Nailsea Croquet Club held a fun day for visitors on Sunday. In the morning the players were in groups of four for taster sessions. They learned some mallet skills and the basic rules of Association Croquet. A splendid lunch, prepared by Coral Harrison was then taken with complimentary glasses of Pimm’s, provided by Waitrose (Nailsea).

In the afternoon, the players took part in a competition with two pairs from each of the six teams of four pitting their wits and newly found skills against each other. The visitors concentrated hard and had frequent discussions about tactics but there was much laughter and shrieks of joy as hoops were run. After three rounds of play, two teams had equal success rates so a tie-break was arranged. One of the teams, the Newtimers, included three players who had attended the Club’s Open Day the previous week. These were John and Fran Appleby and Tony Willoughby. The fourth member was Clive from Avon Vale Badminton Club whose team had claimed the trophy last year. The other team was from Wrington Vale and comprised Meg Hall, Martin Kerly and Alan and Rita Stark. For the tie-break the players took it in turns to shoot at the centre peg from a distance of 9 yards. Only John Appleby was successful so the Newtimers were presented with the Croquet Challenge Trophy and the Wrington Vale team were declared runners up.

The day was a huge success and the Croquet Club is very grateful to Waitrose. The glasses of Pimm’s were beautifully assembled and garnished by club members Terry Young and Doreen Wallace and they enhanced the occasion considerably. It was all that is sometimes imagined of an English day – Croquet, Pimm’s and, of course, a bit of rain!