THE HURLINGHAM DOUBLE
had won that game we would have won, because we knew, having had a really good 7‐1 win earlier in the a&ernoon, we had an advantage re net hoops. But we lost... and I was really disappointed. I went to buy ice cream to cheer us up, but unfortunately the stall had shut already. Then I went back to sit with Adam on the bench, Natalie (one of the organisers) came over and said "ah, there you are!" I was surprised that she had been looking for us because the pair we drew with at the start of the day was lined up to win 5 1/2 games to our 4 1/2 games. Anyhow, knock me down with a feather, they only went and lost, which meant we only went and won ‐ AGAIN! Yay ‐ it was such a shock, but such a joy to have won for a second 6me at Hurlingham in a ma7er of a few weeks. We won the double, AC and GC. We were overjoyed. Well, our croquet season in the UK has come to an end, and we are soon to be heading back to Spain for the winter ‐ and lots of prac6ce. We have had a ball this summer, playing the game that we have come to love with passion in just a short 3 1/2 years.
By Karen & Adam Newbould
Adam and I moved to Spain in Sept 2020. We didn’t have any inkling about croquet un6l December 2021, when a golf course local to us created their own croquet lawn, just because the Spanish owner decided that he and his family loved the game so much and they wanted their own court to play on. They held a Spanish compe66on over a weekend (only one court), and we went along to watch. We had to wait un6l the following March before there was an open/ taster day where we could have a go and get a bit of coaching. We fell in love with the game instantly. In April 2022 we did our handicap tests in Spain ‐ Adam was a 6 and I was a 7. We returned to the UK for the summer in the May and immediately joined Bromley Croquet Club. Within a week of joining we managed to convince Dave Trimmer to sell us a couple of mallets during his lunch break at the Southwick Inter‐Coun6es AC compe66on. Just over 3 years later, Adam is a 2 GC (almost a 1), and I am a 3 GC. In the summer of 2023 Adam learnt to play AC and was very keen. I was not a fan and decided I didn’t want to play ‐ I felt it was too boring and I would end up watching from the sidelines more than playing. That autumn Adam convinced me to learn to play AC as he had no‐one to play with. I reluctantly agreed – but only if he allowed me to have a go a&er 10 minutes of con6nuous play by him. It took a while and some perseverance before I decided I actually love the game too. I won a high bisquers compe66on at Cheltenham last summer and we were fortunate enough to play in the Spanish Open in Madrid in November 2024, where I got to the semifinals in the singles and got to play against Jose Riva!! What an experience. Adam and I got to the quarter finals of the doubles too. This summer we entered the Handicap AC Doubles at Hurlingham as well as their Handicap GC Doubles ‐ last year we missed out winning the GC tournament by one hoop! We were excited to be playing there twice this year at such a pres6gious event. We only lost one game in the AC tournament and so, by the 6me we got to play our final game, we had to play Liz Farrow and David Dickens from Southwick. They had won all their games and it suddenly dawned on us that if we won that game we might just win the tournament. It seemed like a long game but, finally, we managed to bag the win! What a shock! What joy! We were over the moon. Then, a few weeks later, we were driving back to Hurlingham for the GC tournament. Having looked at the entries I said to Adam "this is going to be tough ‐ it would probably have been easier to have won last year." Our first game was a 5‐5 draw ‐ due to the games being 6med. We won the next 4 games and were in the running going into our last game. However, it was a tough one and we were ge8ng 6red; a repeat of last year? We lost 5‐6 ‐ one hoop... again! If we
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