Visit from Al Noor Mosque

The Al Noor Mosque, scene of the horrific 15 March shooting. is less than a 10-minute walk from United. We wanted to support them and get to know our neighbours, so we invited them to join us for croquet and socialising on Sunday 26 January.

About 30 members from the Mosque turned up, including children and families. After a few games we all chatted over a generous amount of food and our club members got to try food that is popular with Muslims.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and several are keen to come back on club days. Some very small children were very adept at handling a mallet that was bigger than they are.

A Golf Croquet doubles competition was held over a few weeks in September 2018 organised by club captain Pam Hurst.

The premier division (0-6) had three pairs and was played as a block. Tony O’Donnell and Bruce McLay won their two games to win the event.

The intermediate division (7-11) was played as a knockout and was won by Lena Metcalf and Lovena Sparks.

The primary division (12-16) was also played as a knockout and was won by Libby and John Dickie.

Winners of the Premier division, Bruce McLay and Tony O’Donnell with club president Philippa Porter.

Winners of the Intermediate division, Lena Metcalf and Lovena Sparks with club president Philippa Porter.

Winner of the Primary division, John Dickie with club president Philippa Porter. Libby Dickie is absent.

Click here for a calendar view of events.

Sat 15th September 2018

Noon: Pizza lunch
12:30pm: Weeding session
12:45pm Third round of knock-out play. Winners declared, and cups presented.

Sun 16th September 2018

8:30am: Spring Tournament for GC. Manager: Tony O’Donnell, Singles open and singles handicap play.

Wed 19th September 2018

12.45pm Special competition with prizes. Chris Clarke will come and coach AC players. Among other things he will offer some useful ideas about hoop approaching from difficult positions.

Sat 22nd September 2018

9am start in large room next door. Tony O’Donnell will be going through all the Golf Croquet rules we should know before we start the inter-club competitions. This is open to all players in Canterbury.
Car-parking may be limited so use the public parks if you have a ticket please.
10.30am Morning tea followed by a meeting called by Jono for the club captains to work through all the seasons play. Timetables for games and venues will be given out.
10.45am Progressive play.
12.45am Progressive play.

Wed 26th September 2018

12.45pm Progressive play. Final remarks from Mary concerning card filling and etiquette on the lawn.

Sat/Sun 29th and 30th September 2018

Two AC events will be played using our lawns and managed by Chris Clarke. There may be lawns available, but we will know by 26th so if OK, just come down and play.

Wed 3rd October 2018

Last practice day before inter-club competitions begin. Team members to play together and team huddles!
3pm Afternoon tea.

Golf Croquet Inter-Club

Fridays 9am start.

5th 12th, 19th and 26th October 2nd, 9th, 23rd and 30th November and 7th December
Div 1 starts 12th Oct
Div 2 starts 5th Oct
Div 3 starts 5th Oct.

Association Croquet Inter-club

Tuesdays, 9.30am (or earlier), start
9th, 16th, 30th October 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th November, 4th December

Johnson Competition

Saturdays, 9am start
6th, 13th, 27th October 3rd, 10th, 24th November
Play-offs 1st, 8th December

Make sure you have your captain’s contact details.
Captains: please make sure all your team members know where and when they are to be and organize transport if necessary.

Other events

CCA GC Handicap Singles, Sun 28 Oct at Cashmere

CCA GC Handicap Doubles, Sun 25th Nov at United

Beginners Day, Sun 2nd Dec at St James Park. Open to everyone who is new to croquet last year or this year

South Island AC Champs at United Wed 12th to Sun 16th Dec

NZ AC Open 5th to 13th Jan in BoP

CCA AC Grades Singles Sat and Sun 5th and 6th Jan at St Martins

CCA AC H/C Singles Sat and Sun 19th and 20th Jan at Holmes Park

NZ GC Open will be in Nelson 20th to 26th Jan

The Atkins GC inter-club competition begins on Saturday 26th January 2019 for 6 or 7 weeks

Association Carol Hayward (Singles) begins 29th Jan

The Maude Trainor (GC Singles) begins on Friday 1st Feb for 5 weeks.

CCA AC Open Sat 2nd and Sun 3 Feb at St James Park

CCA GC Grades Wed 6th Feb (Waitangi Day) at Fendalton Park

The Agnes Dick (AC Doubles) is held on Monday and Tuesday 25th and 26th Feb at Elmwood

The regular AC United Weekend Tournament was held on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 September, managed by Chris Clarke.

As usual, it was run with an open event and a handicap event.
The weather on Saturday was cloudy and cool (some might say cold).
The start on Sunday was a bit later as clocks were put forward with daylight saving. The day started with drizzle and rain but improved in the afternoon.

With eight entries, the handicap was played as two American blocks of 4 with three 2.5-hr games on the Saturday. The top 2 players went into the Gold Play-offs and the bottom 2 players went into the Silver Play-offs.

Two 3hr games were played on Sunday.
Block A 1st v Block B 2nd. Block A 2nd v Block B 1st.
Block A 3rd v Block B 4th and Block A 4th v Block B 3rd.
This was followed by winners v winners and losers v losers.
The winner was Pam Hurst of United and runner-up Jono Hart.
Tony O’Donnell won the Silver Play-offs.

The Open Event. with 13 entries, was played as a flexible swiss with 2.75hr time limits.
Harps Tahurangi won the event with Jenny Clark of United runner-up.
John Yarrall was declare the best non-minus player winning 40% of his games.

Full results are on Croquet Scores.

Harps Tahurangi (winner of the Open) and Pam Hurst (winner of the handicap)

The second United September Golf Croquet weekend tournament was held on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th September 2016. An AC event has been run in September for several years and will be held 24th and 25th September.

The new Golf Croquet handicap regulations came into effect from 1 September 2016. The manager had a busy time updating and issuing new AHS cards for several players who had not had their old one updated.

The weather was kind with no rain and plenty of sun for his time of the year. Rain in the days before the weekend meant that the lawns had not been mown and were rather long. They were finally mown after the first day’s play.

Four players entered the Open event. It was played as a triple round robbin with five 13-point games played the first day and four the second. Edmund Fordyce (Waireka, South Canterbury) won eight of his nine games to take the event for the second time. Edmund’s new handicap is -3 (compared to his previous 0). With one loss, his index points reduced in spite of winning the event. Neil Williamson (Hornby) was runner-up with five wins.

The handicap event had a field of nine and was played as a round robin with five rounds games on Saturday and four on Sunday and each player having one bye. The winner of the handicap was Alan Belcher (Hornby)  winning all 8 of his games. Carolyn Fordyce (Waireka, South Canterbury) was runner up, losing only to Alan.

Full results are on Croquet Scores.

The last game of the tournament

Carolyn Fordyce (runner-up handicap), Edmund Fordyce (winner open), Alan Belcher (winner handicap) and Neil Williams (runner-up open)

Saturday 3 September marked the official club start to the summer croquet season.

The day started with a BBQ lunch after which the club captain updated us with the season’s competitions.

Lunch on Opening Day 2016

Chris and Jenny Clarke arranged for the shield for the World Teams Golf Croquet Champs to be on display. Chris pointed out that three of the four members of the winning team are United members.

Full results and commentaries are at
https://croquetscores.com/2016/gc/golf-croquet-world-team-tier-1-at-surbiton/

Members of the winning team for the 2016 World GC Teams’ Championship, Jenny, Chris and Duncan

Shield for the World GC Teams’ Championship, made by Ray Atkins of Christchurch