Hover and click on the bear symbols to go the visit of your choice or just scroll down to see them in chronological order. When you get to the photographs, hover the mouse pointer over them to see their captions.
Bear members, please contribute to this page! I have filled in as much as I can but I need pictures (I would like to have 7 for each place) and anecdotes from members. Also, please let me know of any errors. My thanks to those who have already contributed pictures. DLG
This was our first trip, to a private lawn in Brittany. The lawn was owned by a Madame Monique de la Gonfrey. My memories are not strong about the visit but I do remember a lawn in the courtyard of a farm, plus a couple of mini lawns elsewhere. There was a boot sale in the next field on the Sunday. I also recall a club room where there were dozens of old postcards of croquet being played, many of them on the beach. We had some of the meals in Madame's house (Chateaux) where we drank Pommeau and Calvados with sugar lumps. Richard had a small misunderstanding with Madame but nobody knows what had upset her. I have no idea if the lawn is still there, I believe that Bernard Witas, our contact in Brittany does not play there any more.
My main memory of the visit was that of a bad wrist, making play painful. The courts at Guernsey were at the edge of a cricket pitch. Sadly the club is now no more. Somehow an inflatable parrot got into the act and went for a swim in the pool at an evening party. We stayed in a large house overlooking St Peter Port.
This was a trip to Bayeux in conjunction with a number of other clubs including Surbiton who still go over annually. Yes, it really is a rugby pitch! the pitch was like concrete and I had to drill the holes for the hoops. The French were not very sportsmanlike when penalised for a late turn up. However, the food was good! Adrian somewhat overdid it on the Saturday night and was decidedly pale the next morning!
Dublin. I didn't go on this so need someone to supply some info.Thanks to Rosemary and Michael, I have some pictures but I need text to go with them.
Edinburgh. I didn't go on this either. Thanks again to Rosemary, I have some pictures but I need text to go with them.
The Budleigh end of this was organised by Cliff Jones, who also cooked us some superb lunchtime meals. Being Budleigh, there were plenty of lawns for play and as usual, time to sightsee. One of the evening pub meals was in the village of Ollerton. A lady who made sparkly jewellery was next to our table and we invited her to join us. She must have regretted it later when an apparition in a nurses uniform appeared! My lips are sealed as to who supplied the uniform and also who wore it. We were staying in a hotel in Budleigh where we found that the proprietor had been taking lessons from Basil Fawlty! He totally lost it when we opened our own wine in the hotel lounge. We combined the visit with a SWF Match against (?) which sadly we lost. I really need some pictures for this.
Our visit to Ryde, IoW was a departure from the norm in that we actually entered a tournament. It was an enjoyable time but we felt that it was better to just pay a friendly visit. The picture shows me taking part in the shoot-out for the peg to decide the winner. I cannot remember who won but it wasn't one of us!. Some of the team saw a carnival procession one evening in Ryde.
This was a most enjoyable visit but it had to be said that most of the enjoyment was due to sightseeing rather than croquet as the IoM only put out a few players. Indeed if Kevin Garrad had not flown over specially from Holland, there would hardly have been any croquet at all. One of our evening meals at a hotel in Ramsey was notable in that it was the worst meal ever. At one stage we were informed that the chef had walked out! The main lawns were just outside Douglas and were very nice. On day two we played at a private lawn north of Ramsey. The setting was pleasant but the lawn was very heavy going.
A Home visit this time to Ramsgate. Several players were delayed on Fri evening by heavy traffic on the M25. The lawns at Ramsgate are very nice but do suffer from the wind. Our hotel was quite nice but it was a bit disconcerting to find bouncers on the door. We had a very good meal at a pub on the outskirts of town.
We paid a visit to Busto Arsizio, near Milan. The first picture shows us and the Italians enjoying an enormous spread at a local restaurant. Unfortunately the only Italians who could play were their top players so we were not able to present too much opposition. The most memorable thing about the lawns was the getting to them! If the Italians had not lead us there I think we would still be looking! Once there, however, there were three very nice lawns next to a restaurant.
This year we went down to St Austell to play against the Cornwall croquet club. Once again we received wonderful hospitality. The weather was a bit breezy but otherwise kind and we had a good mixture of singles and doubles, plus some golf croquet. The two courts are on a hill just a short walk from a golf club, with which the croquet club shares facilities. The view from the golf club over the bay is stunning.
This is our planned trip for 2008