This year has seen the start of something very special at Cranleigh, namely Croquet.  Mr. Jackson and I have run a junior activity once a week on Mondays at 2pm.  We had about 12 keen players and although many have played in their back gardens before, none were quite ready for the intensity of tournament-style croquet.  In addition to our Monday sessions, I managed to organise two fixtures for the school.  The first was home to Winchester and we had two junior pairs and one senior pair competing.  The seniors (Hobart and Cary) were unfortunately outclassed and were beaten 14-6.  Junior B pair (George Griffiths and Josh Hughes) played a close game but were eventually beaten 14-10.  Our first match was not a complete disaster as our Junior A pair (Roberts and Peters) managed a convincing 14-9 win.  

 

Our second fixture away to Eton (known as ‘The Big One’), proved to be a useful learning curve for all the teams involved – Senior A pair (Fitzalan-Howard and Scarrott) lost 14-7, and Junior B pair (McConnell-Wood and Dumeresque) by the same margin.  Both Junior A pair (Roberts and Peters) and Senior B pair (Crane and Hislop) lost by a close 14-10.

 

The season has been a good start for what will, I hope, become a regular feature of Cranleigh summer term.  The next stage is to find a decent area of the school to play on (and get lawns marked out) and to buy some good square-ended mallets.

 

Many thanks to Rod Jackson who has made this whole operation workable: the players are certainly looking forward to next year.

 

Frank Hardee