BURY SOUTH 8 FYLDE FALCONS 10

BURY SOUTH : David Artinstall 9, Duncan Meachin 9, Lynne Mather 12, Barbara Duncan 12.
FALCONS : Alison Broughton 9, Barbara Walker 10, Colin Galbraith 11, Barry Broughton 12.

Our last match in the Northern Section of the league saw us playing at Bury South in Coronation Park in hot sun but with 2 short sharp showers.

We lost the doubles but our team rallied in the singles making the scored level at lunch. The final score of 8 - 10 to us means we are unbeaten all season and finish top of the league.

Thanks go to all our team members who have played this year.
Alison and Barry, Betty, Colin, Derek, Don, John C, Lindsay, Ted and Barbara.
!!WELL DONE ALL!!

Posted by Barbara, 29th July

Coasters 6 Bury North 12

Coasters: Philip Bass 6, Sue Clarke 7, Catherine Bass 9, Jude Acda 9.
Bury North: Bernard Lord 5, Gill Freely 6, Norman Averil 8, John Cassell 11.

The day started with a disturbing discovery behind the croquet buildings. The body of a beautiful fox had to be removed and Liz and Philip were on hand to do it. To start, the doubles matches scored one for each team but then followed a series of hard fought games. Our team battled through and played down to the wire in some circumstances. It must be noted here that jump shots featured in several games and took too many hoops away from us. Catherine executed some surprising hooping - she herself admitted surprise! In the end the opposition won through but an enjoyable, sunshiny day of croquet was had by all.

Posted by Sue, 29th July

FYLDE FALCONS 11 CRAKE 7

FALCONS: Barbara Walker (C) 10, Alison Broughton 10, Barry Broughton 12, Don Norman 12.
CRAKE Frank Sharps (C) 5, Graham Jowett 7, Paul Galley 9, Roger Coates 10.

The doubles were played in fine sunny conditions. The two "B's" took on Frank & Roger and the Hooping Meister, Barry led us to a 7 - 3 win. Alison and Don also claimed a victory 7 - 2 over Graham and Paul.

The rain arrived during the first of the singles but the Falcons took a good lead. Alison was the star of the 2nd round hooping twice from 21yards. The score at lunch 8 - 2 .

Sunshine and showers continued for the rest of the afternoon which seemed to suit our visitors as they won 5 of the last 8 games. However this was not enough and the Falcons took the match 11 - 7. Fortunately the forecasted thunder and lightening stayed away.

Well done, another great win for the Falcons.

Posted by Barbara, 15th July

COASTERS 14 BURY SOUTH 4

Coasters: Sue Clarke 8 Jude Acda 9 Shelagh Fagen 11 Ursula Walker 12.
Bury South: Barbara Duncan 12 Duncan Meachin 9 Lynne Mather 12 Sue Worth 12.

In a week of showers and downpours, match day was blessed with continuous sunshine. The opposition arrived with a computer generated results sheet which meant no calculating and initial initial form- filling. Hopefully this will be adopted and used throughout the league.

The doubles matches at the start of the day really didn’t reflect the subsequent match scores. Bury won both doubles. The rest of the day apart from two close-run losses, belonged to Fylde Coasters.

All team members played with enthusiasm and resilience with an obvious will to win. We all agreed though that having to use the new scoring system was an extra pressure. Maybe this will be looked at and a simpler method devised for the future.

Posted by Sue, 13th July

BURY NORTH 6 FYLDE FALCONS 12

Bury N: Bernard Lord 5, Ian SAUNDERS 6, Gill Freely 6, Lynne Gaul Rogers 7.
Falcons Barbara Walker 10, Ted Walker 10, Derek Matthews 11, Lindsay Campbell 12.

The closure of the M 55 & M 6 increased our journey time by an additional 40 minutes but we arrived in time to start the match at 10.05.

The doubles and morning singles were shared equally 5 games each. After the lunch break the Falcons upped their game winning 7 of the 8 games. The only loss between the captain's Bernard beating Barbara 7 - 6.

Lindsay benifitted from the midweek coaching completing successful jump shots. Well done.

The return trip was also affected by the overturned milk tanker which had closed the M55 and M6 since early morning, the journey taking 2 1/2 hours around grid locked Preston. Grateful thanks to Derek for his careful and patient driving.

Posted by Barbara, 5th July

Pendle 9 Falcons 9

Pendle: Cathy O’Brien 6, Karen Bamforth 7, David Carpenter 8 Sharon Demain 11.
Fylde: Barbara Walker 9. Ted Walker 10, Alison Broughton 10, Colin Galbraith 12.

A prompt 10am start in warm sunshine but a chilly breeze. The opening doubles were shared at 7 – 5, both games completed in 65 minutes. At lunch Pendle led by 6 – 4 so all to play for in the afternoon.

After game 14 Pendle had won 9 so couldn’t be beaten but the Falcons were determined to fight back. Alison and Colin were both down 3 – 0 in the last 2 games but, after a tough struggle managed to win 7 – 6 to secure the draw. Well done to Colin who won all 4 of his singles.

Game eight was eventful. Sharon & Barbara took a wrong turning and whilst retracing our steps, 2 very lively dogs invaded the lawn. Confused even more, we managed to sort out the mess and I took the game 7 – 5. Most games were very close , with 11 of the 16 singles finishing 7 – 5.

