A TRIUMPHANT RETURN By Chris Alvey, dbmallets@gmail.com, Sponsors of the Townsend Club Award
Around this time last year, I wrote an article about where it all started for us: a hotel in North Yorkshire called Cober Hill… complete with a croquet lawn…..I’m sure you remember it. Holly’s week, which we host at the start of August, was once again attended by the usual suspects, including those brave souls who play croquet once a year. Last year as we were leaving, one of the guests, Jane, mentioned that she fancied giving croquet a go but was nervous. She hadn’t swung a mallet in 20 years and wasn’t entirely convinced that stepping back onto the lawn, only to have her technique critiqued, was necessarily a good idea. I suggested she come along to the introductory session when we returned in 2026. If she enjoyed it and fancied entering the competition, we’d put her with either myself or Mark — both AC players, both patient and, importantly, neither completely hell-bent on winning at all costs.
Fast forward to August 2026 and Jane duly turned up, and having produced one of the smoothest swings I’ve seen from a novice in some time, she entered the competition. The tournaments at Cober aren’t supposed to be serious. They’re there to be part of the holiday — to have a laugh, meet people, hit a few balls around and ideally avoid turning a pleasant week in North Yorkshire into the World Croquet Championship. Over the years, however, some people have taken them a little too seriously, occasionally forgetting the most important question: if you’re not enjoying it, why are you playing? I was making up the numbers in the first game and found myself playing against Mark and Jane. We lost, but not by much and I was happy with the result. Mark is somewhat better than me — and by “somewhat”, I mean a LOT…… so being within a couple of hoops of him was absolutely fine.
Continued on page 6
www.croquetengland.org.uk | 7
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs