News

Golf Croquet:

Knockout handicap: John Armer

Block handicap: John Armer

Block level play: Mike Hayward

Short Lawn AC:

Knockout handicap: Norman Winter

Block handicap: Neil Adams

Day tournament [handicap]: John Burrows

Full lawn AC:

Knockout handicap: Norman Winter

Block handicap: Neil Adams

Block level play: Neil Adams

Doubles block handicap: Sue Pritchard and John Shakespeare

The Club AGM was held at the Athenaeum Village Hall, Heversham, on Saturday 23rd October. Key discussions and decisions are listed here:

•  The club currently has 30 members

• Fees in the 2021 season will remain at £80 per person per annum, but the reduced rate for a second member at the same address will no longer apply. There will continue to be a reduced rate for anyone living more than 25 miles from the club by road.

• Maintenance of the lawns had proved very challenging in 2021 due to long periods of dry weather. Mike Hodgson and helpers had worked hard to make sure the lawns will be in good condition at the start of the 2022 season.

• Captains reported on the 2021 league season. The regional short lawn season remains incomplete due to postponements of the final match to decide the overall winner, between the Chester and Westmorland Clubs. The AC success at the Southport Festival had been a particular highlight of the season.

Fund-raising events and social occasions had been completely curtailed over the period of the pandemic, but the club was able eventually to hold its 2021 end-of-season lunch at Crooklands Hotel on Sunday 31st October, bringing the year to a close. 20 members and guests enjoyed an excellent meal, in a great atmosphere hopefully enjoyed by all. Presentations were made to the winners of the 2021 Club Competitions [see separate news item above].

The next scheduled social event is a dominoes evening on 1st December.

The short lawn league has been played this year in southern and northern sections. WCC had to wait for Fylde to defeat Bury Crusaders in the final match of the northern section to know they were through to the final. Fylde did in the end win that match on September 19th. The winners of each section, Westmorland and Chester, were then due to meet at Levens Hall on Tuesday 28th September to decide the overall regional winner, but with heavy rain forecast the match was postponed and rearranged to be played at Southport on Tuesday 5th October. Southport's lawns were so waterlogged on the day of the match as to be unusable, so this final match of the season is still to be played.

The September raffle was drawn by Mike Hodgson. 1st prize of a fresh Xmas cake made by Margaret goes to Norman. 2nd Prize drawn by John S goes to John B and is a decorative planter.

Many thanks to everyone for taking part and also donating.

Having played in the C Level competition held in the summer at Crake Valley, John Armer, playing under the banner of Westmorland CC, went on to the final which was held in Ryde on the Isle of Wight on 18th and 19th Sept. The competition was between 16 finalists from various competitions around the country. 

It was Level Play, all play all. Saturday was to be 8 games timed at 1 hour max plus 8 shots, and if a draw at that point the game played to a winning hoop. The weather was good and the standard of play high and the games started at 9.10 am.

John started off with a 5-7 loss, followed by 5 wins at 7-4, 7-6, 7-6, 7-4, 7-6. He then went 4-7, 6-7. All very close games . The day ended at nearly 7pm.

Sunday started off dull and overcast. With a 4-7 under his belt, John went on to 7-6 win. The rain came down for about an hour but play continued. The next scores were 4-7, 3-7, 2-7, 1-7, and to finish 7-1. Overall John finished =8th. out of the 16 players. Well done John.

The final day of public opening of Levens Hall and Gardens will be 7th October. 

Bury field two short lawn teams. Bury Vikings visited Levens on Thursday 26th August and secured a 10-6 victory, with their rising star young player Jack Good able to turn out for the midweek league team, and winning all four of his matches. The Westmorland team comprised Mike Hodgson [captain], Sue Pritchard, Ivan Wheatley and Norman Winter. Bury went into an early lead of 3-1 with only Sue of the home team winning. Round 2 also went 3-1 to Bury, with Ivan being the only Westmorland victor. After lunch in Round 3 the honours were split evenly, with Sue and Norman winning. A draw was still possible when the final round began, but Mike and Norman's wins still left the home team straggling 6-10 behind the visitors.

