Dulwich beat Tunbridge Wells 4-3 in the SECF Association A League. The match was played at Tunbridge in fine conditions on good lawns. Dulwich lead 2-1 before lunch (victories by David Collins and Ray Hall in the singles; Mark Ormerod and Ed Dymock losing a close fought doubles game by 2 points). Following a generous lunch laid on by our hosts, Dulwich won 2 of the 4 afternoon games (victories for Mark and David).

This completes Dulwich’s 4 matches in the Association A League for 2011, and leaves us on 1 victory out of a possible 4. However, we were not outclassed in any of our matches, and with a different “rub-of-the-green” could easily have been on 3 wins out of 4.

On Monday July 10th Dulwich played Sussex County (Southwick) at home in the SECF association A League, losing 2-5 to a strong Southwick team as follows. 

-5 mark ormerod (0.5) and ed dymock (1.5) lost to jack davies (-1) and paul castell(-0.5)

-19 david collins(2) lost to richard jackson (4)

+2 ray hall (6) beat john taylor (2)

-25  mark ormerod (0.5) lost to jack davies (-1)

-4 ed dymock (1.5) lost to paul castell(-0.5)

+9 david collins (2) beat john taylor (2)

-1T ray hall (6) lost to richard jackson (4)

On Sunday July 9th Dulwich played Woking away in the SECF association A League, losing 3-4 to a strong Woking team as follows.  Two triple peels were completed.

+17 mark ormerod (0.5) and ed dymock (1.5) beat mike town (-0.5) and nick harvey(0)

-12 pierre beaudry (1.5) lost to alan edwards (0.5)

-26tp david collins (2) lost to malcolm bigg (0)

+3tp  mark ormerod (0.5) beat mike town (-0.5)

+17 ed dymock (1.5) beat nick harvey (0)

-13 pierre beaudry (1.5) lost to malcolm bigg (0)

-11 david collins (2) lost to alan edwards(0.5)

On Friday July 8th Dulwich played Caterham at home in the SECF association U League, losing 3-4 as follows:

-3 mark ormerod (0.5) and robert laver (20) lost to jon male (0.5) and peter flowerday (20)

+12 ed dymock (1.5) beat tony reade (20)

-22 julian stair (7) lost to jeff rushby (6)

+25 mark ormerod (0.5) beat jon male (0.5)

-18 ed dymock (1.5) lost to jeff rushby (6)

-15 julian stair (7) lost to peter flowerday (20)

+4 robert laver (20) beat tony reade (20)

Eight players entered the Elsie King Association handicap singles on 16/17 April with two visitors and one of our far country members mixing it up with 5 of the Dulwich old hands.

The lawns were smooth and easy paced but there was plenty of signs of  “early in the season” play with only Edward Brookfield winning all 3 of his games on the first day. Unfortunately he was not able to play on the second day, but it did give the rest of us a chance. There was the usual mixture of close games (Geoff Gunton from Reigate beating Michael James +1T, Edward beating Irmgard Tonolo from PurleyBury +4 and  Simon Whiteley beating Geoff +2 after pegging out Geoff’s forward ball), and not so close with Irmgard convincingly beating Simon  +23 and ditto Michael J beating Mark Ormerod +25 (Mark didn’t even take croquet- his only point was a peel by Michael).

However after 5 games there were four players on 3/5 wins- Geoff, Michael, Mark and Simon. Geoff was declared the winner because his wins were over opponents who had done well themselves.

Geoff Gunton receiving the trophy from the manager Simon Whiteley

The Fairbairns Cup this year was played on 16 October 2010, another postponement resulting from the timing of the lawn maintenance. With reduced daylight available, the manager (Simon) had deemed Alternate Stroke Handicap Doubles One Ball . Inevitably though, there was a smaller entry than usual:  Simon Whiteley & Peter Haydon; Pat Goodman & Mark Ormerod. In a best of three “instant”  final Mark and Pat won by 2 games to 1. The holder, Val Suebsang,  is pictured with the cup which she presented to the winners.

(Ray from supplied materials)

Simon does it again!

The most elusive feature of this annual fixture was who and when would manage. Tim had cat-sitting duties in Surrey but managed to surface in time to play, manage and barbecue on Sunday. This left the puzzle over the participants who eventually numbered eight, so we ran as a Swiss with 3 games on Saturday. On Sunday morning the lower half of the draw  contested a separate prize in Which Mark beat Tim and sprinted off for a shower before flying to NY, leaving Rob and Eric ruing their new lower handicaps.

The other four were designated as semi-finals in which Simon beat David +2T and Pierre beat Ray +4T (we were on tight time limits). This left a tense final between Simon and Pierre inwhich the lead swung back and forth with long hitting on display. Pierre appeared to have the upper hand, With blue and red on 4 back Yellow in the box, Pierre trusted Simon’s ability to miss and left him with a 20 yard shot at black and blue carelessly left by his hoop. Simon aimed at blue and hit black (or vice versa - according to Pierre) to romp home. Ray 24 September

Michael Goodman commented that: “it is a good thing that the Trophy will have new names on it.
Many congratulations to the winners Simon Gibbs and Peter Haydon with 4 wins out of 5. You were all most enthusiastic (or became so!) and it is this sort of event that makes  the Dulwich Croquet Section so enjoyable.
Also many thanks to David Collins for devising the programme of 1 hour matches for us, and Pat’s lunch was delicious.”

Surbiton came to Dulwich on 29th July with a strong team for our second round match in the Mary Rose association croquet national teams competition.

The result was a convincing win for Surbiton 6-1. As ever, the games were closer than the overall match result suggested. Hopefully next year we will get through to the third round for the first time.

Surbiton names first.

Dick Knapp (0) & Mary Knapp (1.5) beat Mark Ormerod (1.5) &
SimonWhiteley (1.5) +10
Ian Parkinson (1.5) beat Edward Dymock (2)  +10
John Spiers (2)  beat David Collins (2)  +13

Dick Knapp lost to Mark Ormerod -22
Mary Knapp beat Simon Whiteley  +11
Ian Parkinson beat David Collins +17
John Spiers beat Edward Dymock +22