Welcome to the Edinburgh Croquet Club
Croquet is a game of strategy, tactics and skill.
The Edinburgh Croquet club is based in the magnificent surroundings of Lauriston Castle in Edinburgh with the lawns having a fabulous outlook over the waters of the Firth of Forth.
On this site you'll
find information about our activities and facilities, along with details of how you can participate in this unique sport.
We hope you will find all of the information you are looking for about our club.
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Upcoming Events
Sunday 1st August: Stuart McKendrick Trophy, 13:50 for 14:00
Saturday 7th August:
Strawberry Tea (as part of club session)
Monday 16th August - Saturday 21st August: Edinburgh Tournament,
09:30 each day, Fettes College
Wednesday 25th August: Edinburgh Midweek Tournament
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Latest News

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| A regular visitor |
18/7/2010: 2-Day Tournament The Club’s first ever two-day tournament was played this weekend. Five members entered the
event, played to Advanced Handicap rules. Although publicised as a flexible Swiss, it ended up being an
American block, with each player playing all the others once. The handicaps ranged from 16 to 9, representing
a good spread of the middle-bisquers in the club. Six matches were played on Saturday, with the remaining
four played on Sunday. Both Janice Duguid and John Clark ended on three wins and one loss.
The first tie-break rule was the result of games between the tied contestants, which meant that Janice was declared
the winner, having beaten John +3T on Saturday afternoon.
Full results: Janice Duguid: 3/4 (Morven Wardley +9, John Clark +3T, Hamish Duguid +7T) John Clark: 3/4 (Hamish +1T, Sheila Tibbels +2T,
Morven +12) Hamish
Duguid: 2/4 (Sheila +3T, Morven +11) Sheila Tibbels: 2/4 (Janice +4T, Morven +11) Morven Wardley: 0/4.
10/07/2010: Forshall & Wardley
win Fun Doubles
Jean Forshall and Morven Wardley emerged victorious in this year's Fun Doubles
(The Harold Wright Rosebowls). An 8-strong field survived a sudden downpour half-way through the competition to yield
one of the closest results in recent years, with the winners on 72 points, the runners-up on 71 and the other two pairings
each on 68. Morven is proving something of a specialist in this event having won it four times previously, including
last year. Jean is also a previous winner, having won the title two years ago.
20/6/2010: Bamburgh
Away-Day
There can be few more idyllic settings for a day's croquet than the village green
at Bamburgh. Beneath the imposing towers and ramparts of Bamburgh Castle, the sound of mallet on ball mingles with the whack of willow on leather from the adjacent cricket
pitch, while low-flying swallows delight the eye with their aerobatics amongst the hoops. This was the scene on the
Sunday nearest midsummer when players gathered from near and far and from north and south for an innovative three-way match
- Bamburgh v Croquet North v Edinburgh.
The schedule for the match stated:
"There are four
players in each team..." (In fact, such was the popularity of the event that each side raised a team of five, which
complicated the scheduling somewhat as detailed below.)
"All players will be playing at all times."
(Well, four of each team were, and *which* four varied from round to round.)
"Each player will play three
games..." (Some played three games, and the rest played two.)
"Each player will play two games
of doubles and one game of singles." (Some did, while others had only doubles games, and one player had two singles
and one doubles.)
"Doubles pairs change partners at each doubles game so that any pair plays together once
only." (That was true!)
"All games are association (18 or 26-point to be decided...)."
(That also was true, with 18-point games in the first two rounds and 26-point games in the last round.)
"Lunch
will be provided in the pavilion." (True! And a very good lunch it was: thanks to Seonaidh and the other
Bamburgh Club members who contributed.)
There were in fact eight players from Edinburgh
taking part, but Jamie Edgar and Allan Hawke were in the Bamburgh team by virtue of their dual membership, and Fergus McInnes
was drafted in as an honorary Bamburgher (Bamburgensian?) to equalise the numbers, and issued with a Bamburgh Croquet Club
hat to counteract his Edinburgh Club shirt and fleece. The Bamburgh locals were John Woodman and Keith Whitfield.
Playing for Edinburgh were John Clark, Sheila Tibbels, Hamish and Janice Duguid and Andrew Macmillan; Croquet North had Roger
Staples, Nigel Roberts and Don McKinley from Middlesbrough, and Phil Errington and Derek Old from Belsay Hall. With
widely varying handicaps (from 2 to 20), all the games were played to handicap rules.
