CA Diplomas Awarded in 2010
Contents...
(left to right) back Row: Roger Loram, John Cundell, Craig Edwards, Chris Williams, Bernard Neal, David G. A. Nicholson, Ian McDiarmid, Ian Plummer.
Front Row: Georgina Llewellyn, Janet Lewis, Ken Dawes, Brenda Vinton, Brian Lewis, Quiller Barrett, Carol Lewis, Len Nash, Sarah Rankin, Barbara Kitching, Brian Kitching, Howard Cheyne, John Saxby.
Shirley Buckley - Weston-Super-Mare Croquet Club
Shirley took on the role of Club Secretary in 2002. In the past three years our club has developed from a group of about fifteen locals, who met regularly and played croquet in a public park, to our having acquired a neglected field, which members have licked into shape to provide three good full-size lawns, with an enthusiastic membership of fifty.
This progression has involved considerable "behind the scenes" administration, Shirley lives only 150 yards from our new venue and she is always to hand to keep an eye on things. She efficiently deals with the usual secretarial duties of correspondence, minuting, convening, issuing notices, keeping records of membership and of club equipment plus keeping the equipment store in good order.
In addition, Shirley's communication skills and personality have greatly helped the successful bonding of our original members with the influx of new members. She maintains such good communication and has been the creator, editor, producer and distributor of an internal club newsletter. Her dedication, energy and enterprise have greatly contributed to our rapid transformation into a very active, competitive, social and happy group playing both Association and Golf Croquet.
Owen Bryce - Northampton Croquet Club
In his second term as Club Chairman, Owen Bryce has been a member of Northampton Croquet Club almost from its inception 24 years ago. When he is not organising the club, he is extremely busy doing many of the little but time-consuming jobs. He repaints hoops and pegs, checks gazebos are waterproof, and unfailingly turns out to help when lawns need marking or new holes need boring.
Owen plays perhaps more often than anyone else in the club, and for some years his handicap steadily dropped, reaching about 8 two years ago at the young age of 88. He encourages others to play with his light-hearted but deeply-interested approach. One member said, "I always like the way Owen welcomes his opponent onto the lawn after a blobbed hoop or missed roquet with a wave of the arm!", and another said, "Owen is the only one I have seen crawling on the ground to see if the ball will go through the hoop. He is a real gentleman."
Owen is not only a friend to everyone in the club, as others have said he has "a lot of support from Kenilworth Club members who have huge respect and affection for Owen - including John Leader, who lost 1-25 to Owen in our last match." We feel he is "an extremely good ambassador for croquet generally and to new members specifically.
John Cotes - Croquet Durham
Octogenarian John Cote's energy and enthusiasm helped to launch the Croquet Durham Club. He started without a site or any enthusiast apart from himself. When the initial sites proved unsuitable, he continued undaunted and started a recruitment campaign in Durham City whilst negotiating terms with his then club, Auckland, for his recruits to learn to play on their lawn. He found disused bowling greens, with the potential for four lawns, at the Police HQ Sports facility at Aykley Heads and he negotiated a reasonable rent. He immediately redoubled the recruitment campaign with open days and an official club opening securing excellent media coverage. He has also secured sponsorship and funding from a local marine insurance company and the local Council. This allowed the Club to cut and maintain the lawns to a standard good enough to play in the Croquet North League with some success. The club is now well established with nearly 30 members and makes a valuable contribution to croquet in the North East.
John Cundell - Leighton-Linslade Croquet Club
As Vice Chairman of Leighton-Linslade club, John Cundell is a driving force behind everything that the club does. This includes clubhouse and court maintenance and internal and external competitions organiser. He is a club coach, Club Handicapper. and he assists with coaching at other clubs. Prior to matches or tournaments, he checks the condition of the courts and the precise measurement of the hoops. On match mornings he is invariably first there, putting up gazebos and making any other last-minute preparations.
