Bowdon Croquet Club - The President’s Report to the AGM 2009

I suppose this item serves as a free ranging Annual Report on the state of the Club putting our present state in relation to both past and future, - a sort of Queen’s Speech.  Global Warming has given us a third wet season in a row, yet the lawns remained fast and fair. The dedication and sheer hard work of Alan Mayne, our Ground Manager (notably supported by Barry Keen, Colin Irwin, Mike Steer and others), deserves our warm thanks and recognition.

Croquet is not just a game, it is a lifestyle.  We welcome this year a record-equalling number of new members who have adopted the measured pace of croquet into their busy lives.   The game is very demanding, and is capable of banishing for an hour or three the cares of the real world.  Dedicated beginners can even stretch this to four or five hours in their relentless search for perfection!     All this pleasure is enhanced by the brilliance of ‘Clang’ whose comprehensive reports make mine so much the shorter!  But I have selected for special mention the outstanding reductions in handicap of Paul Widger, David Walters and Francois Garcia.  They are true indicators of our success as a sporting club at a range of skill levels.   Congratulations also to our three CA Merit  Award winners  Francois, Tim Dennis and Barry McKenzie.   The huge success of the Wednesday Competition, the brainchild of our Secretary John Saxby is evidence of the enthusiasm at grass roots level, but won again by ‘superstar’ Steve Lewis against all the odds.  Saturday tea-time should not be missed, though the lawns are sometimes occupied by one of our TEN club teams!  

Last year I outlined an idea for the “President’s Mug” competition.  Croquet is a game where it pays to enjoy losing, I have found I learn more that way!   I have long claimed never to have won an internal trophy at any Club, yet I found a relic which proved me wrong, and thought it might be a suitable trophy.  Its provenance is a story for another time, but the Mug will be ‘on loan’ until I am certain that the event is established, when a plinth to carry the names of winners will be supplied. My own experience of it has been chastening.   I played all the three top contenders and lost to every one of them!   Yet the games were great fun and of variable character.   One was a lost cause from the outset and a fine example CA Silver Merit skills.   The second offered a glimmer which was extinguished with the help of a typical croquet clang, and the third gave the loser real chances which were destroyed by a superlative hit in.   Unequal handicap games with opportunities for both sides offer so much enjoyment that I hope we will see even more participation in 2010.

At the other end of the scale, we welcome International Star players here every year at our tournaments, and Ian Lines won the Northern Championship against the strongest opposition.   Yet none of this would be possible without the ‘back room’ teams of members who provide deliciously attractive food, keep us clean and tidy, stock the bar and rest-rooms, and keep lawns, huts and equipment in top class condition.  Despite wet weather, we were complimented on our lawn speeds at the Northern Championships.  Now we look forward in 2010 to sharing with Heaton Park the honour of hosting the opening match of the MacRobertson Shield, where much preparative work has already been done by our experienced team.  We are well served by our members as a glance at the Club History will show, and on whose endeavours our present foundations are built.  There are with us still, members from the 1970s who revived the Club after its narrow survival in the 1960s, and there is much to recommend in the History published for us by Mike Sandler.  Do buy a copy from John Saxby if you haven’t already!

Yet we are making history all the time, it just isn’t being recorded!  We have the Croquet Diploma for exceptional services, with Peter Taylor as our most recent   recipient.   But so much is exceptional at Bowdon that unless we take care, this record may be lost when the next Club history is written.  I suggest to you a solution in the form of a “Book of Heroes”, to record the names and deeds of members who do so much for Club life.   I have found a suitable leather-bound book which could stand alongside our fine Visitors Book as a living history.   It will require a team to consider the qualifications for a listing and some research to look back to 2001.    All members would be encouraged to propose names for inclusion, with a brief citation.   If you find merit in the idea I hope the new Committee will consider it in 2010, in preparation for our centenary in 2011.   

Looking forward, our development as a Club can address two objectives.   The first, a solid reality, will consist of improving what we have without spoiling our present character.   The second, a pipe dream, would require an increase in playing facilities, impossible on this site alone.   There are clear stages to this dream.  Two more lawns would enable us to host the ‘Mac’ without Heaton Park; four more, and we could host a world championship!   The finances are interesting if space can be found.   A lawn can be created from scratch for £20,000 and then maintained by the subs of 20 members while providing space for 25.   These are the “Croquenomics” at Bowdon.   We have four lawns which we can support with 80 members, and on which we can fit 100.   We have 96 members, and if space were found we could just afford an extra lawn, increase to 125 and add another.  Space is the problem, yet it must be worth a search if the Club is ever to grow further.   That will be my objective for the next year or two, and I will try not to bore you further. 

As members of this splendid Club, we have much to enjoy and even more to look forward to, including the end of this “Queen’s Speech”.  

I leave you with that happy thought.