Welcome to the 2019 Season. You may have heard that I have agreed to take over the management of Club AC competitions and to organise the entries and Blocks etc for the Buchanan and Sergeant Cup GC competitions. Linda will continue to take the managerial decisions for these GC competitions and to organise the “on the day” GC competitions.
One change this year is that the level play GC competition which has always been played on a specific (half) day will now run through the season. For this reason, it is listed on the 2019 entry form with the other “through the season competitions”. The manager for this competition will be Ryan Cabble. Ryan hasn’t managed an event before but he is an experienced tournament player. Once the entries are in, they will be split between two classes, according to handicap. The class for lower handicaps will compete for the Marshall Midda Shield while the higher handicaps will compete for the Level Play GC Cup. The split will be made at a convenient handicap point, chosen to ensure two good competitions.
The other change for 2019 is the addition of an extra GC competition for players with handicaps of 7 or above – a Club C Class GC competition. This will take place on a specific day and the date will be announced with the other “on the day” dates.
Linda, Ryan and I will liaise when appropriate and we hope that things will run smoothly, much as usual.
I hope the weather will be kind to us and that we will be able to enjoy our matches. Please be careful not to enter too many competitions. This applies particularly to those who play both Association Croquet and Golf Croquet and also play in multiple league teams. Withdrawal always causes inconvenience to others. It leads to lack of parity between Blocks and it reduces the number of matches for other players who have paced themselves more sensibly.
If you need to play matches in the evenings, please play them before the light starts to be a problem towards the end of the season. It’s not fair or respectful to your opponent to try to squeeze a 26 point AC match or a best of three GC match into an hour and a half on a cold September evening with the light failing.
The handicap tracking sheet for AC handicaps has been very useful. An updated one will appear on the Notice Board for the beginning of the 2019 season. Please continue to help managers and the Handicap Committee by keeping it up to date as and when your handicap changes. The GC version has not been well used to date – please try to make this as accurate as the AC chart by filling it in yourself and encouraging others to do so. Handicap cards should be checked and signed by a member of the Handicap Committee as well, whenever an automatic change takes place.
Dates for the “on the day” competitions will be decided shortly when the other dates on the Calendar have been finalised. Entries for these will be invited about 3 weeks beforehand.
If there are enough entries to our qualifying competition, Nailsea will be able to send players to the Area Finals of the All England Competitions. The entry fee in each case is £7, as charged by CA. The details are:
All England Handicap GC Tournament
Nailsea matches to be played by mid-June
Area Finals at Bath CC on Monday 12 August;
National Final at Camerton and Peasedown CC 14/15 September
All England Handicap AC Tournament
Nailsea matches to be played by the end of July
Area Finals at Camerton and Peasedown CC on 24/25 August;
National Final at Hunstanton CC 7/8 September
To download an entry from for the 2019 Club competitions click here:
