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 31st July: Stuart McKendrick Memorial Trophy (09:30 onwards)
Friday
5th - Sunday 7th August: Weekend Tournament (various)
Monday 15th - Saturday 20th August: Edinburgh Tournament
(09:30 daily)
Wednesday 24th August: Edinburgh Midweek Tournament (09:30)
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Latest News
12/6/2011 - Duguid Too Good for Competition
With the attraction of a possible Andy
Murray victory at Queen’s Club on the TV on the one hand and the threat of rain on the other, it was perhaps surprising
that there were as many as 4 entrants for the 2011 Short Croquet. Bearing in mind the forecast rain it
was agreed to play a round-robin of games with 45 minutes time limits. In
the end there were no losers, everyone winning at least one game. However, there must always be a winner
and with Hamish Duguid and Sheila Tibbels tied on two wins apiece, the tie was broken in Hamish’s favour on points difference.
And just to make everyone happy the rain stayed away and instead the sun came out!
11/6/2011 - Lauriston Ells
Of the 19 people who enroled on this year's beginners' coaching course, 13 took part in the Lauriston Ells,
a very good turnout, especially considering the poor weather. As last year two competitions were held in parallel, one
for Association Croquet, the other for Golf Croquet. The former was one by Ian Gray and the latter by Elaine Gillings.
25/08/2010: Houston defends Midweek Tournament
Having last year become the first non-club member to win the Edinburgh Midweek Tournament, David Houston
this year became the first non-member to defend the title. Only one other person, Morven Wardley (nee Cross)
has ever successfully defended the trophy. Congratulations to David on his success!

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| Fettes winners 2010 - Hamish Duguid, Janice Duguid, Alan Wilson, Allan Hawke & Brian Murdoch |
22/08/2010: Edinburgh Tournament
The host club had it's most succesful Edinburgh Tournament ever, with club members winning all
bar one of the events. The exception was Event 1, the Open Singles, won by Brian Murdoch.
The most successful
player of the tournament was probably Hamish Duguid, who won Event 4 (Handicap Singles, 14+), Event 6Y (Handicap Singles,
Swiss) and Event 5X (Handicap Doubles, KO) with his partner Janice Duguid. The only other person to win more than one
event was Allan Hawke, who won Event 2 (Advanced Singles, 4+) and Event 5Y (handicap Doubles, Swiss) with his partner Bob
Darling.
The other winners were Jamie Edgar (Event 3 - Advanced with Bisques, 8+) and Alan Wilson (Event 6X - Handicap
Singles, KO). The Lauder Bowl for the player advancing furthest without actually winning anything was won by Andrew
Macmillan.
Full details can be found on the SCA website.
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.

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| 2008 Ells Action at Lauriston Castle |
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