During the past four years, he has been actively involved in the development of the courts from two overlapping courts to three full-size fenced courts. As the courts are in a public park, John has developed a strong relationship with the Council ground staff to provide a high standard of maintenance, achieving a good standard for EACF league and CA Inter-Club Matches.
Earlier this year, John, jointly club member Richard Knightley, updated the CA 'Guide to Golf Croquet'. John's commitment and enthusiasm for the game of croquet, plus his service to the Leighton-Linslade Croquet and the wider croquet community, is an inspiration to all.
Arthur Davis - Ashby Croquet Club
Arthur 'Dave' Davis turns up at the Ashby Croquet Club three times a week come rain or shine, despite being well over 80. He has been a permanent committee member for at least 12 years and a member of the club for at least 15 years. Despite his age, he is always the first to volunteer to help out at taster sessions and charity events. Until recently he took upon himself the job of white lining our lawns virtually single-handedly.
Ken Dawes - Canterbury Croquet Club
A retired GP, Ken Dawes is a founder member of the Canterbury Croquet Club. he was its secretary for many years and became chairman in 2005. He retired from the committee this year.
Ken played a leading role in moving the club from its original home, in a garden in Chartham Hatch village to Polo Farm Sports Club in Canterbury. When he became the Club's secretary it had eight members and now has forty-four. As chairman, Ken represented the club on the Polo Farm executive and despite the club being a very small partner at Polo Farm, he negotiated many improvements to the facilities, thanks to his tact and good humour. He also designed and provided club equipment and was once found carrying out repairs on the clubhouse roof at the age of 80.
Craig Edwards - Cheltenham Croquet Club
Craig Edwards has served the Cheltenham Croquet Club well during the last ten years, responsible for the Club's croquet equipment. The Club's 11 courts and practice area all require balls, hoops, clips, pegs etc., and it is a skilled, patient and ongoing task overcoming the problems of thieving foxes, forgetful members, wear and tear and occasional misuse. Competitors in any of the Club's many tournaments will be playing with balls tested by Craig, to precise standards and the Club's large stock of mallets for use by beginners and visitors, have all been weighed and measured. Craig also takes responsibility for the engraving of Cheltenham's many trophies. Finally, winter play at Cheltenham is highly valued and Craig organises a huge winter tournament providing over 60 members with extensive matchplay.
Brian and Barbara Kitching - Sussex County Croquet Club
Brian and Barbara Kitching originally joined Southwick as far country members and following Brian's retirement in the mid 90's they decided to move near Southwick and soon became very active members of the club. Barbara became a major contributor to the club's catering operation and Brian soon demonstrated his skills with the barbecue. Brian created the club's first website and was club secretary for two years in 2007/8 During this period both Brian and Barbara started to develop Southwick's corporate entertaining programme whereby local clubs such as Rotary, Probus and Girl Guides come for an evening's croquet tuition with refreshments. Under their leadership, this has now become a major source of funds for the club and a potentially valuable source of new members.
Carol and Brian Lewis - Southport and Birkdale Croquet Club
Carol and Brian Lewis are long-standing members of Southport and Birkdale club and very active in committee work, social events and especially coaching. They have been coaching beginners for at least 12 years and have continuously demonstrated a very high level of personal skills that have encouraged and motivated people into Croquet. Their activities during the last five years have been outstanding - they have run additional coaching courses every Tuesday morning for high handicap players. Carol and Brian have recognised the need amongst many new members to have further coaching and have patiently supported many 'new' members within a friendly coaching format on Tuesday mornings for the last five years. The result has been increased usage of our lawns every Tuesday, better retention of new members, a greater social atmosphere within the club and most importantly, more players eventually being able to participate in competitive play. Carol and Brian Lewis have given of their time freely to the enormous benefit of Southport members, Southport club and ultimately the Croquet world.
