What can one say about 2020: Coronavirus takes over the whole world, so obviously we suffer too.
The year started well with Richard Clark and John Hobbs awarded Honorary Life Membership in recognition of their services to the club over many years.
But we had to close from the end of March to the middle of May as the first Lockdown takes effect, nevertheless raising a record amount for the CA One Ball charity while we’re closed. Our re-opening is somewhat limited, but we still manage to run our Introduction to Croquet courses and recruit many new members, so we’re only slightly down on last year’s membership.
We run our first AC 14-point event and all our internal competitions, but most of the Open tournaments were cancelled. Due to Covid all SECF leagues and events were cancelled too, so we did better than we have done for the last few years! John Greenwood produces a GC extra turns calculator for Apple iPhones. We closed for our Autumn Maintenance on 23rd September, but didn’t re-open due to Covid until early December, and then in very limited form from the 20th to the end of the year.
Financially, this was obviously a tough year with a significant loss, mainly due to the cancellation of all our private events, but this was covered by our reserves, so we didn’t need to take any special action. All in all the best that can be said is that we survived.
Covid-19 dominates 2021 also. In general our season proceeded relatively as normal with us re-opening on 29th March, with some limitations and without any indoor events until our Xmas supper.
Our Introduction to Croquet Courses have been especially successful with 25 new members and our membership increasing to a record 78.
The SECF Leagues operated as normal, but we couldn’t put together many teams as people were hesitant about travelling – we also performed badly. We didn’t do quite as badly in the SECF tournaments although they ran in a somewhat limited form to keep social distancing.
2022 closes with another record membership – a total of 85 with 27 new members. Social distancing for Covid is essentially over, so pub lunches are back and we had our first bring your own mid-summer picnic lunch.
Our programme of private events restarted successfully, with one group of travelling North Americans. Hopefully they’ll return in future years. Most SECF tournaments and leagues are fully back, but we can’t get enough players for the A league. Our best results were 4th/13 in the U league and a win on the GC Teams Day. The Croquet Academy starts successfully running some GC courses here.
We changed our maintenance programme, moving the Autumn Maintenance to the Spring (in 2023), so we don’t close at all, except because of some really bad weather in December!
In 2023 it is with sadness that we record the death of John Hobbs, our ex-chairman, renowned mallet maker and coach, at the age of 91.
We’ve managed to retain our record membership at 85 and our corporate member rejoins after a 3 year hiatus due to Covid. The Pegasus Plate runs again, after a hiatus of a number of years. We win the SECF A league for the first and probably last time, since it’s not being run by the SECF in 2024. The rest of our results are probably best buried. The lawns are in their best condition ever (probably).
Finally, Jon Diamond is awarded a CA Diploma for his contribution to the organisation of the club and the SECF.
Jon Diamond finally retires as chairman in 2024, after some 16 years, but we haven’t got a replacement yet…
Following the (temporary we hope) closing of Medway club at two days notice we gained another 20 or so of their members to combine with another record of 90 making over 100! Since the Croquet South East rejigged their leagues we’ve only entered two leagues this year and have so so results, although Tim Luke did win the ARK AC tournament at Surbiton.
The season was almost at an end when we hear of the death of Richard Clark, ex-chairman and coach, at the age of 90. He was responsible for fundraising and the Lawn project in 2005 and will be missed.
2025’s AGM finds us with a new chairman at last, Chris Barham, and also with a deficit in the accounts, so the subscription rate rises for the first time in 30 years, by 20%. However, we’ve got enough of a reserve so we buy a new mower. It’s excellent!
Individually we have quite a good year, with Robert Fulford winning several AC tournaments, including the British Open, but failing to win the AC World one. Phil Taylor wins several tournaments and Thomas Cullis also, including a Gold Merit Award.
Our teams performed less well.