Lawn Etiquette

Lawn Use Priorities

  1. Lawn Maintenance takes absolute priority.
  2. Inter-Club matches or Tournaments scheduled in the Club Diary
  3. Other scheduled events in the Club Diary
  4. Competition matches scheduled via our WhatsApp group
  5. Other games

Lawn maintenance

The club hires Ray to look after the lawns, including regular mowing twice a week March to October and three times weekly May to August, which he endeavours to start by 8am. This is not always possible and so mowing sometimes extends into mid-morning when, occasionally, people come down to play a friendly game or a club match.

Ray makes every effort to accomodate such clashes, eg cutting a lawn individually to make it available sooner, but it is sometimes necessary for play to wait a while. On such occasions Ray must be allowed to cut and line the lawns as he decides best even at the expense of a temporary inconvenience to waiting members.

Waiting members should not seek to instruct Ray as to what he should or shouldn’t do when carrying out his work for the club and should do as he asks.

Scheduled events/inter-club matches

Events, tournaments or inter-club matches will normally be approved by a Committee member and scheduled in the Club Diary which is published on the website (the version on the board in the clubhouse is obviously not necessarily up to date and is therefore indicative only).

These games will normally use lawns 1 and 2 and obviously have priority over informal games; but scheduling usually leaves at least one lawn (normally 3) available for casual play. Some events use all lawns and these will be marked as such.

If you’re playing when one of these events starts your game is obliged to move to a free lawn, subject to the conditions below, which may mean that your game has to stop completely.

Other matches

We haven’t heard of any issues in playing internal matches/games, as members act with due consideration for others, but here are the basic club guidelines:

  • Golf Croquet and Association Croquet don’t mix on the same lawn so aren’t expected to double bank with each other.
  • A club competition “match” has precedence over a friendly club “game” and should be allowed to continue playing on a lawn on its own if the friendly game can double-bank on another lawn with another friendly game.
  • If this isn’t possible due to numbers, two club matches of the same code should double-bank. If a club match and a friendly game have to double-bank, the friendly game should allow the match to take precedence during play, eg avoid interrupting a break even if you would normally play first at some point.
  • A match that has been pre-announced on our WhatsApp group at least the day before may “evict” a friendly game from a lawn if all the lawns are in play, hopefully to another lawn with double-banking. Regrettably, double-banking restrictions (AC v GC) may mean two games have to be evicted. This could result in one or two friendly games having to terminate.
  • If you’re playing a friendly game you are expected to double-bank when asked and possibly to have to move lawns to do so if a game of the other code arrives.
  • Members cannot book a specific lawn in advance.

Playing Etiquette

When you’re playing a double-banked game

As mentioned above double-banking is to be expected, so please:

  • if you’re about to play a shot that may interfere with a player from the other game stop until they’ve played their turn – this may not be just one shot
  • if the shot you’re playing may interfere with a ball from the other game you should mark the spot with a marker (available in the clubhouse at a nominal charge of 10p), after asking permission, and return it to the spot immediately after you’ve played.
    DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES USE A COIN, AS IT MAY DAMAGE OUR EXPENSIVE LAWN MOWER IF ACCIDENTALLY LEFT BEHIND (as has happened in the past)
  • if both games are for the same hoop the the game that played there second should wait  until the hoop is complete

Referees

When you’d in any doubt as to the legality of a shot, e.g. one played close to a hoop, call a referee before you make an attempt. (If you call one afterwards he/she will be unable to make a judgement.) They will mark the positions of any possibly affected balls, so that they can be retuned to their original positions in the event of a fault.

If you are in any doubt about the rules then call a referee. If a qualified one isn’t available then ask a senior player for help. If one isn’t available then the rules/law books are on the shelf where the Ball Store key is. Finally, don’t forget you’re joint referees and in the event of a dispute the striker’s opinion holds!

Damage to the lawns

It’s important if you damage the lawns, e.g. by scraping or cutting them with a jump shot, that these are properly repaired as soon as possible, so that the damage is not permanent.

A cut should NOT be repaired by stamping on it as this creates two edges which don’t bind and therefore a semi-permanent cut. Instead you should use a divot repairer (purchasable in the clubhouse), to tease out the end that’s wrapped underneath the turf and butt the two edges of the cut together, so that they will heal.