Category: News

Middlesbrough Croquet Club held its annual 1-Ball Tournament as a season opener on Sat 4^thApril.

It was a day for layers of clothing, with a splash of red in recognition of the national events chosen charity, Save The Children. Although occasionally chilly, Storm Dave was good enough to stay clear of Albert Park, Middlesbrough at least until our course was run.

We had a field of 10 players, 7 from the Croquet North region and 3 very welcome guests from Bury Croquet Club.

1-Ball handicaps ranged from minus 3 to 12.5 with an ‘all play all’ format with no time limits. Moving along at a nice pace starting at 10am, using all 4 lawns, we had all 45 games done and dusted before 4pm.

Midway through the day there were 5 players racking up an impressive number of wins but despite suffering his only loss in round 8, Philip Hastings from the Middlesbrough Club stormed to victory with an impressive 8 wins from 9 games.

Standings

Player	Club	Games
Philip Hastings	Middlesbrough	8/9
Phillip Errington	Belsay Hall	6/9
Richard Leach	Bury	6/9
Nigel Roberts	Middlesbrough	6/9
Athony Miller	Middlesbrough	5/9
Dennis Scarr	Middlesbrough	4/9
Duncan Meachin	Bury	3/9
Chris Stuttard	Middlesbrough	3/9
Simon Attwell	Bury	2/9
David Millener	Belsay Hall	1/9

The 2026 GC Singles competition (available to CN members only) will take place on Saturday 13 June at Albert Park, Middlesbrough starting at 10 am.

To enter, contact the competition manager Peter Tymms by email. The closing date for applications is 1 June 2026 with the competition allocations being made on 7 June.

The entry fee is £10 payable on the day.

As in previous years there will be season-long AC competitions for handicap singles and doubles, and advanced singles on a draw/process basis to guarantee everyone at least two games in each event.

Entry fee is £5 per person per event, which should be paid directly to the NEBA account.

Please advise Julian Gibson by email no later than Sunday 19th April if you wish to enter, and, if you are entering the doubles, the name of your nominated partner.

The annual contest for the Pennine Cup was played on 26 June 2025 at Middlesbrough in mostly pleasant conditions.

The morning doubles were won by the North West 2 - 0, and the afternoon singles by croquet North 3 - 1 meaning the match was a 3 - 3 draw. North West therefore retain the trophy.

Match Scores (CN first)

Andrew Killick and Julian Gibson lost to Peter & Liz Wilson 23 - 26
Anthony Miller and Nigel Durie lost to Stephen Skelton * Chris Williamson 12 - 26

Andrew Killick beat Peter Wilson 26 - 15
Anthony Miller beat Liz Wilson 26 - 15
Julian Gibson beat Stephen Skelton 21 - 19 (t)
Nigel Durie lost to Chris Williamson 10 - 15 (t)

The Middlesbrough Handicap Singles Weekend has had a reputation in recent years for not being for the faint-hearted. Cold, wind and rain has severely tested the metal of participants. But what was this – sunshine? While a bit of a cold breeze appeared from time to time, it was for the most part lovely, particularly Sunday, and a few even decided to wear shorts.

We had 9 players covering 8 places over the 2 days. Six were Middlesbrough players who were joined by players from Tyneside, Penrith and Keswick. Handicaps ranged from minus 1.5 to 12.

Given it was Handicap the 2 Blocks of 4 were drawn randomly.

A time limit of 3 hours using all 4 lawns worked well with only a few games going to time.

On Day 2 the winners and runners-up in each block had cross-block semifinals with cross-block matches for those finishing 3^rd and 4^th in the blocks.

In block A Steve Skelton swept the board winning all 3 of his matches; the runner-up being Andrew Killick.

Block B was a little more problematic. Philip Hastings, who was only there for the Saturday won all 3 of his matches however, his block position was set aside meaning the block B winner was Derek Johnson with Julian Gibson runner-up.

Sunday morning’s semifinals saw a reversal of fortunes with both block winners losing to runners-up from the other block.

In the final, Andrew Killick (-1.5) played Julian Gibson (8) with Andrew triumphing 26 – 21.

Dennis Scarr – Manager.

Following a long held tradition, Middlesbrough’s first Tournament of the season is a Charity 1 Ball. Consequently, 12 players from Clubs within the Croquet North Federation area met at Albert Park, Middlesbrough yesterday.

Weather throughout the week suggested almost perfect conditions with the potential for heatstroke or at least sunburn being the biggest threat. The weather forecast the day before the tournament was in total agreement – the fine weather would continue through Saturday. 

This is the North East – nobody was fooled or lulled into a false sense of security with all competitors arriving weighed down by several layers of clothing and even the odd bobble hat.

Divergence from the standard ‘all white’ attire was encouraged to acknowledge the chosen charity, the Alzheimer’s Society. Consequently, a splattering of blue was seen across the four lawns.

We had 12 players with AC Handicaps ranging from minus 1.5 to 20 (before adjustment for 1 Ball) in an ‘all play all’ format. No time limits were set although the Manager reserved the right to review this if necessary. As it happened, we started at 9.30am, managed continuous refreshment pauses, had a running lunch break and still had everything cleared up and heading for home before 5pm.

The Tournament winner was Dennis Scarr from Middlesbrough Club with 9 wins from 11 matches.

Other results were:

7/11: Andrew Carpenter.

6/11: Chris Stuttard, and Don Wright.

5/11: Nigel Durie, Julian Gibson, Andrew Killick, David Millener, Nigel Roberts, and Stephen Pratt.

4/11: Phil Errington, and Pat Memery.

Thankyou to all those who took part or helped out, and to the spectators who turned up to support the day. 

Hopefully the biggest winner on the day was The Alzheimer’s Society.

Stephen Custance-Baker’s advertised course on short croquet tactics has been changed to an offer of one hour 1-to-1 coaching sessions on any topic of your choice, AC or GC.

Full details and booking via the NCA website, northerncroquetacademy.org

It is possible to double up and share a session with a friend if you would both like to be coached on the same topic. A practice lawn will be available all day at York CC to consolidate the coaching.

The Northern Croquet Academy Course list for 2025 may be viewed below:

Booking may be made via the Academy web site

On Sunday September 8 the Turner goblet was played at Backworth Croquet Club, the first time this venue has hosted the competition.

The weather was far from ideal, a foggy start followed by rain for the four rounds that were played before lunch.

Despite the weather sixteen competitors battled through the initial rounds and by lunchtime we had our eight quarter finalists.

Arnie Clegg, Tony McCann,Jane Pringle and Peter Tymms were eliminated in the quarter-finals. William Steadman went on to beat Don Morton 7-6 in one semi-final, and Roger Carpenter beat Wendy Gladstone in the other, also by 7-6 in another close battle.

William went on to win the trophy with a convincing 7-1 victory over Roger in the final.

Meanwhile in the playoff for the eight who missed out on the quarter finals Phil Errington won beating David Millener 7-5.

Despite the weather, which had at least dried up after lunch, everyone seemed to enjoy the day’s play.