[<<] [>>] by Duncan Hector at Nottingham
9th July 2008 (GC - Inter-Club)

Rather than risk a huge journey it was agreed to play at a neutral venue half way between and so Nottingham kindly hosted our match on June 9th.

Everyone asks "where is Letchworth?", "who are Letchworth?". 35 miles North of London, Letchworth Garden City was the First Garden City built originally in 1904. The Croquet Club has two excellent croquet lawns, a fine clubhouse with bar and cafe, 2 squash courts, a gymnasium, 3 indoor tennis courts and 7 outdoor.

Letchworth fielded two teams in the GC Inter Club Championships this year. Team B was formed from our traditional GC players and Team A from AC players. Things changed slightly when Nick Mounfield moved to our area and announced that he wanted to take up GC again, having been in a non-croquet world for three years. He was immediately snatched by Team A and took on the role as GC coach. Tim King was also enticed to come to Letchworth to give our teams urgently needed coaching (his father is a member of Letchworth).

So it was that a bunch of hitherto Golf Croquet denouncers became a well-honed team of Golf Croquet buffs complete with an Ashby based fan club made up of Nick's parents (fan club membership is £15 PA payable to Ray Mounfield).

The Letchworth team trainer allocated circuit training for the team including press-ups, road running and abseiling. However, none of this happened so a sleepy, unfit Letchworth A turned up at Nottingham complete with freshly purchased Melton Mowbray Pork Pies ready for an entertaining day of croquet.

The teams were:

Tyneside Derek Old (1), David Turner (2), John Moore (3), Jacqui Old (6)

Letchworth Nick Mounfield (2), Duncan Hector (3), David Tutt (4), George Hoopsetter-Woolhouse (5)

Results (Letchworth Names First)

Doubles

Nick and Duncan beat Derek and David 2 - 0

Singles

Nick beat Derek 2 - 1

Duncan beat David Turner 2 - 1

David Tutt beat Jacqui 2 - 1

David Tutt beat John 2 - 0

George lost to John 1 - 2

George beat Jacqui 2 - 1