In the first round Bamburgh
played doubles against each of the visiting teams, and each doubles game was double-banked with a CN v Edinburgh
singles game. The honours were split in the singles, but both doubles games went to the home side. The game between
Fergus and John (Bamburgh) and Roger and Nigel (CN) was notable for a rather fluky jump shot by Fergus, whose ball didn't
go high enough to clear the obstructing ball but luckily bounced off it onto the target ball; also for the discovery, after
John had pegged out and the score had been recorded, that the bisques had been miscalculated and indeed awarded to the wrong
side! (Roger had stated his and Nigel's combined handicap as 17.5, after scaling down for the 18-point format according
to the table in the laws book. Fergus had taken this to be their *unadjusted* handicap, and had subtracted it from his
own and John's total of 24 and then scaled the difference down to get 4.5. As Roger and Nigel were actually 25 before
adjustment, they should have been receiving half a bisque instead of giving bisques. What difference this would have
made to the score, we shall never know, but it probably would have been closer than the +14 that the Bamburgh pair achieved.)
After lunch it was Croquet North's turn to play doubles against both the other teams; the games were close, but
both went to Croquet North's opponents, while Bamburgh continued its unbeaten run with wins over Edinburgh
in both the singles.
Finally Edinburgh played doubles against the others while the singles
pitted Bamburgh against Croquet North. With two and a half hours for 26 points, both doubles games went to time, although
the Bamburgh pair of Jamie and John were only one point short of finishing in their final turn. The singles got finished,
and yet again the Bamburgh team made a clean sweep.
The scoring for the match had been laid down as three points
for each doubles game and two points per singles game. On this basis Bamburgh (aka Edinburgh B :-) ) ended
up with a perfect score of 20 points, while Croquet North and Edinburgh were tied on 5. So the prize of champagne went
to the Bamburgh team - but the others didn't go away empty-handed, as Jamie had laid in enough sticks of Bamburgh rock
to distribute to all the players. So ended a well-organised and enjoyable match.
Results in full (affiliations
shown before players' names):
(B) Allan Hawke & Keith Whitfield bt (E) Janice Duguid & Sheila Tibbels
+12 (CN) Phil Errington bt (E) Hamish Duguid +6 (B) Fergus McInnes & John Woodman bt (CN) Roger Staples &
Nigel Roberts +14 (E) Andrew Macmillan bt (CN) Don McKinley +15
(E) John Clark & Andrew Macmillan bt (CN)
Nigel Roberts & Derek Old +5T (13-8) (B) Jamie Edgar bt (E) Janice Duguid +15 (B) Keith Whitfield & Fergus
McInnes bt (CN) Don McKinley & Phil Errington +4 (B) Allan Hawke bt (E) Sheila Tibbels +5
(B) Jamie Edgar
& John Woodman bt (E) John Clark & Sheila Tibbels +14T (25-11) (B) Allan Hawke bt (CN) Roger Staples +12 (CN)
Phil Errington & Nigel Roberts bt (E) Hamish Duguid & Janice Duguid +11T (20-9) (B) Fergus McInnes bt (CN) Derek
Old +21
-- Fergus.
13/6/2010: Mackenzie retains John
Blaikie Cup
Evelyn Mackenzie
won the John Blaikie Cup for the Short Croquet Tournament for the second successive year on Sunday.
Last
year's turnout of just 4 competitors was considered poor at the time, but this year's entry was particularly poor,
with only Andrew Macmillan turning up to challenge the defending champion. (Is she that good that she frightens
off the opposition? Or perhaps it was the bad weather in the morning that put people off.)
With only two competitors it was agreed
to play a best-of-three match. However, in the event Evelyn won 2-0 (+1T, +5T). Congratulations
to her, and let’s hope for better turn outs for other competitions through the season.
12/6/2010: Large Turnout for Dual Ells
This year, for
the first time, there were two Ells competitions to round off the Beginners’ Coaching. This arose
from the format of course, with participants choosing to follow the Golf Croquet stream or the Association Croquet stream.
Five competitors entered the Association Croquet Tournament and three the Golf Croquet Tournament.
