2015 News
Additional pictures can be seen in our Photo Gallery and detailed match results/reports via our Competitive Play page
15th September – SECF A League v Woking – lost 0:7
13th September – Mark Houslop is the star on Finals Day
Despite a late cancellation of the final of the Spa due to illness we had 8 Finals played, with Mark being the star winning all his three matches!
A great lunch ensured that all players and spectators enjoyed the day (we got up to 20 at one point and included many members who are struggling a bit to get on the lawns). This was thanks mainly to Kate Sander in her catering role – unfortunately she lost both her games…
10th September – SECF A League v Surbiton – lost 2:5
6th September – Brian Havill wins Honeygrove Cup
Reduced from two days to just one due to some late withdrawals we had a great sunny day for some tight games between the six players. Alex Jardine has recovered his mojo and after winning two games contested the final game with Brian, but good manners dictated that the visitor should be the winner. Hopefully we’ll manage to get the trophy to him soon, or perhaps he’ll just have to come back next year to defend it.
5th/6th September – All England
Barney Lewis, who won our heat for the CA All England Association Handicap event, came third in the Regional Final at Surbiton with 3 wins and is now first reserve for the finals at Chester.
We wish him well!!
29th August – John Moore wins the Howell Cup
10 players were involved in our Association High Bisquers tournament this year and John ran out a well-deserved winner. Thanks to everybody who helped with the event.
22nd August – SECF U League v Reigate Priory – lost 2:5
19th August – SECF U League v Compton – won 4:3
17th August – SECF Golf Handicap League v Sydenham – lost 2:7
8th/9th August – Martin Lester wins the Pegasus Plate
On a lovely sunny weekend, so unlike the extraordinarily damp event last year, 10 players suffered in the heat, with Martin Lester running out the winner of our regular Open Association Handicap tournament. He won the tournament, having tied with Jon Diamond, by virtue of having beaten Jon +11 in their match in the fourth round.
Martin is a post-graduate at Oxford University, but his parents live in TW, so is a member of both clubs. Unfortunately we don’t seem to see him playing in TW apart from this particular tournament.
A lovely time seemd to have been enjoyed by all, with the lawns getting to almost glass-like in some spots, so quite tricky to play on!
| Player | Handicap | Club | Wins |
|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Lester | 4.5 | Oxford University & Tunbridge Wells | 4 |
| Jon Diamond | 1.5 | Tunbridge Wells | 4 |
| John Hobbs | 3.5 | Tunbridge Wells | 3 |
| Richard Lea | 9 | Medway | 3 |
| Jane Collier | 14 | Colchester | 3 |
| Mark Houslop | 12 | Tunbridge Wells | 3 |
| Ann Brookes | 9 | Colchester | 2 |
| John Bateson | 6 | Medway | 2 |
| Mick Belcham | 5 | Tunbridge Wells | 1 |
| Alex Jardine | 3 | Tunbridge Wells | 0 |
7th August – SECF U League v Ramsgate lost 1:6
6th August – SECF Golf Handicap League v Dulwich won 6:3
2nd August – SECF Golf Teams Day
We did not cover ourselves in glory, and certainly did worse than last year, but the second team did come third in the singles – helped by Geoff Croxford winning all three of his singles. Lister Fielding also did well winning 2 singles and both his doubles.
Presumably the full reports will be available on the SECF website in due course.
27th July – SECF A League v Sussex County lost 0:7
27th July – SECF Golf Restricted League v Woking won 4:3
25th July – Barney Lewis wins the Lewis Shield!
After a hard fought final and deciding game against Jeff Chapman, Barney Lewis won by +2 on time, making a clean sweep of all three games and qualifying for the Regional Final at Surbiton.
9th July – SECF Golf Restricted League v Medway won 6:1
4th/5th July – Southern Challenge
Division 1 of this SECF team tournament was held at Southwick over a mostly sunny weekend, with som unpleasant rain during the first game on Sunday. 10 teams took part in an all-play-all basis (each match is a doubles and two singles), with a further three rounds in a banded play-off basis. Dulwich, as has become usual, won again!
Unfortunately, a late withdrawal due to injury of John Hobbs, left our team of Jon Diamond, John Greenwood, John Moore and Geoff Croxford a little depleted and a bit weaker than we’d expected, with Mark Houslop being dragged in as a late replacement.
We also didn’t perform quite up to scratch, losing a couple of matches which we should nominally have won. Still, we didn’t get relegated and eventually finished up in seventh place (a bit down on our best placement of fourth in its first year).
Our results were:
| Opponent | All-Play-All | Play-Off |
|---|---|---|
| Dulwich | 0-3 | |
| Sussex County 1 | 2-1 | 0-3 |
| Ryde | 1-2 | |
| Winchester | 1-2 | |
| Canterbury | 1-2 | 0-3 |
| West Worthing | 3-0 | |
| Littlehampton | 0-3 | 2-1 |
| Caterham | 2-1 | |
| Sussex County 2 | 0-3 |
Full details can be seen here.
29th June – SECF Golf Restricted League v Dulwich loss by disqualification
15th June – SECF Golf Handicap League v Caterham won 5:4
8th June – SECF Golf Restricted League v Reigate Priory lost 3:4
6th June – Jon Diamond wins the Montevideo Cup
The manager wins at last!
A lovely sunny Saturday showed Tunbridge Wells at its best – the lawns were green, reasonably fast and flat and the Open Level Play Golf Croquet Singles was complete with 12 players on the three lawns.
Sadly, the chilly wind caused a bit of discomfort, but the players seemed happy with 7 rounds of play (2 blocks of 6 followed by a semi-final and final) and no game went to time.
