Five SCA members, Alasdair Adam, George Geis and Alan Wilson from the Edinburgh clubs and Joe Lennon and Tony Whateley from Glasgow, made the pilgrimage to Dundonald Croquet Club in Ayrshire to sample the delights of Scotland’s biggest croquet club. Despite only having opened in 2007 with one lawn the club has already grown to 98 members (as of 10.04.2010) and confidently expects to break the 100 barrier before the end of the season.
With such a large membership, mainly players, the order of the day is Golf Croquet
with club days drawn as mini-leagues of 3 pairs each playing playing 7-point. From
these the winning (and sometimes 2nd placed) teams go on to a knockout until one
pair emerges victorious.
When we went the weather was glorious, particularly for mid-April, and more than
70 people turned up ranging in ages from a few months to 60+, although it may only
have been the visitors at the top end! The vast majority of the members were
under 30 and already the future of the club looks secure. More than 60 players took
part, although with late arrivals and early departures, the actual composition of the
teams was somewhat fluid and expertly managed by Marion Imrie. When George and I
finally left, at 9.30 pm, play had reached the semi-final stage and would continue
until one team triumphed. The eventual winners were Dave Farrow and Ronnie Zorget
who defeated the Shedden twins Douglas and Ian in the final held at 10pm. Some
ingenious use of a floodlight, stanchion and extension cable made it possible for
players to see what they were doing.
The lawn is slightly below full size and has an interesting mix of slopes, bumps
and hollows which all add to the fun of the day - for let me emphasise, this is about
social interaction and enjoyment rather than deadly fierce competition. That didn’t
stop some members, mainly my opponents, running hoops from vast distances. I remember
hoop 2 run from the side of hoop 1 and 4 from the side of 3.
Despite their experience, the SCA members did not clean up in competition, although
Alasdair will claim he would have won if he’d been able to stay long enough, and many
Dundonald members showed a good grasp of the game playing with skill and intelligence.
On the social side there was food and drink aplenty. Everyone mixed in and moved
around the different tables chatting, commenting on the play and keeping an eye on
the children (and dogs). The club have 4 large polystyrene containers which
club member George Imrie had filled with snow collected from the hills at the nearby
wind farm. Drinks, soft and otherwise, were stored there and retrieved as
necessary throughout the day - there was even Pimm’s. Most people had brought
food and a barbecue was fired up in the early evening with the visitors’ needs being
catered for by an attentive club secretary, Steven Easton. Later on the fire
drums were lit so we could keep warm in the late evening. Steven even insisted
on a photograph of me with Dave Farrow, club captain, and promised to get it in the
local paper. Fame at last.
For the future we hope to get Dundonald members up to Glasgow CC and, perhaps,
introduce Association Croquet to interested members. In the future I wouldn’t be
at all surprised to see a Dundonald name amongst the trophy winners in the SCA.
I can’t finish without mentioning the Shedden family. Brothers Ian and Douglas,
sons Jamie and John. Without their land, cooperation and efforts Dundonald croquet
club would still be a dream and I wouldn’t have had a great day out. They said
that anyone who wanted to go and visit would be made very welcome. I can guarantee
that.
Alan Wilson