Inter-Club Match Results
For internal competitions, see the results sheets and the Roll of Honour. For organisers and selection policy, see Inter-Club Teams & Matches.
25 Sept 2021: SWFed Short Croquet: Bristol beat Bath 9-7 to Win the League
24 Aug 2021: SWF Intermediate League: Bristol lost 2-5 to Bath
Bristol completed the season with a 100% record: played 3, lost 3. Among our excuses was Mike Chan's cold, and the unplayable chap from Bath, who only started croquet in May, is already down to a 16 Handicap and roquets like a scratch player.
Once again Linda Shaw comfortably won a singles match but was let down by the chaps, Chris Frew and Anthony Rackham managing only a win in the doubles.
Still, the opponents were cordial, the day was fun, the sun shone, and Kabul Airport seemed a thousand miles away. Come to think of it, it is.
Chris Frew
13 Aug 2021: SWFed Advanced League Division 3 North: Bristol C lost to Nailsea B 2-5
Nailsea provided a team of well-known faces, including our own Erica M. Facing them were Marian H, Frances R, Peter K, and Neil K splitting the day with Anthony R. Their combined handicap of 9.5 set against our handicap of 22.5 presaged the result, with only Peter Kirby coming out on top, winning his two games.Anthony Rackham
13 Aug 2021: SWF GC Handicap League: Bristol beat Swindon 10.5-9.5
4 Aug 2021: SWF Intermediate League: Bristol lost 1-4 to Worcester Norton
Worcester Norton was unable to field a full team so a reduced Bristol team of Anthony Rackham, John Phillips and Neil Kingston were selected. WN croquet club is based in the disused army barracks with the two lawns laid over the old parade ground. It was a nice environment with warm brick walls and laurel hedges surrounding lawns with longer grass than we are used to in Bristol.
That was the good news. In the morning Neil, and the doubles pairing of Anthony and John, both lost. In the afternoon, Neil won but both Anthony and John lost. An enjoyable but frustrating day.
Anthony Rackham
8 Aug 2021: SWFed Short Croquet: Bristol B drew with Nailsea 8-8
8 Aug 2021: SWFed Advanced League (Div. 2): Bristol 2 beat Bath 3-2
7 Aug 2021: SWFed Level Golf Croquet: Bristol beat Nailsea 11-7
5 Aug 2021: SWFed Short Croquet: Bristol A beat Nailsea 10-6
31 July 2021: SWFed Short Croquet: Bristol B beat Kington Langley 12-4
We enjoyed our Short Croquet match against Kington Langley and won 12-4 under Eric's excellent captaincy and organisation. I had a poor result in the morning, but won on the 6th turn in the afternoon using only one of my 3.5 bisques. I have never achieved this before in my long croquet career except in handicap games against opponents with negative handicaps.Richard Jackson
29 July 2021: SWFed Advanced League Division 3 North: Nailsea B beat Bristol C 5-2
Our team of four arrived in style on a bright and breezy day. Our doubles team of Frances Ransom and Bob Whiffen were narrowly defeated 18-16 by Geoff Hughes and Graham McCausland. Neil Kingston put up a good fight against Erica Malaiperuman but lost 20-11, whilst Margo Soakell achieved a wonderful victory by 26-12 over Robert Upton. In the afternoon session, Bob went down 26-12 to Erica, Frances lost 26-8 to Robert, Margo fought hard but lost 26-21 to Geoff, but Neil had a good win of 26-11 over Graham. Another tough day, but a better result than the previous match against Cheltenham!Bob Whiffen (captain)
22 July 2021: SWF Advanced League Division 3 North: Cheltenham B beat Bristol C 7-0
Our team of four battled against a Cheltenham team with much lower handicaps as well as a temperature reaching 30 degrees. Our doubles team of Marian Hilton and Neil Kingston lost 26-15 to Klim Seabright and Wendy Wu, whilst Margo Soakell lost 26-6 to Paul Wilson. The head-to-head between the two captains resulted in Bob Whiffen losing 26-6 to Roger Willbourn. We decided to stay for the afternoon session, but Bob was first to go down 26-4 to Paul, then Margo lost 26-1 to Wendy, then Marian lost 26-8 to Roger, and finally Neil kept our hopes alive a little longer but had to admit defeat to Klim and lost 26-13. A tough day!Bob Whiffen (captain)
25 July 2021: SWF Advanced League (Div. 2): Cheltenham 1 beat Bristol 2 6-2
Congratulations to Andrew on his captaincy and securing a great "afternoon tea" from Cheltenham after being intimidated by Sarah H on the order of play.Despite our defeat to Cheltenham's 1st team (2-6 with my last, fairly even, game unfinished) the threatened lightning and heavy rain never materialised. Great to see Chairman Dave playing in The Parkstone for BCC. I finished with a net loss of 2 index points on the day.
