Jack Good selected by CA for GC Home Internations 16/17th July
B Level AC – Bury v Bowdon at Whitehead Park 22nd May
Bury team – Richard Forman 4.5, Malcolm Daines 5, Roger Schofield 5
Bowdon team – Nigel Mathews 1.5, Charles Harding 2.5, Brian Medley 3
The rain held off throughout the day and Bowdon commented on how good the lawns and venue were.
In the Doubles Richard and Malcolm took on Brian and Charles. Bowdon got ahead but Bury made a late break but lost -4.
Roger played Nigel and played below his best ending -26
In the afternoon
Richard played Nigel. Richard was well behind but made a nice controlled break to get round and he then pegged his opponents ball off.
Unfortunately Nigel hit in and made a nice 2 ball break from 4 back to peg out 16-26.
Roger kept Charles busy at the end of their game after Charles only pegged one of his balls off.
Roger made 6 further hoops hiding from Charles until Charles hit in and ended the game 9-26.
Malcolm lost 2-26 to Brian but made Brian work for his victory.
Final Score:- Bury 0 Bowdon 5
Reporter Paul Kenworthy
National Croquet Day 21st May 2022 at Whitehead Park
The club welcomed approximately 25 to 30 visitors to this year’s Annual National Croquet Day at Whitehead Park.
Fortunately it stayed dried and many of the visitors took part in games, with children enjoying mallet games.
Visitors included Bury West ward Councillor Jackie Harris and Elton ward Councillor Martin Hayes.
Councillor Hayes tried his hand at croquet for the first time and enjoyed it.
A number of visitors signed up for taster sessions and expressed interest in joining.
There has been quite a lot of social media posts (many retweet’s) by those attending stating what a great day they had,
and how welcoming everyone at the club was.
As ever thanks to volunteer club members for their hard work pre-event and on the day in this important part of ongoing
club development and networking. Special thanks to John McNicoll (Breightment Golf Club) who kindly provided his time & lucky number roulette
wheel again, and for the generous donations of raffle prizes - including fabulous hampers.
A warm if overcast day saw Chester visit Coronation Park for this weekends fixture.
The morning had Ged and Ken playing the singles and Tony and Chris playing the doubles.
Ged was narrowly defeated and Ken was unable to win his match.
However Tony played a great game and Caesars were able to win the doubles.
The afternoon brought more success for Bury, Ged and Chris both winning their matches by 20 plus hoops,
Ken’s opponent was able to defeat him. But Tony to the rescue again; playing a waiting game to rid his
opponent of his bisques Tony managed to win plus 2 on time.
A 4-3 win for Caesars
Report by Chris Alvey
National Croquet Day 21st May 2022 at Whitehead Park
Bury Croquet A Level Tournament 14th & 15th May 2022 at WP Tony McCann from Croquet Durham wins A Level Trophy at Bury. Alison Murray from Leicester wins A Level plate.
Bury CC welcomed players from Himley, Leicester, Crake Valley, Northampton, Long Eaton Park, Durham, Ealing & Bury to their first A Level+ Tournament,
a two-day event. Excellent weather conditions, many players complimenting lawns.
Some very close competitive play in an amiable sporting atmosphere. Full details of scores can be found on Croquet Scores.
Overall acclaimed as an excellent tournament – thanks are due to volunteering club members for their support in Grounds preparation, organisation and administration, and catering.
Report Roy Spencer (Bury Chairman)
Photos Ian Saunders
Fylde Falcons v Bury North 8 th May 2022 at Fylde
Losing the two pairs games was a bad start for Bury and proved mathematically to be the reason for the match loss.
The Fylde team were excellent hosts throughout the day.
The singles were drawn at 8 games each and Richard again won all his games as he did against Bury South.
Two of his games were recoveries from 5 nil and 5-1.
Pat, Norman and Bernard completed the team that fought hard for the other points.
Fylde Falcons 10, Bury North 9
Report Bernard Lord
Bury South Vs Crake Valley – 8 th May 2022 at WP
For the first home match of the season Bury South welcomed reigning league champions, Crake
Valley, to Whitehead Park.
The doubles matches finished one win each with Barbara and Gail taking the spoils for Bury South.
Getting the singles underway Gail and Ian won their matches and then in the next 4 games 3
victories came Bury’s way, from Lynne, Barbara, and Ian, giving Bury a lead over the visitors at 6-4
After lunch the results were split with Crake Valley between the teams and the final score was 10-8 for a Bury South
win.
This was an initiation into league play for Lynne and Ian, who were grateful of the support and
guidance given by Barbara and Gail.
A great day with all Bury players on the scoreboard.
Many thanks to Crake Valley for travelling down for the fixture and we look forward to seeing you
again.