Janet Lewis - Watford (Cassiobury) Croquet Club
Janet Lewis is the heart and soul of Watford (Cassiobury) Croquet Club where she has been a member for 14 years playing both association and golf croquet. Janet instigated introductory golf croquet courses in 2003 and consequently, the membership has increased from 25 in 2002 to over 90. Janet's friendly manner created a welcoming environment which encouraged people to join the Club and remain as members. As a direct result of this increase in membership Watford Borough Council have provided a third croquet lawn. Janet has worked hard to integrate the new golf croquet recruits with the established association croquet players which has created a unified Club. She is always ready to help members to improve and is a CA Coach for golf croquet. She has also organised many social activities, including a well-attended annual dinner and various fun croquet days. Janet has been an active member of the Club Committee since 2003 and Club Secretary since 2007.
Georgina Llewellyn - Llanfairfechan Croquet Club
Co-founder of Llanfairfechan Croquet Club, Georgina Llewellyn has given long term, dedicated service to the Club. Shortly after the formation of the Club, the secretary died and Georgina took on the job. The Club prospered as Georgina and her husband Clive coached teams to play in the North West Federation Leagues.
Sadly Clive died in 1997 but Georgina continues as Club Secretary to this day and has seen the Club grow to over 80 members. She has actively projected the Club into the Leagues and locality sports and clubs. She ensured the Club became involved with local schools and Special Services for those with disabilities and learning difficulties. Most pleasing is that the village school has croquet in its curriculum - the Club assists in training and run a summer croquet trophy competition. In the winter, Georgina ensures that the members stay together in the 'off-season' by arranging Indoor Croquet.
Roger Loram - Canterbury Croquet Club
A long standing member of the club, Roger Loram has served as external events organiser and as a club committee member. He still organises friendly matches, the most important of which is the annual tournament with Dublin club, Herbert Park. As the club's handicapper, a position he held for many years, he strove to ensure members' handicaps reflected their ability and was not afraid to alter handicaps to ensure this.
Although he no longer holds any official position he is still one of the Club's staunchest supporters. He ensures that lawns are marked out and hoops are painted and correctly set each year. He has designed and made hoop-setting equipment and repaired mallets and other items. He keeps the committee on its toes by regularly coming forward with new ideas and proposals.
Ian McDiarmid - Woking Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club
Ian McDiarmid joined Woking Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club as a tennis member in 1977 and rapidly became an equally enthusiastic croquet player. He was chairman of croquet from 1980 to 1981 and then became well known to members of all sports when he took over responsibility as bar officer on behalf of the main committee. In this role he promoted croquet throughout the club, but undoubtedly his greatest contribution, to which every new croquet player to the club over those years attests, has been his quiet help and encouragement to new faces. Through his welcoming manner and gentle advice he has enabled struggling newcomers to break through the bewildering perplexities of their first encounter with the association game, thus becoming happy and enthusiastic croquet players, and contributing tremendously to our thriving croquet section.
Len Nash - Crawley Croquet Club
Len and his wife Jean were founder members of Crawley Croquet Club in 1983, involved in all aspects of its setting up. He has served on the on the committee since and has made friends in many other clubs in his role as match secretary. A qualified CA coach and referee, he has spent many hours coaching new members and has introduced many to the game, especially at local National Trust properties.
For years, Len has run tournaments for Crawley and other clubs, being made an honorary member of Worthing Croquet Club for his efforts. Sadly, Jean has now died, but Len, now 85, is still at the lawns nearly every club day where he can be relied on for advice and practical help. The club owes him a great debt of gratitude.
Sarah Rankin - Sussex County Croquet Club
Sarah Rankin, otherwise known as Sally or Lady Sarah, has been a staunch member of Southwick for many years. Sarah was originally introduced to the game and the club by her mother who was a highly respected, long serving member. Sarah has been a consistent supporter for many years and is well known to visitors as the club's " Trolley Dolly". Sarah regularly pedals many miles to and from the club, in all weathers, to open up and supply morning coffee to our visitors. A superb saleswoman, she has organised many raffles and other fundraising activities and well as being prepared to lend a hand whenever it has been needed.