A cautionary tale for anyone going to Cheltenham in the near future. Junction 11 (northbound M5 / A40) was closed on Sunday, requiring a long detour via the environs of Tewkesbury! Also, for some reason CCC allocated lawns 4, 5, and 6 for this match. They are as far from the clubhouse facilities as you can get, and are not in the best condition.
A win in the home game against Bath 1 is now imperative. Go Bristol 2!
Richard Williamson
20 July 2021: SWF Federation League: Bristol beat Bath 5-2
Anthony Rackham (captain)6 July 2021: SWF GC Handicap League: Bristol beat Glamorgan 14-6
1 July 2021: SWF Short Croquet: Bristol A beat Llandaff 11-5
10 July 2021: SWF Short Croquet: Bristol A beat Kington Langley 11-5
8 July 2021: National Mary Rose: Woking given a walk-over
Following on from our stunning victory in the Mary Rose Inter-Club competition against Parkstone, our match against Woking called for great subtlety, given that victory could result in our next match being played at High Wycombe, inconveniently located somewhere in the back of beyond. There was clearly a need to avoid victory, without getting rumbled. Not all members of the team were signed up to chucking away index points on the altar of convenience, so it fell to inspired leadership yet again to come up with a solution. Having decided to travel to Woking the night before the match to avoid rising at a time that no gentleman could contemplate, I encountered the solution on the M5, a few miles west of Junction 17, in the shape of two steel car ramps, shed from a delinquent car transporter, lying in the middle of lane 2. I managed to clobber both at 70 mph, puncturing both offside tyres. Having cunningly fitted run-flats some years earlier, I was able to limp back to Bristol with honour, having made a few phone calls to cancel the match the following morning. We were sadly unable to reschedule the match before the deadline date, so had to give Woking a walk-over. Job done!
Wayne Wiseman
10th July 2021: SWF Federation League: Bristol beat Nailsea 4-1
Although we won, it could so easily have been so different as both Des and Eric won games +1 on time! Neil Kingston had the most convincing win by 17 playing a no-bisques game. We were lucky with the weather but the lawns were slow and as usual we found the hoops more difficult to run than ours. Maybe because their hoops are very solid compared to ours. Each Nailsea court has a set of hoop holes for Golf and another set for AC, which might be significant.Eric Soakell
3 July 2021: SWF Advanced League Div. 2: Glamorgan beat Bristol B 5-0
Our Parkstone Division 2 fixture against Glamorgan on 3 July was, like our Mary Rose contest last month, a match of two contrasting halves. In the morning Wayne Wiseman (0) lost to Garry McElwain (-0.5) by 13-26. Eric Soakell (3) lost to Chris Williams (-1) by 1-26, and Dom Aarvold (5) did extremely well to push Paul Pristavec (1) only narrowly losing by 16-20 on time.At the break, no inspiring Team Talk could change the match outcome, so players were advised to enjoy themselves. I sincerely hope that they did, because they probably didn’t enjoy the croquet. Eric Soakell lost to Garry McElwain by 0-26, and the doubles pairing of Wayne Wiseman and Dom Aarvold lost to Chris Williams and Paul Pristavec by 6-26.
At times like these it behoves the Team Captain to capture the positives. Your Team were delighted that notwithstanding a grim weather forecast, nobody got wet socks. Another big plus was the fact that most games finished quickly, so we were able to be home in time for an early tea (if the truth were known, we only narrowly missed lunch). In our defence, I would have to say that they were all much bigger boys than us.
