| Kington Langley Croquet ClubNewsletter – April 2024 |
One Ball: The first event of the season was the Annual Charity One Ball which took place on Saturday 6th April, a big thank you to Richard Smith for organising this event and also a big thank you to all those who supported the event by either playing, coming for refreshments or making a donation. We raised £165 which will enabled two members to go to one of the National Finals. The event has got so popular with clubs that there are now two finals, one in Surbiton and one in Nottingham. Margaret Murray won the event by winning all of her 6 games, followed by joint runners up Ted Crossley and Julia Cook. The chosen Charity this year is the British Heart Foundation so all those participating were encouraged to wear something red which is a tradition of the event to wear the colour of the chosen charity.
We welcomed three members from Swindon who came to join us on the day, in the past we always joined up with Swindon for this event changing location each year, Swindon indicated at the end of the day they would like to host the event next year.
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SWF Spring Short Croquet event at Nailsea
Eight members went to Nailsea on Sunday 14th April to compete in Division 1 and Division 2 of this 5 Division competition which brings clubs from all over the SWF region to compete in the 3 day event.
Our team ‘Bruins’ competed in Division 1 and had 8 wins out of 16 games and ended up the ‘middle of a sandwich’, the two teams with 9 wins had a shoot out to get a winner and two teams with 7 wins had a shoot out to get relegated to Division 2!!! You will see from the scores that it is very tight in this Division.
Our team ‘Aardvarks’ competed in Division 2 they didn’t win but they didn’t get relegated either!!
Each year the lowest team in a Division gets relegated and the top team in a Divison gets promoted so there is a constant movement of teams.
Open Day:
We held our first Open Day since before Covid on Saturday 20th April, we had 17 Adults, 3 children and 1 baby turn up!! It was a lovely sunny day, the lawns looked very good laid out as 4 half lawns and were well used on the day. Thank you to all those members who provided cake and turned up to help in some way. We have 5 new members and 2 others who showed an interest.
Our President, Founder and Honorary Member, Jane Hull came to support the event and was impressed with how the club is thriving. She arrived with another previous member, Marqaretha Regan, who very kindly donated her and her late husband’s mallets to the club for which we are very grateful, Dennis Regan was also an Honorary member of the club.
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Open Short Croquet League:
This was the first league play of the year when a team of 4 welcomed a team from Bristol. The weather was good, the lawns were good just a shame our play wasn’t so good!! We were well and truly beaten but it was a really friendly enjoyable day. Only one way to go that is up!!! Lots of cake left over from the Open Day was tucked into all day!
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Restricted Short Croquet League:
The day began freezing cold and very wet. By the time we began playing, rain had stopped but still bitingly cold around 3-4 degrees. By lunchtime KL were 2 games down. We rallied in the afternoon and managed to win by 9 games to 7. Had a good day against a friendly side finishing off with tea, coffee and cake. Cake kindly made by Dorothy, thank you to all who made the day a great success.
Caroline
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GC Coaching: The GC coaching session took place on Tuesday 23rd April when 12 members attended to hear Brian Wilson’s words of wisdom on all things GC!!
Hopefully a lot was learnt and can be put into practice. Further coaching may be possible.
There is an area put aside to practice jump shots off the lawn, the hoop to be used can be found on the shelving unit.
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Membership: At the time of writing this we have 43 paid up members which is the highest we have ever had.
Clubhouse: We must all give a very big thank you to the members who contributed in some way, whether money or time, for the new clubhouse to become a reality, without those members this would not have happened. You all know who you are, thank you.
The Committee are aware of the difficulties that some members have with the step up into the clubhouse, it has been suggested that a handle is put on the side to help. Hopefully a solution will be found quickly.
Modifications are being made to the bolts on the double doors to enable them to be closed more easily. Small teething problems.
Provisions, there is now a reserve container of the essentials in the cupboard near the double doors so no fear of running out of anything.
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Lawns: The birds are continuing to attack the lawns from time to time to find the larvae but Ted and Fiona applied nematodes that should attack the larvae and eventually get rid of them so the birds have nothing to dig for!! This process will be done again during the summer when we will be asking for volunteers to help as it turned out to be a very time consuming job the first time round!!
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GC and AC Club Competitions: The draw for these club competitions will be done shortly ready for games to start in May. Please be aware that there will be deadlines in place for some of the competitions.
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One Ball: To encourage more members to play One Ball Caroline organised a One Ball Session through April. At least 4 GC players have attended to learn a few more skills and at least 1 of them has entered the One Ball season long competition.
Taster and Social Sessions: As usual there will be visiting groups to the lawns and volunteers will be required to man these events. They are an important part of the club as not only does it bring in much needed money these sessions can also bring in new members. When asked please consider helping.
It has been an extremely busy April, now all we need is some warmth and sunshine (and the occasional shower to water the lawns) so that we can enjoy playing croquet !!