Report Ian Saunders
Handicap AC weekend – Bury Peelers v Bury Caesars at CP 7 th May 2022
Peelers team – Paul Kenworthy, Malcolm Daines, Margaret Eccles and Richard Leach
Caesars Team – Roger Schofield, Ged Smolskas, Chris Alvey and Anne Alvey
Opening match of the season played on perfect lawns, this lived up to the billing of a local Derby
with some excellent play mixed in with some caginess.
Morning session – Doubles pairing of Chris & Anne just held out in a close encounter against
Malcolm & Richard.
Ged’s bisque advantage was too great for Paul, giving Ged an emphatic win.
Final game of the morning saw Margaret and Roger have a ding-dong game with Margaret holding
out to win by 2 when time ran out.
Lunch – Peelers 1 Caesars 2
Afternoon session – Ged continued his form seeing off Malcolm for a comfortable win.
Steady play by Richard enabled him to come through against Anne
Chris & Margaret both played well and either of them could have won it, Chris finished strongly and
pegged out.
Final game, battle of the low men, exchanging their skills, everyone thought Roger was heading for a
comfortable victory, but with time running out Paul had other ideas and embarked on a great
recovery, firstly pegging out Roger’s ball, then plotted his way running hoops 2 thru 9 sadly breaking
down on hoop 10 allowing Roger to peg out and finish the match.
Well done everyone, congratulations to Caesars.
Final score - Bury Peelers 2 Bury Caesars 5.
Report Phil Nuttall
Bury Sovereigns v Bury Monarchs at WP 5 th May 2022
Sovereigns team – David Barrett, John Gilmartin & Richard Leach
Monarchs team – Bernard Lord, Ken Eccles & Malcolm Daines
It turned out to be a fantastically good game with Monarchs coming out on top with 11 wins to 7.
8 of the 11 Games went to the 'Golden 'Last hoop' . with lots of excitement and thrills on the way.
This is a very high ratio and great credit must go to the Monarch's Captain Ken Eccles.
He was 'ON FIRE' and playing some of the best shots he has ever attempted.
Well done Ken your relaxed smooth style of shooting certainly won the day.
Many thanks also go to Pat Lord / Martin Doxsey / and Margaret Eccles for their help and support through the day.
We hope Monarch's now go forward and win the league for Bury CC.
Report David Barrett
B Level Advanced 1 Chester v Bury at Chester 4 th May 2022
Bury team – David Barrett, Phil Nuttall & Roger Schofield
Chester team – Elmyer Hughes, Jerry Guest & Robin Tasker
Each of The Bury Players were up against Lower Handicapped players throughout, but the biggest problem was that none of us were able to 'Read' the Chester Lawns which are renowned for having sloping lawns that can move the ball in several directions. We lost 5 - nil.
Report David Barrett
Bury Short Lawn Team V Pendle Short Lawn Team 30th April 2022
The day started a lovely sunny dry day and the lawns were in lovely condition.
Play started at 10am and after round 1 we were two games all with Helena Nuttall and
Barbara Young winning their games.
However in round 2 Pendle went one game up on Bury with Helena winning her
second game.
The afternoon games however changed the score considerably for Bury as only
Barbara and Roger won their games after lunch.
I had a very bad day and lost all my games (very sorry team). The final score: 11 points to Pendle and 5 To Bury.
It was a very friendly match and Pendle being a lovely team to play. The weather
changed in the afternoon and we just managed to finish before the rain came.
Report by Vi Richards
Bury Derby North v South Sunday 24th April at CP
The first game of the 2022 season ended with a win for Bury North over Bury South 11-7
North opened an early lead but by the mid point South pulled level only for North to draw away again winning the last four games.
Richard Leach lead the way winning all his four games giving shots away across the board.
Norman, Gill and Pat chipped in with the other points towards our victory.
Thanks to Barbara and her team of Roy, Gail and Sue for an enjoyable day.
Report Bernard Lord, Photos Roy Spencer
BURY HOSPICE FUND RAISING at CP 23rd April 2022 WHAT A FANTASTIC DAY!
With some ticket money still to come a record sum in excess of £700 was raised at this year’s annual fun day for Bury Hospice.
This year the weather was kinder to us, particularly with a sunny afternoon, and a large crowd attended, with visitors actually having
to queue to try and play croquet - and many enjoyed it.
The Mayor of Bury Cllr. Tim Pickstone & Consort Wayne Burrows enjoyed a short game.
An added attraction this year was a performance by Radcliffe Street Shakers cheerleaders thoroughly enjoyed by the audience and added to the atmosphere.
Also present was Bury Hospice representative Pat Lomas who also had an enjoyable afternoon mixing with the crowd and playing.
There was extensive publicity prior to the event on social media, backed up by community groups in Radcliffe, Bury Times and That’s TV Manchester.
It was also the main feature on Monday 25th April on That’s TV Headline News with quite a long piece. (See attached link).
Thanks are due to all club members who worked hard on the day, setting up and breaking down, car parking, looking after stalls, refreshments etc.,
playing croquet with visitors - the children’s area was particularly popular.
