets making the day a great success. Well done all!

A reminder that this will take place on Saturday. Many thanks to Chris and Philippa and helpers for all their hard work organising it. It would be great to see as many members as possible at the Club to enjoy this social occasion.

The Christmas Lunch and Trophy Presentation will take place at the Clubhouse on Saturday 13th December, 12.30 for 1. The price per person will be £20. If you would like to bring your own Wine, there will be a £5 corkage fee per bottle.

There are only 32 spaces, so book early to be sure you get a place!

It would be great if as many Competition winners as possible could attend the lunch to celebrate their achievements and be presented with their Trophies.

The Menu is shown below:

Please note that this is a Singles competition, there is no Doubles option. The rules will be the same as last year (see club website https://colchestercroquet.org.uk/gc-winter-league/  for details).  

All matches will be played using the Advantage Handicap system.

In order to enter, you must have an official GC handicap.  This is very easy and takes less than half an hour.  If you would like to arrange an assessment, please contact Ian Cumming or Alex Wood via the GC WhatsApp group or by email to ian@graham-cumming.com or alexwood999@hotmail.com

WINTER LEAGUE MATCHES SHOULD NOT BE RECORDED ON YOUR HANDICAP CARDS

Please note that, in accordance with the club winter rules, NO JUMP SHOTS ARE ALLOWED to avoid damaging the lawns.

The league phase will commence as soon as the courts are converted to their winter format, which should be mid November.

There will be a maximum of 36 players, which will give 4 leagues of 9.  Within the leagues, all play all so there will be a maximum of 8 matches to be played.  Each match is the best of 3 x 13 hoop games.  The winner and runner up in each league will go forward to a knockout held in February and March to determine the overall winner. 

Places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.  If you enter, please make every effort to play as many league games as possible – it is not fair on the other members of your league to play a couple of matches and then decide not to play any more.

To enter, send an email to cccresults@gmail.com with your Name and official GC Handicap or put your details on the sheet in the Clubhouse

The team – Marilyn, Nerys, Kevin and Simon – defeated Enfield 12-6 at Wrest Park, to win the league for the second year in succession.  

26 teams from around the wide Eastern region competed, including Bury & Pinchbeck in the Northern area, Maldon & Chelmsford in the East, Barnet & Newport in the Central and Watford & Northampton in the West.  

The matches are played under Advantage rules with each 4-person team having a total aggregate handicap of at least 20.  There are a many ways of achieving that.  As captain, Marilyn took a fairly standard approach of two low handicaps (2&3), one medium (5) and one high (11) – total 21.  Enfield fielded a more extreme range of handicaps of 0, 3, 9 and 16 – total 26.  Both valid approaches, and a great way of introducing higher handicappers to competition play.

The win means that Colchester once again qualify for next year’s National Federation Shield.  Having reaching the semi-finals last year (only to be beaten by the eventual winners – Crake Valley), the team will be looking to go all the way next year.

Congratulations to the team at Wrest Park, and to everyone who played in the earlier rounds – Chris Clarke, Marion de Landmeter, Alex Wood and Pat de Burca

After a week of cold, wet autumnal weather, summer returned to Colchester for the Club Invitational day with temperatures reaching 29 degrees!

On beautiful green lawns (so the rain did have some uses…) players from Colchester, Maldon, Southchurch and Chelmsford battled to win the trophy.

The morning session consisted of a round robin tournament with the top 8 players going forward to a knockout in the afternoon.

With players from all four clubs advancing to the knockout, there was plenty to keep the spectators interested.  In the final four, Paul Trumper of Colchester defeated John Ferguson of Maldon and John Skuse of Chelmsford defeated his club mate Julie Holmes.

The final between Paul and John was hard fought, with both players achieving long clearances, good hoop running and spectacular jump shots.  Fittingly, the match ended at Hoop 13.  Paul had a chance to win, but a tentative shot left his ball in the jaws of the hoop.  John made no mistake in clearing it to the boundary and, when his chance came, he ran the hoop confidently to win 7-6.

This event is always eagerly anticipated, and the games were played in a friendly but competitive spirit.  Many thanks to Pam Hopper for organising the day so efficiently and to Pam’s husband for making the beautiful wooden trophy.