ABOUT OUR CLUB
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The Royal Tunbridge Wells Croquet Club has three full-size lawns and occupies a favourable position at the top of Calverley Grounds, Mount Pleasant in the centre of Royal Tunbridge Wells.
We have a Clubhouse with
changing rooms and kitchen facilities, for limited refreshments.
More extensive teas, lunches etc. can be found within Calverley
Grounds at the Cafe (2 minutes walk downhill) or in the main
shopping area of Tunbridge Wells itself (5-6 minutes walk to the
far side of the car park in Crescent Road).
Tea, Coffee and Biscuits are generally available in the kitchen area - at a nominal price, of course. The tap water is good enough for drinking, but please remember to wash-up afterwards (or use the dish-washer).
Beer and Wine is also often available. As we have no license, it is not for sale but the Club welcomes donations from those who may wish to consume!
Click here for our history, for literature available to members and
for our Constitution and Minutes of
General Meetings.
There are also some croquet
sketches in the club house, thanks to a donation by John
Hobbs, and a drawing of the club house by Barbara Tasker.
Here is what Calverley Grounds looked like in 1930. We're where
the tennis courts are in the bottom left of the photo, (courtesy
of http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk).
This runs typically from April to
October, with some limited access to lawns at other times of the
year. However, we don't play in weather like that demonstrated
on the right! This picture shows the staff wintering over at the
British Antarctic Survey's Halley station playing a round of
outdoor croquet in 40-mph winds and freezing temperatures to
celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Photo: Sam Burrell,
British Antarctic Survey.
Or like this on the left either although
the weather's somewhat better (that's the Americans for you): An
example of how to peg out in the Summer (at the South Pole), thanks
to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
You may play at any time from dawn to dusk, seven days a week, but you will need a key to access the Club lawns and Clubhouse. These are available to all Club Members from the Membership Secretary free of charge, however if you need a new one then the cost will be £10 (which we have to pay to the Tunbridge Wells Borough Council). The key remains the property of the Club, so please return it if you ever cease to be a member!
Flat-soled shoes are essential; whites are only worn for tournaments and matches, so normal sportswear is worn at other times.
We provide all hoops, pegs and balls as well as a selection of mallets. Each lawn has its own equipment with two sets of coloured balls loaded onto "trolleys", which are stored in the Equipment Store. Corner flags are stored separately, as they are usually only used for matches and tournaments.
Each club member is entitled to a woven badge and a metal pin
one, free or charge, available from the Membership Secretary.
Additional ones are available at a cost; information about
clothing with our logo on and some other items, such as mallets
and badges, is available on our store
page.
Club Afternoons are
Wednesday and Sunday 2-6pm from (roughly) April to October. We
typically get between 10 and 25 people, playing both Golf
Croquet and Association Croquet, so feel free to just turn up if
you already play! If you don't already play then we suggest that
you come to one of our Open Days (see the Diary
for current details).
During the winter we normally have a club day on a Sunday once a month (see the Diary for current details).
There are other Association and Golf Croquet sessions (see the Diary for current details). At these sessions coaches are often available to provide help and assistance if you require.
Novices are welcome and can have one session, preferably one of our Open Days, which includes coaching entirely free. After that you can either join the club or pay Green fees (see below). Please refer to our Contacts page for phone numbers.
Coaching, including that for beginners, is normally available each Club Afternoon and we also run special Coaching Sessions. In addition we run an Introduction to Croquet course every year. Coaching is also available on request.
We also have a limited library of books and magazines for loan. All of these are free of charge to members.
The following members have Croquet Association Coaching qualifications:
Our green fees are £4 per person per half-day or £7 per day for a maximum of three sessions or days.
Novices are welcome on one of our Open Days (normally the
afternoons of the first Sundays in May-August). This is free of
charge for the first visit. Occasionally it may be possible for
novices to play during one of our normal club sessions, subject
to agreement in advance, in which case normal green fees above
are payable.
Non-members who are members of another croquet club are
especially welcome. As guests of members, or during one of our
club sessions, you can use the lawns on payment of the above
green fees.
Other non-members must either be a guest of a member or be part
of a Private Event.
We host at least two week-end Open Tournaments regularly, one day tournaments for Handicap Association and one or two Golf Croquet ones. We are also a regular host for the Kent Cup (Association). See our Diary for current details of all tournament dates.
We also run many internal tournaments, at a nominal charge to members. Please contact the Secretary if you want to enter these.
We play a number of friendly matches and competitive ones in
the South East Croquet Federation leagues against other clubs,
both Association and Golf. Please contact the Committee Member
responsible for League Matches in the first instance if
you want to play in one. There is no charge for playing in one
of these matches, but you may be asked to make a contribution
towards the travelling for away matches. The club pays for
catering at home matches.
For the current list of matches see here.
Association Handicaps range from beginners at 24 down to -3 for
the top players. Golf Croquet Handicaps vary from 16 to -6
(scale last revised in 2016). When playing handicap games the
weaker player receives extra turns depending on the difference
between the handicaps.
We use the Croquet Association Automated Handicapping System
for both Association and Golf Croquet. This involves separate
(not necessarily related) handicaps and cards for the two forms
of Croquet to record your games. Details on how to use these are
on the front of the cards which are available in the Club House.
Our Club Handicappers are responsible for monitoring and adjusting the handicaps of players with a handicap of more than 8 (Association) and 3 (Golf). Contact them here. Handicappers appointed by the Croquet Association are able to adjust handicaps for players with handicaps less than these.
A mid-2004 analysis of our handicap spread for both Association
and Golf can be seen here.
[Add 4 to the Golf Handicaps to convert to the current handicap
range (there is no way of converting the top and bottom
handicaps to the new range).] Subsequently we have updated this
to include a comparison with 2009,
2013 and 2016.
As a friendly club we also run a small Social Programme. This is usually:
The Club is affiliated to the 
Croquet
Association and the 
South East Croquet
Federation.
The following members have Croquet Association Refereeing qualifications:
We can also host private parties or corporate events. See the Events Page for more details.
Copyright © Royal Tunbridge Wells Croquet Club 2003 -