Ged wins John Beecher Trophy at Pendle 15th/18th April 2022
Congratulations to Bury member Ged Smolskas on winning the John Beech Handicap Trophy at Pendle & Craven Croquet Club
over the Easter weekend.
GED is pictured receiving the trophy from NW Fed Chairman Paul Rigge.
(photo courtesy of Pendle & Craven Croquet Club).
WP Clean Up 26th Mar 2022
What wonderful weather and a great turnout of members.
The lawns are now looking great after a long slog of specialised treatment
and the surrounding grounds and club house certainly complement them.
CP Clean Up 13th Mar 2022
We had a great turn out to get CP ready for action.
Hoops and lawns were measured for action by the technical team.
As the lawns looked fantastic, the club house team & gardeners made the club house & gardens do them justice.
Everyone can't wait for the opening day to finally start enjoying CP's special & quaint charms.
Annual Dinner 11th Mar 2022
Another great night at Breightmet Golf Club.
50 members attended to make it a lovely evening.
Members were really generous with raffle prizes, it took ages to choose a prize because all were lovely.
It was great to see Sue Hardman, with her lovely daughter Alison and also Derek and Hilary Deadman attending.
Our special friends from Culcheth attended and were really welcome, so nice of them to support the occasion.
Special mention should be made of the wonderful flowers supplied by Jane - amazing.
To everyone's delight the flowers were raffled off at the end of the evening.
Many thanks go to John Richie for his brilliant entertainment, he did a great job.
R.I.P. Sophia 8th March 2022
It is with sadness that we have to say goodbye to our beloved club mascot Sophia (Sophie) who passed away on Tuesday.
She has been with us for so long and everybody loved her so much.
Sophia had such a gentle nature and had such a calming effect on us all.
We will miss her so much, especially at Cober where she kept us all in check!!
We are all thinking of Joan at this time because Sophia has left a very big hole.
RIP and lots of love Sophia.
BURY WEST NEIGHBOURHOOD PITCH EVENT Sat 5th Mar
Bury CC had a stand at the above event held at Radcliffe Market Hall on 5th March 2022.
The club was amongst a number of organisations in the Radcliffe area pitching for funding for their organisations or projects.
Our pitch related to a redevelopment project of the interior of the Coronation Park Club House.
The event was well attended and whilst we did not have many enquiries about joining the club, there was interest from a number of people who took away literature.
It was nonetheless a good profiling & networking exercise and more people now know about the club.
Thanks to Helena & Gail who looked after the stand, and a number of members that attended and to those who voted online.
Report by Roy Spencer
Culcheth Quiz Fri 25th Feb
The team was Bernard, Pat, Elaine and Barbara Young.
We came fourth against other teams having more players than our four.
We were close but despite scoring 100% in the final category we didn’t make it.
It was a good night organised by Alan Wright and his wife.
They are running another next month; details to follow.
Report by Bernard Lord
Why not go along to Whitefield Painting Club 21st March
A couple of our croquet gang are members!!
WP LAWNS WORK UPDATE
The grounds team at WP has started initial pre season preparatory work on the lawns.
As part of this please note that ALL LAWNS at WP INCLUDING WINTER LAWNS will be closed
Monday 14th – Monday 21st February 2022 inclusive
This is to facilitate a deep tine followed by application of Symbio Defender Biostimulant treatment by the groundsman.
(The application of the treatment is subject to prevailing weather conditions as it ideally needs to be soaked in by rain).
ALSO
To facilitate white lining & hoop placement work on main playing lawns, ALL LAWNS are closed from lunch time Wednesday 2nd to Friday 4th February, as this work needs to be done before tine. Again this is subject to weather conditions allowing the work to be undertaken.
Please monitor Team Up calendar for current position, as it may be subject to change.
It is possible that if the foregoing goes to plan that it we may be able to open full lawns for play at WP on a rotational basis. (An update regarding CP will follow when plans have been formulated – in the meantime it remains closed).
We will be announcing dates of the usual PRE SEASON WORK DAYS at both WP & CP shortly, please watch for these dates.
Please Note: At WP there is a problem with moss on the paths – particularly along Lonsdale Street .
We are in the process of trying to kill this off, (believe it or not with bio washing powder!). If you see that paths have been treated with white powder please do not walk on the grass after walking on the treated paths.
Roy Spencer Chairman
Culcheth C C Annual Dinner 21st January 2022
A number of Bury C C members attended the Culcheth Croquet Club Annual dinner on Friday 21st.
As ever an enjoyable event hosted by Alan Wright.
Bury member Margaret Eccles was invited to present trophies to winners of internal competitions.
Report and photos by Roy Spencer
Member Equipment Donations
A thank you is due for two pieces of equipment that have been kindly donated by members for use at Whitehead Park.
Father Christmas brought us an excellent boot cleaner from an anonymous donor. This is now in use on the veranda and proving most useful.
Also a much needed lovely external clock donated by Pat & Bernard Lord is now in situ over the entrance steps.