John Saxby - Bowdon Croquet Club
John Saxby joined the Club in 1996 when the MacRobertson Shield series came to Bowdon. He retained his clear view of matters which concern new players who find the Association game most challenging, and became a valued contributor to the Committee when still quite a new member. He invented a most popular feature of play at Bowdon, "The Wednesday Competition", which takes place every week in the season and fills all the lawns for the day. About 30% of full playing members take part every week and form a hub of around which much of the Club activity revolves. It started as an event to provide regular competition for those members who might never play in tournaments, and gives beginners the confidence to move on. Members thus enjoy the pleasures of tournament play weekly, without the cost or inconvenience of travel.
Since 2004, John has been our Honorary Secretary, during an active period of negotiation with the National Trust to renew the Club lease, which was concluded successfully. The Club is now planning the renovation of its century-old clubhouse.
Alison Thursfield - Cheltenham Croquet Club
Alison Thursfield fully involved herself in the life of the Cheltenham Croquet Club from joining. As a qualified coach, she has always "been there" to coach and encourage members to improve and to play in competitions. She is always willing to pass on her knowledge and is instrumental in the encouragement of all players. She enthusiastically took over the beginners and improvers coaching and as one of the Club Handicappers, Alison also maintained, organised and updated the club handicap records for many years.
As the Club's Federation contact she makes the arrangements for the various Federation league matches - a daunting task - and she has also managed and played in one of the league teams for over twelve years. For many years Alison co-managed the club's High Bisquers Tournaments - introducing the innovative idea of having tutoring available from more senior players. She also managed our large July Week Tournament for many years and in 2010 she took on the Advanced Over Fifties tournament
In her quiet and undemonstrative way, Alison is always willing to support the club and regularly helps with the club's winter lunches.
Brenda Vinton - Canterbury Croquet Club
Spritley 79-year-old Brenda Vinton has never been a Canterbury Croquet Club Committee member but her innovative ideas are accepted with pleasure. Brenda introduced an annual fun day of croquet related games, started a weekly high bisque session enabling players to transfer from Golf to Association with confidence and she offers new members tuition. Brenda persuaded her husband to make bisque sticks and stands, a hoop remover, a ramp to ease trolley movement and a large notice board about waterlogged lawns. She found a supplier for 'Canterbury Croquet Club' hats. She undertakes these 'background' activities with minimum fuss.
Derek Watts - Tyneside Croquet Club
A member of Tyneside Croquet Club since the early 1990s, Derek Watts was initially introduced to Golf Croquet, and he rapidly developed a great enthusiasm and quickly moved on to the association game. Within a few years he was a regular member of the league teams and won Club trophies. He then became a regular competitor in CA Calendar events and represented Northumberland in the Inter-Counties Championship.
By far the greatest contribution Derek made to his club was in the area of organisation and administration. Apart from being a regular member of the Executive Committee he has held the offices of Chairman (2000 - 2004) and Honorary Treasurer (1998 - 2000) and has also found time to be Honorary Secretary of the Croquet North Federation.
For the last few years, he has acted as the Club's Ground and Equipment Manager which involves an enormous amount of time watering and marking out lawns, setting hoops, maintaining the equipment and organising the interior maintenance and decorating of the pavilion. As a sideline, he also acts as the Website Manager and for the last three years has produced both the Club and Croquet North's handbook.
Christopher Williams - Dyffryn Croquet Club
Chris Williams joined Dyffryn Croquet club as it was formed in 1987. He has been part of its development ever since. He became a member of the inaugural committee and has been an ever-present member since then. He took on numerous roles within the club: Handicapper, selecting teams, coaching, and, very importantly, supervising the set-up of lawns at the start of the season! He has stepped into the role of chairman twice in the club's history. On a wider role, Chris has been known to eat and sleep croquet. He is a well-respected player, who has striven to improve both his own, and club members, play. Without Chris' expertise, Dyffryn Croquet Club would not have had the growth it has achieved over the years. What he doesn't know about croquet is not worth knowing. Dyffryn Croquet Club owes him a great debt of gratitude.
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