Westmorland still have a leading position in the short lawn league with Bury's other team, the Crusaders, still able to win outright if they succeed against Fylde on 19th September.

In a close match away at Bowdon on 19th August, the Westmorland AC team of Sue Pritchard [captain], Mike Hodgson, Robert Harvey and Ivan Wheatley narrowly lost by a margin of 3-4.

John Burrows won all five of his matches on Monday 16th August in the club's Swiss-style Short Lawn tournament, on a very pleasant summer's day at Levens Hall. 

John is pictured left, with other players standing in place order: Runner-up Sue Pritchard together with Norman Winter. Mike Hayward, Mike Hodgson, and Phil Hyman. The day ran very smoothly with Mike Hayward, the organiser of club competitions, guiding proceedings and praising all the players for taking part in good humour.

Sue Pritchard, Mike Hodgson and Neil Adams took to the lawns at the North West Festival of Croquet at Southport on the weekend of 14th - 15th August. They triumphed in the AC Full Lawn Handicap event, winning on hoop difference. They are pictured here receiving the trophy from Federation Chairman Paul Rigge. 

They are joined in the Westmorland Team photo by members of the Golf Croquet team Colin Pritchard, Fiona Armer and John Armer. 

Westmorland club member Ivan Wheatley was manager for this large event, hosted by the Southport and Birkdale Croquet Club on 16 lawns. 41 teams played in 5 competitions. Over 100 players in total took part each day, making this what is claimed to be the largest croquet event in the UK, maybe even the world! What a contrast to the cancellation of the event last year due to COVID-19. To fit everything in to a packed timetable, some games were even played triple-banked, with 3 games and 12 balls on a single lawn. A fuller account appears on the Croquet North West website.

Fiona Armer [Golf Captain] reports: Westmorland entered teams into Level play and handicap golf at Southport NW festival of croquet 2021. 5 players in total. 3 in H/c and 2 in L/P.

The handicap tournament kicked off at 9am on Saturday with Westmorland players 1,2 and 3 Playing Culcheth 1,2,3. With the results 5-7,3-7,5-7. They were all close games. Next the team met Llanfairfechan, 6-7,2-3,7-0. Even closer games. After lunch Craig y don stepped forward and the results were 5-7,4-7,4-6. Fylde were up fourth and the results 6-7,5-7,4-7.

On Sunday we were up against Chester where the score was 7-1,3-7,1-7.

We then went into the play-offs and played against Bury with the final scores of 6-5,7-6,7-3. Well done to all players from Westmorland, with a very high standard of playing all round.

Level Play was an all play all doubles comp and the 2 players on Saturday took on Fylde, Bury, Bowden, Chester, Crake Valley, Craig y Don and Llanfairfechan. On Sunday there was Chester and a play off against Fylde.

There was a high standard of playing all weekend and although WCC did not win any trophies, a great weekend and a fantastic experience was enjoyed by all. Well done to all the Golf team members. 

Penrith proved to be the better team on the day with a winning margin of 5-2 in the final match of the 2021 Cumbria Tankard series, in which each of the four Cumbria croquet clubs play against each other. Westmorland played host at Levens Hall to the visitors, with a team comprising Mike Hodgson [captain], Sue Pritchard, John Shakespeare, Neil Adams, and Norman Winter. Neil won his singles full-lawn match 26-13, and Mike and Sue won their short-lawn doubles match.

Mike Hodgson [captain] led a team comprising Sue Pritchard, Neil Adams and Norman Winter in a home match against Fylde on Sunday 1st August. On a very pleasant day the honours were shared very evenly with Mike, Sue and Norman each winning 2 and losing 2. But Neil Adams' victories in all 4 of his matches swung the overall result Westmorland's way, with a final match score of 10-6.

Sue Pritchard [captain], John Shakespeare, Rob Harvey and Norman Winter hosted a team from Southport at Levens Hall on Thursday 29th July. The parched lawns had been refreshed by overnight rain but still proved tricky for our visitors. The final score of 7-0 to Westmorland belies the closeness of many of the matches. John and Sue won their morning doubles 22-19, Rob his singles by 17-15, and we took our lunch break leading 3-0. In the afternoon John cruised to a 26-6 win to secure the team victory. Sue and Rob won again, but Norman's match was tied at 19-19 after the 3-hour timer sounded, so the match went to a "Golden Hoop", Norman eventually securing a final win.

