 To supplement Richard's email to us all, here is a picture of one of the diseases that can affect the lawn. It's called 'Dollar Spot' You don't want it !
Ian Shore Yesterday, Saturday 14th September, on a cracking sunny autumnal day, six eager HWCC members (one new on the day!) entered the club’s annual High-Handicap AC Handicap Tournament (EV7). A couple of players had not entered a tournament before and so their lack of experience was a bit of a challenge for them but wow, did they put on a great show. Mark Wilce only lost 4 of his 5 games by either 1 or 2 hoops, an amazing performance. And Lucius Cary (new member on the day!) also had some narrow loses with one win. The winner last year was Matthew Miles Griffiths and the mood during yesterday’s tournament was to ‘prevent Matthew from winning again’. But undaunted, it was Matthew who ruled the day winning all his matches and gaining a reduction in his handicap to 14. So jolly well done to Mathew.. He can be seen grinning ear-to-ear being presented with the trophy alongside some of his fellow competitors. Richard Peperell  Our Flower Lady has refreshed our club’s planters.. Don’t they look bright and cheerful! Please keep an eye on them and if they look as though they would like a drink add some water to the pot. Thank you, Flower Lady Ian Shore  On 21 August, a group of players from HWCC were the recipients of a kind invitation from the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet club at Wimbledon to come and play a friendly golf croquet match. The day was a complete delight from start to finish. The AELTC team were warm and welcoming hosts, pleased to be able to share their world-class venue with visitors but without any hint of superiority. Wimbledon is something of a double-edged sword: the obvious need to clear the decks for The Championships in July means that the excellent croquet lawns are out of action for a large part of the middle of the summer. As a result, the Croquet players effectively have to manage with two short half seasons on either side of the main tennis event. But manage they do, and we all had some enjoyable and competitive play in the morning and the afternoon. Whether the superb lunch that we enjoyed on the Members' Balcony affected anyone's play is anyone's guess! At the end of the day, we were treated to a stimulating and informative tour led by one of the Wimbledon players with a particular interest in history and tradition. But it is not all history. AELTC are in the middle of a proposal to convert the golf course which they own into a major tennis centre and public park with enhanced facilities. We wish them well with this, to go with our thanks for providing us with such a memorable day. Looking ahead, Wimbledon were very pleased to receive an invitation to come and play at high Wycombe in the early part of the summer 2025. Now, where's that Cordon Bleu cookbook...?! Chris Webbley How lucky we were to have such a beautiful and sunny Sunday for our High Handicap tournament! No frost, no wind, no rain - just sunshine! ☀️ There was a range of handicaps from 8 to 14 and a super level of talent, tactics and fun. Commendations go to Pat Heaven and Gary Jennison who braved their first tournament today and played very well indeed. The final was between Andrew Maclay and Wendy Kingon with Andrew managing to take the first prize. He was very happy to receive the much coveted prize of a chocolate lollipop to tide him over until the Annual Dinner and the High Handicap trophy! Thanks go to Sally Rogers, as always, for helping to set up and to our Cheerleaders in the form of Frank and Nigel! Sharon Clark Things were looking bad for the AC A-league team in their first match of the season, away at Aldermaston on 19th August. One of Rich Waterman’s balls had been pegged out by his opponent Andy Myers, and Andy was edging towards victory while leaving Rich only shots of 30 yards or more. Meanwhile, Mike Porter had reached 4 and 4-back, but his opponent Steve Woolnough was for peg and 4-back, and in play with a 4 ball break. To make matters worse, it was 8.10 pm, light was fading, and there were only 15 minutes left for play. Surely we were heading for a 0-2 defeat?
Steve slipped up – after running 4-back, he missed a short roquet letting Mike in with his 4-back ball. Mike took it to the peg and set a leave. Maybe he was in with a chance? But no, Steve hit the lift shot and looked set for victory once again. Meanwhile, Rich hit one of his 30-yarders and embarked on a break. Maybe Rich would be the one with the come-from-behind victory? Wait, what’s this? Steve ran penult but in the subsequent croquet shot his ball ran into the peg, leaving Steve unable to hit anything. Mike was in again and set a leave. Steve took the 20 yard shot and missed into the corner. Mike embarked on a break and for a brief moment, it looked like the certain 0-2 defeat could be turned around to a 2-0 victory. Sadly Rich came to grief at penult and Andy completed a +3 victory, but Mike struggled round to peg out for a +3 victory of his own. As Rich said on the drive back to Wycombe, this match typified what’s good about AC – fun games that could have gone either way, played in a competitive but friendly spirit. We’re looking forward to the next one! Mike Porter Tangent Club joined us for I think their fourth year. A two-hour evening event for 20 guests that generated a nice little sum for the Club's funds plus a joyous time for our visitors. They loved the support they received from Kay and Mike, Sharon and Jane who were all on hand to help and guide. Do let the Committee know of any groups you may be able to bring to the club. It really does help bolster funds so much - and keep our subs down! Mark  In today's SCF AGC match, HW Kites went down heavily to Harwell A. By lunchtime, only captain Chris had put a game on the HW side of the balance sheet and the afternoon went much the same way, to a final score of 13-3 to our visitors. Good sportsmanship, rainy weather, excellent cake, and the HW team kept smiling.  Phyllls Court suffered a narrow loss at High Wycombe in the Southern Federation GC 'B' League after a compelling deciding game from Kay Vickery. With all other matches completed Kay still had a decider to play in front of what was a huge crowd (for croquet) of the six other players. Initially going behind, Kay gave everyone some tense moments, tea was spilt, cake ignored - but Kay was made of steel today and she rallied, commanded the court and brought home victory on the Golden Hoop. It was a close run thing all day with all but two of the matches going to a third game and five games going to the Golden Hoop. Congrats to Michael and Nigel M for their wins and no thanks to me for losing both of mine -- but, it did make that final game compelling! Here are the team (Nigel Moore, Kay, Michael Bowker and Mark Higgins) and Raghu Iyer representing Phyllis Court. Mark Higgins  |
