Bristol Croquet Club

Great Britain wins the Solomon Trophy 2025 [GB vs. USA Test] First played in 1987 the Solomon Trophy is a bi-annual test match played between the GB and USA teams. The event often witnesses close matches from some of the most talented players in the world.

Congratulations Dom! Dom Aarvold secured his first Championship Series win at the GC Open Championship ENSC Qualifier held at Nailsea & District Croquet Club on 5-6 July. Aarvold defeated clubmate Joshua Wise 7-2, 7-1 in the final after a strong performance throughout the weekend. The event featured 16 players, including two from Seville, with Luis de Alarcon winning the Plate. Aarvold's victory earns him a place at the English National Singles Final in September and a Diamond Award under the new GC Merit Scheme revised by the GCTC.

Dom Aarvold Claims First Championship Series Title at Nailsea ENSC Qualifier Bristol's Dom Aarvold secured his first Championship Series win at the GC Open Championship ENSC Qualifier held at Nailsea & District Croquet Club on 5-6 July. Aarvold defeated clubmate Joshua Wise 7-2, 7-1 in the final after a strong performance throughout the weekend. The event featured 16 players...

The lawn 2 pavilion is ready for its roof

Mark Oldale won the Barbara Evans B-Level tournament and liked the club so much, he joined! New player and rapid-improver Susan King narrowly lost the final.

Saturday 10 May in the local church

Dom is in block B https://croquetscores.com/2024/gc/wcf-golf-croquet-world-championship/block-b

2024 WCF GC World Championship day 1 golf croquet

The 2024 WCF GC World Championship will be live-streamed on the USCA YouTube Channel “rdilley USCA Croquet” Tuesday 22 Oct thru Saturday 26 Oct (Finals) - times are available on the channel.

Subscribe and enjoy!

First session https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0acGDxvi0Vo

The program for the event is available at https://issuu.com/uscacroquetnews/docs/2024_croquet_news_fall_edition-cnm24v3?fr=sNjc3ZTc3NjE1NjY

2024 CROQUET NEWS VOLUME 3: GC Worlds Preview The 2024 Volume 3 Digital Edition of the USCA's Croquet News magazine is now available for viewing as an eMag. This Fall issue features expansive coverage of the 2024 WCF Golf Croquet World Championship to be held in Virginia in October. There is also coverage of the National Croquet Day held in Jun...

The 15th World Championship will be held from Friday 18 October to Saturday 26 October 2024, at the Chesapeake Bay Croquet Club, Virginia, USA.

Good luck to our England players listed below with their home club and current world ranking:

Stephen Mulliner, Surbiton Croquet Club (46)
Aston Wade, The Hurlingham Club (44)
Euan Burridge, Bowdon Croquet Club (51)
Richard Bilton, Gainsborough Croquet Club (87)
Stuart M Smith, Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club (57)
Dom Aarvold, Bristol Croquet Club (121)
James Galpin, Nailsea & District Croquet Club (129)
Steve Leonard, East Dorset Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club (308)
Tim Russell, Roehampton Club (151)
Lionel Tibble, Northampton Croquet Club (157)

This weekend saw both our top AC teams playing at home against Nailsea's A team: our A Team on Saturday, and our B Team (which surprisingly beat our A team at the beginning of the season) on Sunday.

Nailsea fielded their three best players on both days accompanied by another club member on each day.

At the start, all three teams could have won the league and the coveted Parkstone Trophy - Bristol B by winning their match on Sunday, Bristol A by beating Nailsea and Bristol B losing on Sunday, and Nailsea A by winning both matches well.

A good number of club members came to watch what were very interactive matches, helped by the lawns playing at a good fast pace.

Bristol A set down the gauntlet by winning 5-2 on Saturday, but Bristol B lost all six games that finished, and the seventh was saved by Richard Williamson winning by 2 on time despite his missing an after-time shot to feed his opponent a break opportunity. It just shows that at every level, there's something to learn!

So, Bristol A were victorious and their captain, David Goacher, was presented with the Parkstone Trophy, making us the first club to win both the GC and AC division 1 level-play trophies. It's also interesting that the winning GC and AC squads are almost the same set of players.

In the pictures: Bristol B and David Goacher with the Nailsea team. Nailsea finished at the bottom of the league so, for humour, were presented with a wooden spoon.

Unfortunately, our B team's performance was not bad enough to get demoted to the second division, so we remain with two teams in division 1 and one in division 3 - a statistic that shows the considerable strength of our three-lawn club!

Thanks everyone for making our club a great place for croquet and chilling out!

Dave Kibble won the Plate at the Northern AC Championship last weekend.