We were pleased the rain held off, and all the matches were played in very good spirit. 

The WCC Golf Croquet cup event was held on Wednesday 28th July. The event was heavily oversubscribed, with only 8 places available. It took the form of a Round Robin, all play all, fortunately avoiding all thunderstorms nearby.

After 4 rounds the contest was tight with 4 players having won 3 games. After all 7 rounds completed the results looked like this.

        Place Points

1      Mike Hayward    19

2      John Armer         19

3      Fiona Armer           17

4      Colin Pritchard        15

5      David Snaith   13

6      Sue Pritchard   11

7      Patricia MacGillvray  11

8      Anne Rastrick   8

So the final was contested between Mike and John with John getting 7 bisques.  0-1, 0-2, 1-2, 1-3, 2-3, 2-4, 3-4, then John did a reverse Jump shot 3-5, 4-5, then John ran hoop 10 from next to hoop 9 4-6. In off from Mike made it 5-6. Hoop 12 went John’s way. Thus he lifted the WCC golf trophy cup.

Thanks to all for playing in good spirit, Mike for organising, and congratulations to John for taking the trophy.

The opportunity was taken today to draw the raffle a week early whilst there were many members at the lawns playing a competition. Mike Hayward drew both tickets out.

    1st Fiona Armer, who won a Large jar of Nescafe kindly donated by Sue P

    2nd John Burrows, who won a Boxed Sudoku game kindly donated by John S.

Many thanks to everyone. July's Raffle was drawn on Weds 7th July by Secretary John Shakespeare. 1st prize, a plant in a pot, donated by John Shakespeare, was won by the Gregorys. 2nd prize, a timer, kindly donated by Neil Marland, was won by Fiona Armer.

Golf Match report by Fiona Armer [Captain]: Westmorland went into battle against the Fylde Falcons in blistering heat on the Fylde lawns. In the first half the teams were neck and neck. After lunch battle re-commenced and Westmorland were 2 games ahead. Sadly the heat took over and after 4 close matches Fylde took the day, winning 10-8. A great day, but sad to say we came second.

On 14th July we played a short lawn AC match against Bury at Coronation Park, Radcliffe. It was a beautiful summer's day. Our team comprised Mike Hodgson [captain], Sue Pritchard, Neil Adams and Norman Winter. There was a good winning margin with a final score of 11-5, and Neil winning all four of his matches.

An AC team of Sue Pritchard, Neil Adams, John Burrows and Mike Hodgson found themselves facing a challenging fast lawn with unpredictable slopes in the fine weather of the morning session of their match at Chester on Wednesday 23rd June. Then the rain came down and the afternoon session brought a period of playing in standing water! Westmorland unfortunately managed to win only 2 games and the final result was 5-2 in Chester's favour. 

Matches against other clubs have resumed, with early success in the first four matches of the season. It was only brought to an end at Chester on 23rd June with a 2-5 defeat in the AC league fixture. 

Westmorland played a home Golf Croquet match against Bury on Sunday 20th June. The players were Fiona Armer, Elaine Newman. David Snaith and Mike Hayward. The team got off to a flying start by winning both double games. With lunchtime approaching the team were neck and neck and with 4 games left it was all to play for. When play resumed the team pulled out all the stops and won 3 of the 4 matches, The result at end of play as Westmorland 10, Bury 8.

The season had started with an AC Short Lawn match away v Pendle on May 20, on an extremely cold and wet day. Westmorland won 11-5. In the Cumbria Tankard a match was played at Crake on June 10, and Westmorland won 3-0. On 17th June we hosted Pendle for an AC League match and Westmorland won convincingly with a score of 6-1.

The match season has been tailored to require only shorter journeys between participating clubs across the North-West region. The fixture list is kept updated on our Calendar page.

June 18th saw Westmorland Croquet Club members John and Fiona Armer take part in the North West Area C level Golf Croquet competition, held at Crake Valley. After a nail-biting 19 hoop final John won the day against Frank Sharpe with a 10/9 winning score.