The warm sunshine seemed to inspire everyone, with some excellent play in evidence, considering the level of experience
of the players involved. In the end the Golf Croquet
trophy went to Ken Miller, while the Association Croquet trophy was won by Brian McGrath. Congratulations
to them, and we hope to see them, and the other participants in this year’s course, on the lawns again soon.
9/10/2009: Other
Notable Events of the Season
SCA Tournaments & Competitions Fergus McInnes won the Golf Croquet Handicap.
Hamish Duguid won the Kinross
11+ Tournament and the Secretary Trophy.
Janice Duguid won the Scottish Short Croquet Championship. Alan Wilson won the Middle Bisquers.
Allan Hawke won the Malmet Trophy.
Andrew Macmillan won the 20+ Tournament for the second successive
year. Edinburgh 2 (Sheila Tibbels & John Clark) won the Inter-Club League. International
Honours
Fergus McInnes, Campbell Morrison and
Alan Wilson were all part of the 6-strong SCA team that lost 15-14 to Ireland.
Campbell,
Alan and Fergus were joined by Allan Hawke in the SCA team that lost (10-20) to the CA.
Fergus was also in the 4-strong team that beat CA North
Alan was also in the 4-strong team that tied with Jersey.
Campbell was also in the Scottish team in the Home
Internationals (won by England).
Fergus
was the Scottish representative at the European Championship in Jersey; he lost all his games on the first day and was thus out of the main event, but then won the consolation event.
8/10/2009: Competitions &
Tournaments Summary
What with being away on holiday and then studying for an upcoming exam your webmaster has been derelict in
his duty (smacked wrists all round), so this article serves as a round-up of all the recent events. Full
reports on the Tournaments can be found on our Competitions and Tournaments page, and there is a full report on the Edinburgh Tournament on the SCA website.
Competitions
Open Singles: Alan Wilson Handicap Singles: Jamie Edgar Veterans’ Singles: Ruth
Goudie Full Bisque
Singles: Janice Duguid Handicap League: John Clark Handicap Doubles: Janice Duguid & Hamish Duguid Golf Croquet: John Clark Golden Jubilee Ball: Campbell
Morrison Tournaments Lauriston Ells: Nina van Rooijen & Elizabeth Hotson
Fun Doubles: Peggy Bartlett & Morven Wardley Short Croquet: Evelyn Mackenzie Midweek Tournament: David Houston
(Meadows) 18+: John Dewar Stuart McKendrick Trophy: Allan Hawke
Edinburgh
Tournament Event 1: Jack Davies
Event 2: Alan Wilson Event 3: Jamie Edgar Event 4: Jola Jurasinska Event 5X: Sheila Tibbels & John
Clark Event 5Y:
Suzanne Cameron & James Hopgood Event 6X: Graham Brightwell Event 6Y: James Hopgood Lauder Bowl: Brian Cosford
26/8/2009: History made at Midweek Tournament
A little piece of history was
made at this year’s Edinburgh Midweek Tournament, but more on that later.
With the original entry of seven pared down to four there were two representatives from each of
the city clubs, Andrew Macmillan and Gerald Johnson from the Edinburgh Club and Brian Cosford and David Houston from the Meadows Club.
As forecast, the remnants of Hurricane Bill blew through mid-morning, so by the time play started just after 12 noon the rain
was petering out, never to return, and the wind had dropped to a strong breeze. Nevertheless, conditions
underfoot, particularly on lawn 2, remained squelchy throughout.
The format was a single American block of 18-point games with a ninety minute lime-limit.
All games went to time. At the end of the afternoon, Brian had been runner-up in all his games,
leaving the other three on two wins each. The tournament manager therefore went to net points to break
the tie, and with Andrew and Gerald each on +2, David Houston, on +4, was declared the winner.
And therein lies that little bit of history, for in its 14th year David is the
first ever winner of this tournament who is/was not a member of the Edinburgh Club. Congratulations to
David for striking this minor blow for the plurality of Scottish croquet!
Results: David Houston, 2/3 (bt Cosford +4T, Johnson +3T) Andrew Macmillan, 2/3 (bt Cosford +1T, Houston +3T) Gerald Johnson, 2/3 (bt Cosford +3T, Macmillan +2T) Brian Cosford 0/3

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| 2008 Ells Action at Lauriston Castle |
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