Oh yes, I mentioned the two contrasting halves. In the morning we were thrashed comprehensively, whereas in the afternoon it was the complete opposite. We were comprehensively thrashed.
In the circumstances, the team were grateful that nobody turned out to support or criticise us in any way.
Wayne Wiseman
Team Captain
30 June 2021: SWF Advanced League Div. 3: Bristol C lost to Cheltenham B 1-6
Sorry to report that Bristol took a bit of a hammering!Many thanks to our opponents.
Mike Salisbury and Anthony Rackham beat Paul Watson and Keith Davis -5
Peter Kirby lost to Craig Edwards +7
Frances Ransom lost to Adam Moliver -23
Anthony Rackham lost to Keith Davis -12
Mike Salisbury lost to Adam Moliver -2
Frances Ransom Craig Edwards -19
Peter Kirby lost to Paul Watson -12
Anthony Rackham
27 June 2021: SWF Intermediate League: Bristol lost 2-5 to Kington Langley
Under leaden skies that constantly threatened rain, but never did, Bristol at home lost 2-5 to Kington Langley. The team of Chris Frew, Linda Shaw, David Enticknap and Des Wakely lost the morning session 0-3 in generally scrappy encounters. Resolving to do better during half-time sandwiches, the afternoon was honours even at 2-2, with a good win for Linda and a one-hoop victory for Des. All agreed that, had there been an evening session, on this trend line we would have trounced them.
Lowlight of the match: in the morning doubles, Chris, Des and both opponents had all run five hoops and failed to get in position to attempt Hoop 6. With three minutes left on the clock the away pair finally managed to get in position, only for their ball to become wedged in the hoop. Our suggestion that God wanted the match to be a draw was rejected. Memo to home team captains: check the hoops before play.
Controversy avoided of the match: when Des had his striker’s ball in front of his hoop and touching the upright. He claimed a ‘Wayne smash’ through the hoop would be a legal shot; he had been told by the oracle, a qualified referee. Opponents looked more than sceptical, and his partner banned the shot. Sorry Des.
Chris Frew
27 June 2021: SWF Federation League: Bristol beat Glamorgan 3-2
Our team of four was reduced to three when Glamorgan could not field a full team. Frances offered to be the reserve in case Covid tests didn't go well. We were warmly received at Merthyr Mawr and this was their first Inter-Club match on their new lawns. It was also a first for Neil Kingston, who had not played for our club before. Neil got off to a flying start by beating their captain Paul Pristavec 26-0. Mike Salisbury and Bob Whiffen won their doubles match against Sarah Melvin and Kevin Ham 26-21 with a calm bit of finishing by Mike. We were very lucky with the weather in the afternoon because rain had been forecasted, and early on Mike secured victory for Bristol by beating Sarah 26-0, Bob tried to come back from a bad start but lost to Paul 26 - 21, and Neil's game was timed out and he lost to Kevin by 23 - 14. All in all a very pleasant day.
Bob Whiffen (captain)
6 June 2021: National Longman Cup: Swindon beat Bristol 4-3
5 June 2021: SWF Short Croquet League: Bristol "A" lost to Bristol "B" 7-9
June 2021: SWF Advanced League Div. 1 vs. East Dorset: w/o to Bristol
3 June 2021: National Mary Rose: Bristol Beat Parkstone 4-3
Our Mary Rose fixture was a match of two contrasting halves. In the morning Wayne Wiseman and Eric Soakell were thrashed 9-23 by Tom Weston and David Williams, Richard Williamson lost 12-24 to John Pollard and Dom Aarvold lost 11-26 to Stephen Leonard.There was as a consequence an inspiring Team Talk at the break, which could be summarised as "Buck up FFS". This had a transformative effect, resulting in Wayne Wiseman beating Tom Weston 17-15, Eric Soakell beating David Williams 14-12, Richard Williamson beating Stephen Leonard 20-19 and Dom Aarvold beating John Pollard 26-10.
The team were grateful for the support of other club members who came to cheer us on, and especially to David Goacher for leaving early after criticising both my personal game tactics and my poor leadership skills. His diet of Humble Pie will last for quite a long time.
Wayne Wiseman
Team Captain for the day