Three Tunbridge Wells players qualified for the semi-finals: Mike Gentry beat Derek Crocombe 7-5 and Jon Diamond beat Richard Brooks (Sussex County) 7-3, leaving an all Tunbridge Wells final. So for the first time since the cup was presented in 2010 a Tunbridge Wells player graced the trophy, with Jon Diamond the overall winner beating Mike Gentry 7-4 in the final, despite having dropped a game during the block play.
Both Derek Crocombe and Derek Heath played well enough to have their handicaps reduced.
| BLOCK A | Club | H’cap | Richard Brooks | Robin Wooton | Keith Webb | Mike Gentry | Frank Gunstone | Derek Heath | WINS |
| Richard Brooks | Sussex County | 2 | 7-6 | 7-5 | 7-5 | 7-3 | 7-2 | 5 | |
| Robin Wooton | Sussex County | 2 | 6-7 | 7-6 | 6-7 | 6-7 | 7-4 | 2 | |
| Keith Webb | West Worthing | 2 | 5-7 | 6-7 | 7-5 | 6-7 | 7-6 | 2 | |
| Mike Gentry | Tunbridge Wells | 3 | 5-7 | 7-6 | 5-7 | 7-5 | 7-3 | 3 | |
| Frank Gunstone | Tunbridge Wells | 5 | 3-7 | 7-6 | 7-6 | 5-7 | 6-7 | 2 | |
| Derek Heath | Tunbridge Wells | 7 | 1-7 | 4-7 | 6-7 | 3-7 | 7-6 | 1 |
| BLOCK B | Club | H’cap | Jon Diamond | Jonathan Isaacs | John Hobbs | John Moore | Derek Crocombe | Michelle Damon | WINS |
| Jon Diamond | Tunbridge Wells | 1 | 7-1 | 7-3 | 7-2 | 6-7 | 7-3 | 4 | |
| Jonathan Isaacs | Sussex County | 2 | 1-7 | 7-6 | 7-4 | 6-7 | 7-1 | 3 | |
| John Hobbs | Tunbridge Wells | 2 | 3-7 | 6-7 | 4-7 | 6-7 | 7-4 | 1 | |
| John Moore | Tunbridge Wells | 3 | 2-7 | 4-7 | 7-4 | 3-7 | 6-7 | 1 | |
| Derek Crocombe | Tunbridge Wells | 4 | 7-6 | 7-5 | 7-5 | 7-3 | 7-5 | 5 | |
| Michelle Damon | Sussex County | 6 | 3-7 | 1-7 | 4-7 | 7-6 | 5-7 | 1 |
17th May – SECF Golf Handicap League – beat Ivychurch 5:4
25th/26th April – Robert Alexander wins the Kent Cup
Despite the seasonal or unseasonal cold weather luckily it almost didn’t rain, so the annual Association Advanced event for players who were born or live in Kent or play for a Kent club went ahead without interruption. Alex managed the event impeccably as usual with a full house.
Lawn 3 was unbearably slow, but the other two were reasonably fast, causing problems for people trying to adapt between the lawns.
However, it was clear that Robert was the outstanding player, winning all 5 games, including the final 2-0 against our own Jolyon Creasey; Jolyon had beaten Robert in the Swiss earlier, but just couldn’t get going in the Final…
Jolyon’s handicap is reduced from 1.5 to 1, but sadly Alex’s increased from 1.5 to 2….
Detailed results are:
| Name | Club | Wins | Losses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robert Alexander | Medway | 4 | 1 |
| John Bateson | Medway | 2 | 3 |
| Jolyon Creasey | TW | 3 | 2 |
| John Daniels | Purley Bury | 3 | 2 |
| Jon Diamond | TW | 3 | 2 |
| John Greenwood | TW | 3 | 2 |
| John Hobbs | TW | 2 | 3 |
| Alex Jardine | TW | 1 | 4 |
| Trevor Longman | Ramsgate | 3 | 2 |
| Philip Mann | Medway | 4 | 1 |
| Charles Martin | Ramsgate | 1 | 4 |
| Colin Prichard | – | 1 | 4 |
12th April – Opening Day
We had 25 people in total, more than half the club, playing during the day both AC and GC and welcomed two new members, George and Anne Bolland. A good time was had by all, especially those enjoying the great lunch provided by Kate Sander.
Special congratulations to the players in the One Ball – Barney Lewis was the winner, beating Jolyon Creasey in the final, and we raised £100 for the CA Charity (Bowel Cancer). Actually, this entitles us to another representative for the final at Surbiton on 10th May. Hopefully we’ll get a volunteer, as Jolyon can’t go.
8th March – Monthly One Ball
A lovely day brought out some of our not so hardy folk, with play on all 3 lawns, which are in excellent condition.
1st March – AGM report
Our AGM was held on 28th February with the main highlights being:
- Committee unchanged (Bob Bruce elected as Secretary)
- Our Accounts showed a healthy surplus last year, mainly because we had no significant Autumn Maintenance costs, but we are likely to have to replace one of our expensive lawn mowers in the not too distant future
- Subscriptions unchanged
- People who have outstanding Key Deposits need to reclaim them by 30th June, otherwise they’ll be treated as Donations
- Jeff Chapman will be organising a date for Clubhouse decorating etc and members are requested to turn up
- A new set of bisques and holders are been made by John Hobbs
- Carolyn Gunstone will be organising the cleaning rota and a Spring Clean early in April
- It was unanimously agreed that the Ladder games would now be included on Handicap Cards
- A Coaching paper was discussed and agreed
- It was agreed that the Club would vote in favour of the proposals submitted for the Croquet Association SGM
The full minutes are available here.