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 As always, the games were played in a very relaxed and friendly manner, but the Sheffield team still had the determination to win. Our opponents didn't quite get the hang of ‘crown green’ croquet at Bolehills as well as the Sheffield teams, and we managed to come out on top without losing any of our matches. To mitigate their disappointment, we made sure that we always put on a good spread for our opponents at lunchtime. 

The bare facts show that we won four and tied one of the five matches, winning 40 of the 54 games played, ending the season as league champions. Our opponents were Huddersfield, Ryedale, Beverley, and two teams from York (Jorvik and Eboracum!). We appeared to play better in the doubles games, losing only 2 of the 14 games played, but still managed to win 70% of the singles games. 

As last season, Maggie was our only ever-present player, amassing a total of 9 points for the team. I think she holds the record for the fastest victory - 30 minutes (although Mark came a close second). Trevor got our MVP award, being our highest scorer overall (with 10.5 points), finishing the season with a S/L handicap of +1, and still looking almost invincible. Despite all the wind and rain that seemed to follow him, Mark coolly won all his games, including two 14-0 victories - so it looks like a handicap reduction coming for him! 

Adrian didn't do too badly either, losing only one of his games - in which he only managed to play a single shot with his red ball ! Andrew only played in a couple of matches (he always seemed to be on holiday). His low handicap meant he got no shots and had to peel a partner ball to win a game - which he managed successfully in half the games he played. Easy when you know how. Joe played in our first game before taking setting off for pastures new somewhere in the south of England (below Watford, anyway) where he has honed his skills and become a very accomplished player (with a F/L handicap of 9!). 

 We hope to recruit more AC players for 2016, and this would perhaps enable us to enter the Full- lawn league as well - if it's possible with only a single lawn. We might even let Eugene play for us then! Adrian

Eugene ran a one day AC/GC One Ball Hybrid event aimed at all club members and newcomers to the game, with the idea of introducing some of the club's GC only playing members to some rules of Association Croquet. The rules of the one ball hybrid game consists of a one-ball match with roquet, croquet and continuation rules plus wiring lifts known in AC, but using a GC scoring system so that each hoop is always being contested at any point (the traditional AC game can become very non-interactive). The format of the day was a modified Egyptian Ladder accounting for the half lawns that were in use.

The day was well attended by around 12-14 players including a number of first timers, and the weather smiled on us all day! Alan and Eugene spent much of the day in the lead but were eventually pipped to the post by Andy, who belied his high handicap to win the event and the bottle of wine (that's two wins from two internal tournaments).

See below for a selection of photographs from the day.