LAWN IMPROVEMENT DAY

A magnificent effort by eighteen members, undaunted by a slow drizzle in the morning, allowed us to complete in one day everything we set out to do.

Baguleys Garden Centre kindly provided 7.5 tons of soil and a turf cutter.

The low lying area on lawn 3 which is first to flood was the most important area worked on. Many other areas were levelled and raised to help prevent flooding and to improve the general flatness of the surface. Expert help in the shape of Dennis, who used to look after Hope Street, assured us we would get it right. Thanks to the catering crew who provided a hot lunch (and seconds) and tea throughout the day. All most welcome.

So now we must wait and see how it all turns out. It is impossible to fix everything in one go. We must take a long tem view. But we have made an excellent start.

13th October 2007

NEW INTERNAL TROPHY

Our tournament manager has commissioned a new trophy for the advanced competition.

At our annual dinner he announced that this trophy would be named the 'Liz Wilson Advanced Bowl' in recognition of her efforts and achievements within the club. Fittingly, Liz won the tournament this year and so is the first person to be presented with it.

12th October 2007

LONGMAN CUP WINNERS

The Commadore, MC2, Toxic and Bomshell scored an historic win at Wrest Park defeating Dyffryn in the final of the Longman cup. visit fixtures and visit trophies.
Simply the greatest achievement of the club.

8th October 2007

CORNISH WISDOM

Here are a couple of links to some articles that we might all benefit from reading.

How To Improve

Hints For Beginners

21st Septemeber 2007

The pendle connection

Three Fylde members have been playing matches for Pendle recently.

Andrew Webb travelled to Roehampton as he qualified for the Finals of the All England tournament. He put up a great performance leading after three rounds only dropping a game on the final day to the winner.

Liz & Peter Wilson will travel to Wrest Park representing Pendle in the final of the Mary Rose. They will join our Handicap team who are in the finals of the Longman Cup on the same week end.


Rembering JB

18th Septemeber 2007

Find-A-Club

Oxford Croquet is a very large site and always worth another look because new features are always appearing!

such as this one

The usual Google Earth features such as zoom in/out, Map/Road/Hybrid Click & drag and route finding are all supported. Click on a flag for more information about the clubs.

Find a link to the Oxford Croquet home page on our information page.

17th Septemeber 2007

New web pages for Members only

The home page now contains a link to a members only section of the website.

If you have not received your password please contact the webmeister.

The FCC document download section has been moved from the information page to the members page

11th Septemeber 2007

Fylde win through to longman finals

Read more in fixtures.

From: Derek Buxton
Sent: 9 September 2007 21:54
To: Liz Wilson
Subject: Longman Cup
Liz and all, Thanks very much for the welcome and hospitality, well played. We're looking forward to seeing you lift the Cup. Kindest regards, Derek, Mick, Jeremy and Tim.

9th Septemeber 2007

All England area final

Our representative at the All England Area Finals this year was Terry.

Terry sets up the break on Pendle & Craven's court 3.

This tournament always attracts improving players and Terry battled over the two days finishing a creditable 9th equal in the field of 16.

27th August 2007

CA Awards and trophy at Pendle

Lee, Andrew, Betty and Alan entered the Pendle August Handicap Tournament Managed by Peter and Liz. Betty and Alan achieved their Bronze Awards; Lee made Silver and also won the low handicap trophy narrowly missing out on the overall winner's trophy to a fast improving player from Ashby.

New recruit Pugwash came to watch the exploits of Bombshell, The Machine, Golden Boy, The Volcano, Boss and Red Cards.

27th August 2007

Fylde Members on form

Peter and Liz both hit some winning form over the five games and tied for first place in the Swiss section of the Southport B level tournament. There was a six hoop one ball tie break which Peter won. Lee's handicap triggered down to three and a half, collecting some notable scalps in the process.

6th August 2007

CA Bronze award for terry

Congratulations to Terry as he achieved the bronze award today in his Longman Cup match.

23rd July 2007

Jamboree Handicap Success

Lee (c), Andrew and Terry won the NW Federation Championships Handicap event with 3/3 adding a new trophy to our collection. The overall winners of the event were Bowdon and Southport were runners up. We came 3rd overall.

The second day was washed out by the heavy rain.

1st July 2007

Grade 1 coaching badge for liz

John and Barbara Haslam visited our club for the day. In the morning Liz demonstrated the required grade 1 skills and John conferred the badge upon her. In the afternoon Barbara coached several of our beginners on the short lawns. John took our advanced players through a series of discussions regarding cannons, leaves, openings and break building.

