Croquet Clubs raise money for Childline

[<<] [>>] by Sue Mackay
30th April 2000 (Other News)

Dyffryn Croquet Club raised £82:43 for Childline at an open day this afternoon. The club is small and is situated well away from any public transport in gardens which are open to the public, but the daily attendance is not high at this time of year as all the gardeners turn to their own patches. We are also unable to serve teas or set up things like tombola stalls. We were nevertheless able to collect just over £60 in the Childline collection boxes by asking for donations to either watch a demonstration game on a full size lawn or participate in a game of golf croquet on a half size lawn. We had some gymkhana type '10p a go' games for the children which also proved popular with some of our members! In a lull in the proceedings Dyffryn's youngest member, 17 year old James Mackay, was challenged to see how many times he could run the same hoop from either direction in five minutes. He clocked up 107, and earned another £21:40 in sponsorship for Childline, which thankfully he has never had to use. We also gained three definite participants for our beginners' coaching sessions.

(Sue Mackay)

Bristol Croquet Club held an open day in association with ChildLine on 30 April, collecting £200 for ChildLine and attracting 45 outsiders to the club. This was the result of a lot of effort by the club, with support from local press and radio.
Further to our successful Open Day last Monday, the Bristol Croquet Club ran a quiz night last night. We all thoroughly enjoyed the evening and a Grand total of £300 can now be sent to Childline.

(Sally Green)

Crake Valley Beat Off Challengers Southport & Birkdale to improve their 24hr World Croquet Record

On Saturday 10th June at 4.00 pm the second 24 hour croquet match was held at Crake Valley in Cumbria, this time the challengers were the Southport & Birkdale Club from Merseyside. The object for Crake was to extend the record of 372 hoops and beat Southport's score, for Southport to take and extend the record by beating Crake's score.

The match consisted of two teams of players. Each player plays a game to rover, but having run that hoop instead of pegging out they place their clips back on hoop one having scored 24 points and their next team member continues from where their last player left off. Each player can only play once and there is no limit to the number of players in a team. Play is under ordinary level play rules, without bisques regardless of handicap, as players may end up playing multiple opponents during their play. The score is calculated by both teams score being added together to give a total, but with the winner being decided by the team with the bigger score of the two.

Simple enough, but then one has to consider the added pressures of players playing in front of crowds, often against opponent's whom they would usually have bisques against, to say nothing of the strange sensation of playing under floodlights.

After 18 hours play it looked possible that the record could be broken, but it was only possible. However at around 1.30 pm Bob Vaughan of Crake Valley scored 2-back in his game, and a round of applause signalled the record had gone. This was particularly appropriate as it was Bob's idea to hold the initial challenge in 1997.

By 4.00pm on Sunday Crake had held on to their slender lead against the odds and went on to score 208 points to Southport's 194, which gave a new total of 402 points.

The Southport Club raised approximately £1,000 for Medicine for Chernobyl, their chosen club charity, and £100 for Childline in sponsorship, together with over £100 raised for Childline by Gail Curry, who was sponsored to play her 24 points in motorcycle gear complete with helmet.

The event was rounded off by an interview conducted by Radio Cumbria, which was aired the following day.

The members of the Successful Crake Valley team were: Alan Pidcock, Harry Midgley, Peter Wardle, Rob Callingham, Gail Curry, Dave Nicholson, David Maddocks, Bob Vaughan & Neil Williams.

(Gail Curry)

The Starting Pistol

Local player Bob Vaughan in play

Croquet Gazette Editor, Gail Curry, sponsored to play in motorcycle gear