The day concluded with ice lollies enjoyed in the sunshine.

Posted by Barbara, 6th June

coasters 9 westmorland 9

Lovely sunny day for our match against Westmorland.

Team : Jan Smith 5, John Proctor 11, Rob Bentwood 12, and Joanne Proctor12.
Westmorland: John Armer 5, David Snaith 6, Fiona Armer 11, David Massey.

Doubles, John and Joanne playing in only their second league game made short work against very experienced opponents winning 7-2. Jan and Robert (also playing only his second league game) made hard work of their match but after playing for 90 minutes managed a narrow win.

The first round was evenly matched winning 2 games apiece including Johns 7-1 win against Westmorlands most experienced player. Round 2 was a white wash by Fylde winning all their games including another great 7-2 result for John and 7-3 for Joanne. Rob and Jan both had to battle it out at hoop 13 but both won their games. We then stopped for lunch whilst basking in the beautiful sunshine. Fylde at this point had won 8 games and were favourites to win the match. Unfortunately 'the wheel fell off' and we lost all 4 games in the next round .

There was everything to play for in the final round but with only John winning his match against David Massey 7-2, and Rob narrowly missing out 6-7. The final result was a respectable draw 9-9. All three of our new players played extremely well. John in particular having great results in the doubles and 3 of his singles only missing out on a clean sweep in round 3 at the 'golden hoop'

There was lots of banter at the end of our matches with Westmorland staying for tea and cake.

Posted by Jan, 6th June

Crake Valley 11 Fylde Coasters 7

The final team score showed the determination of every Coasters’ member to play at their best and more importantly to enjoy the moment. Coasters were not fazed by a very strong Crake opposition but on the contrary, learned from some of their great croquet skills. Jude and Ursula started with a doubles win and both of them went on to play some very good games. Ursula is one to watch in Fylde and did some great hooping and tactics, winning one singles and holding other games to creditable scores. Shelagh may have been disappointed with her form on the day but her scores also reflect her determination under pressure. She’ll soon be “first past the post” again no doubt! Jude and Sue were playing up to scratch, with lots of very acurate strokes and both with winning scores against opposition’s handicap 3 player and Sue holding Crake’s minus one player to 6 – 7 The day was memorable for its warm and sunny weather and the friendly welcome from Crake. (The croquet was good too!)

Posted by Sue, 8th May

FYLDE FALCONS 11 WESTMORLAND 7

FALCONS : Betty Bates 3, John Cutler 8, Ted Walker 10, Lindsay Campbell 12
WESTMORLAND : John Armer 5, Neil Marland 10, David Massy 11, Mark Gregory 11

The match started with 2 doubles under dull grey skies and a steady drizzle. The lawns were slow because of the earlier rain. In the second pairs game Lindsay and Ted secured a win 7 – 3 in just 30 minutes against David & Mark, whilst the first game took 1 hour 20 minutes to secure the 6 – 7 win for the Westmorland pair of John & Neil over Betty and John.

To make progress it was agreed to start the singles at game 11 with Ted beating Mark 7 - 3 and in game 12 Lindsay had a big win of 7 - 1 over David. With games played out of order the scores were level when lunch was taken at 12.45, the match score 4 – 4. After the lunch break Falcons forged ahead and won the next 3 games to lead with 5 games remaining.

In the final two singles Betty & John won their games 7 -4 to give the Falcons a match win of 11 - 7. Betty's superb use of jumps shots in her games certainly helped us to victory. Towards the end of play we witnessed a buzzard being mobbed by seagulls to release it catch without success.

ANOTHER RAPTOR VICTORY!

Posted by Barbara, 1st May

Fylde Falcons 15 Fylde Coasters 3

Falcons : Alison 11, Barry 12, Don 12, Colin 12
Coasters : Jan 5, John Proctor 11, Aileen 12, Joanne 12.

The inaugural Golf match of the 2023 season was also the first time playing the new Advantage system. After some time spent working out the pluses/minuses and the number of pegs to wear we all trooped out into the rain!

The doubles matches got under way with Alison/Barry vs Jan/Joanne and Don/Colin vs Aileen/John. A “battle royal” took place between Alison and Jans team with plenty of hitting away. Joanne took hoop 7 with a superb shot from the corner peg. Don and Colin made a good pairing beating Aileen and John 7-2. Falcons finally took both the doubles matches.

In the singles games John had some commendable shots against Barry, hooping from 12ft away making it look easy ! Alison vs Aileen was a very close game 7-6 with Aileen scoring some excellent hoops. Happily the rain stopped at lunchtime and if the sun didn’t exactly come out we at least felt a little warmth! Alison tried to make up for Barbara’s absence by making a coconut and cherry cake which was well received.

The score of Alison 7 Joanne 5 doesn’t reflect the fact that at one point Joanne was leading by 4 points to 0. She played some excellent hoop approaches and defensive moves. Colin had a very close game with Jan only losing by 1 point. Don quietly went about his business steadfastly winning all his games.

Well done to all the team and especially to Don, fist time playing for the team and winning every game.

Posted by Allison, 22nd April