SWANAGE CROQUET CLUB - A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME

 

Swanage Croquet Club was founded in 2005 by the late Roy Smith. Roy was a keen cricketer and earlier that year he had seen croquet played at Sidmouth adjacent to their fine cricket ground overlooking the sea.

 

Roy realised that the outfield at Swanage Cricket Club was not in use on most weekdays and after advertising locally some 40 people attended an Open Croquet Day on 14th September 2005, including 10 from the local U3A group. Equipment was purchased and Tom Yeates, the volunteer cricket groundsman produced two croquet lawns on the cricket outfield on which to play.

 

By the end of October 2006 some 27 people had became regular players with our founder members, including former England international player William Ormerod from Corfe Castle and members from Parkstone Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, providing coaching. It was decided that Golf Croquet would be the preferred game in view of the gentle but undulating nature of the cricket outfield. With regular coaching members quickly learnt the techniques and strategies involved and word got around Swanage that croquet provided an excellent environment to meet friends and enjoy mental stimulation and gentle exercise in the sun. A further open day followed which resulted in our membership doubling.

 

A third full sized lawn was created and further championship hoops, balls and mallets were purchased and the club continued to grow. From 2009 over 100 members had joined, including many from 2 Probus clubs and as a result of evening games in aid of the RNLI. A fourth lawn was subsequently created and with many members interested in playing competitive croquet the club joined the South Western League fielding a Handicap Team and a Level Play team, organised by Keith Southern. Friendly matches were also held against neighbouring clubs and an annual tour took place against more distance clubs.

 

The Croquet Club parted company with the Cricket Club at the end of the 2022 season and now play croquet on the Swanage School playing field in Bon Accord Road, courtesy of Swanage Primary School. The Club has purchased a range of ground maintenance equipment and a container in which to store it and a marquee with tea and coffee facilities. Thanks to volunteer groundsman Simon Parvin’s hard work the lawns were quickly ready to host league fixtures and now enable members to play all year round, including weekends.

 

Although members enjoy playing golf croquet on a social basis the club currently have two league teams playing competitively. The teams play in the Handicap and High Handicap Leagues which are run by the South West Croquet Federation and involve matches against other teams from all over region. Although our membership is not as large as many of the other clubs in the region we have been fortunate enough to have won the Handicap League in 2016 and 2022 (we were also runners up in 2024) and the High Handicap League in 2024 (we were also runners up in 2023).