CLUB HISTORY
2000 - 2009
Croquet is in the list of offerings for the Adult Education Programme for 2000. The Advanced and Handicap tournaments are included in the CA Fixture Book for the first time and are over-subscribed. The club enters its first Golf Croquet event at Compton and Brian Kitching donates the Rose Bowl for a Club Golf competition. Membership reaches a new high at 42.
In 2001, after a period of 16 years as Chairman, Peter Howell retires and is replaced by John Hobbs. Honeygrove Property donate a silver cup for the Open Advanced tournament.
A Newsletter appears for the first time (for some years) in 2002 and both Peter and Audrey Howell are made Life Honorary members. The peak attendance at a Club afternoon is 26, with an average of 22 throughout August!
A second Club afternoon was added in 2003, PPP join as corporate members and this web-site appears! Clive Horton retires as Treasurer after serving since 1992. The club becomes a CASC and Pegasus Retirement Homes donates a silver plate for the Open Handicap tournament.
2004 showed further development of the club with the first Golf Croquet competition team and an increase in membership to over 50 for the first time. At the end of the year Richard Clark took over as Chairman. Hazel Moss-Davis was made the third Life Honorary member on her retirement from the club. We also win the SECF Golf Croquet Doubles Tournament.
And then there was the Lawn project! 2005 saw the initiation AND completion of the project to relay all 3 lawns, mostly handled by our able Project Manager Roger Morris. Much work by Richard Clark was undertaken to ensure that grants were obtained from as many people as possible - the Lottery (Awards for All), Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, Kent County Council, Gatwick Airport Trust, the South East Croquet Association and the Croquet Association all contributed. In all £26,000 of the cost came from grants with £14,000 raised from the members also. The actual relaying took place from 1st September, necessitating a Finals Day for the first time for years. The Equipment Store was built over the winter, during which the club obtained access to the lawns of the old Bowls Club and this allowed play when the main lawns were closed.
Apart from that the club was as active as usual in all competitions (3rd in Golf League, 2nd equal in B League) and added a third club session - for Association Croquet. One of our members, Aaron Westerby, represented New Zealand at the World Championships. A Summer and Winter social programme was instituted. Press coverage was much increased and we had some radio coverage for the first time.
2006 saw the new lawns and Equipment Store opened by the Mayor. The lawns were rather slow and with tramlines, but were used for external matches and tournaments - a Golf Croquet event, with 16 players, was held for the first time. With the Bowling Green vacated 2 x 70% sized lawns were available all summer and even into November. The truncated facilities for internal use meant that the croquet wasn't of the best however.
The main publicity effort was our Croquet in the Park event, with an inaugural Corporate Challenge (albeit with only 6 teams) and Open Day with costumes. This raised our profile significantly in TW with much press coverage, especially in the Courier. Richard Clark retired as Chairman and was replaced by Jon Diamond.
2007 started with the Croquet Association giving us the Apps Heley award for the second time and we launch a new logo. Opening Day was an innovation, with 40 people attending, a One Ball tournament and unveiling of our new signs. Our new lawns are really fine this second year and the Kent Cup tournament was a good indication, unfortunately the final was contested by people from other clubs. The second Corporate Challenge is up from 6 to 11 teams, with 4 new members (3 from Lovat Insurance Brokers) as a result.
Aaron Westerby provides some excellent Advanced coaching. Miriam Reader wins our second Golf Handicap Tournament. We go to Batemans NT for the first time, but are drenched by rain. The Houslops host our Summer Barbeque, with 37 crowding their house. We came second of 19 in the SECF B League. The final pub lunch is attended by a record 23 people. By the end of the season we're up to 62 members - also a new record!
2008 is our third year with the new lawns and they're really good. We employ a part-time Lawn Supervisor, Norman Croasdale, who is proving invaluable. The compliments after we host the CA Golf Second Eights are fantastic! The Corporate Challenge is now fully fledged and full with a total of 20 teams and we run an Introduction to Croquet for non-members for the first time. After filming in 2007 we show up well in ITV's By Royal Appointment. New for this year is a demonstration day at Penshurst Place, for which we get paid.
Notable playing successes are Alex Jardine winning all 7 games at the Ramsgate Advanced and Jon Diamond coming 5th in the German Golf Open and being part of the Kent team that came 3rd at the Golf Inter Counties. We come 3rd in the SECF U league and also at the Golf Team's Day. Dan Long and Alex Jardine join the Committee, with John Hobbs retiring after 15 years! Selwyn Ward replaces John Timmis as Treasurer.
In 2009 We win the SECF Golf Singles and Doubles Tournament, but generally have a poor run in the SECF Leagues. However, we get to the semi-final of the CA Mary Rose tournament for the first time.
Richard Mann replaces Selwyn Ward as Treasurer, with Jeff Chapman and John Moore replacing Alex Jardine and Dan Long on the Committee.
Copyright © Royal Tunbridge Wells Croquet Club 2003 -