3rd June 2007

back to back wins for Lee at southport

Lee returned to Southport over the bank holiday weekend to defend the Southport and Birkdale Croquet Club Handicap Singles trophy. 24 players, from as far afield as South Wales and the North East of England, were split into 2 groups of 12 with the top 2 in each group after the first 2 days qualifying for the semi-finals.

Lee qualified with a perfect record of 5 out of 5 and was drawn to play Andrew also of Fylde, who was similarly unbeaten. Something had to give and Lee took an early lead which he never surrendered, eventually winning +8 on time. This set up the final against Brian Lewis of Southport, who Lee had already beaten in the group stage. With Brian playing below his best Lee comfortably won the final +15 as so retained the trophy.

26th - 28th May 2007

NW Millennium Handicap 2007

Held at Chester, we sent Alan and Ken to join eleven other players from four other North West clubs, Bowdon, Bury, Chester and Southport, to take part this year.

A tournament debut for Ken.

An impressive performance from both our players with one win out of five in this tournament well known for the strength of the entries.

12th & 13th May 2007

open day

The weather did not favour us, as a month of fine days ended with a chilly wind and rain in the afternoon. Neverthless about fifteen visitors attended and played some Croquet for the first time.

Most have expressed an interest in returning for the Beginners course which starts on Thursday 10th May.

6th May 2007

Liz is back on Radio Lancashire

Radio Lancashire's Ted Robbins invited Liz to take part in their 'Posh' debate. Listen to part 1 by clicking on the link below. Please note these files are large and may take time to download.

Liz on Radio Lancashire May 2007 - The 'posh' debate part 1

At this point Ted played a record while he had a crash course in hoop running off-mike.

The Beatles

Does Ted make hoop 1? Find out by clicking the link to part 2 below.

Liz on Radio Lancashire May 2007 - The 'posh' debate part 2

Listen To Radio Lancashire Live Now

2nd May 2007

New mower arrives

The lawns have now been cut for the second time with the new mower set to a low cut.

The mower collects the cuttings in a hopper and this is expected to gradually improve the soil surface. We hope there will be further improvements to come as the lawns respond to the regular mowing schedule of twice a week.

30th April 2007

Easter Sunday club day season opening

Lawns: Cut, white lined and looking good.

Hoops: Set.

Last fence post foundations: Removed.

Forecast: Good.

All done: Follow Betty's new signage to the lawns.

6th April 2007

Colour coded carrots

Norman has devised a new system for ensuring the sets of hoops stay together and are only used on the correct lawn.

The colour of the carrots indicates which lawn the set belongs to and also identifies which way it should be set on the lawn.

4th April 2007

Midgeland trophy one day event

This year rather than play the internal golf games throughout the season there will be a one day tournament (Manager Lee Hartley) on the 29th July.

11th March 2007

Fix it day Fixed it

The small shed to the west of the clubhouse was demolished. The large shed to the east was cleared out providing a space for the machinery. The tap was removed along with all the concrete edging which ran along the north boundary of the lawns. This will allow the lawns to be mowed much closer to the clubhouse and provide additional width to the lawns this year. Three fence post foundations were removed, but time and energy ran out so three remain for another day.

Lipshaw - 'the only worker in the club'.

25th March 2007

liz makes england ladies top 10

At the end of the 2006 season The C.A. rankings for advanced play place Liz 10th in England.

2nd February 2007

Lawn Update

The lawns are soggy but looking good today. Following the storms from last week the pavilion is undamaged however SSLTC's small shed to the West has lost the roof and the sides are flapping about. We have heard from SSLTC this will be demolished before we start play. The other shed will also be repaired in order to accommodate the machinery which is in the pavilion at the moment. A new lawnmower with a hopper to catch the cut grass and possibly a seat, has been approved by SSLTC. Some of the Laylandia which were not removed have fallen onto the unused grass tennis courts to the West. It was a good thing we had the ones near our lawns cut down, however two trees on the opposite side of the ditch have fallen towards our lawns. They were weak and removing the trees took away their protection. No damage has been done to the lawns, the 'seats' made from the old trees stopped them falling all the way down. They will be cut back by the grounds man. The Indoor Tennis court has suffered badly in the winds and lost many sections of roof.

28th January 2007