ABOUT OUR CLUB
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The Royal Tunbridge Wells Croquet Club has three full-size lawns and occupies a favourable position at the top of Calverley Grounds, Mount Pleasant in the centre of Royal Tunbridge Wells. In addition we have annual lease to use the old Bowling Green below us (approximately 200 yards), providing an additional single full-sized or two 3/4 sized lawns.
We have a Clubhouse with changing rooms and kitchen facilities, for limited refreshments, in addition to a Pavilion at the Bowling Green. More extensive teas, lunches etc. can be found within Calverley Grounds at the Cafe (2 minutes walk downhill) or in the main shopping areas of Tunbridge Wells itself (5-6 minutes walk to either the far side of the car park in Crescent Road or Mount Pleasant past the Cafe in the park).
Tea, Coffee and Biscuits are generally available in the kitchen area - at a nominal price, of course. The tap water is good enough for drinking, but please remember to wash-up afterwards.
Beer and Wine is also often available. As we have no license, it is not for sale but the Club welcomes donations from those who may wish to consume!
Click here for our history, for literature available to members and for our Constitution and Minutes of General Meetings.
This runs typically from April to October, with some limited access to lawns at other times of the year.
However, we don't play in weather like that demonstrated on the right! An example of how to peg out in the Summer (at the South Pole), thanks to NASA.
You may play at any time from dawn to dusk, seven days a week, but you will need a key to access the Club lawns and Clubhouse. These are available to all Club Members from the Club Secretary for a returnable deposit of £5. The key remains the property of the Club.
Flat-soled shoes are essential; whites are only worn for tournaments and matches, so normal sportswear is worn at other times.
We provide all hoops, pegs and balls as well as a selection of mallets. Each lawn has its own equipment loaded onto lawn-specific "trolleys", with each hoop marked with its specific lawn and hoop location number and has a red mark on the base of one of the uprights to denote its left side (left, that is, facing away from the clubhouse).
Club Afternoons are Wednesday and Sunday 2-6pm. We typically get
between 10 and 25 people, playing both Golf Croquet and Association Croquet, so feel free to just turn up!
There is usually an Association session on Wednesday mornings from 10am and singles Golf Croquet on Thursday evenings from 5pm (see Diary as to whether they're currently running). At both of these sessions coaches are normally available to provide help and assistance if you require.
Novices are welcome and can have up to two sessions, including coaching, entirely free. Please refer to our Contacts page for phone numbers.
Coaching, including that for beginners, is normally available each Club Afternoon and we also run special Coaching Sessions - typically on a Sunday morning. In addition we run an introduction to Association Croquet for Golf Croquet players. Coaching is also available on request. We also have a limited library of books and magazines for loan. All of these are free of charge to members.
Croquet playing non-members are also welcome at our Club. They can use the lawns on payment of green fees - £3 per person per half-day or £5 per day for a maximum of three sessions or days.
We host at least two Open Tournaments regularly, usually over week-ends in September, and one day tournaments for Handicap Association (Handicap 16 and over) and Golf Croquet Handicap (any handicap). In 2003 we hosted five tournaments! See our Diary for current details of all tournament dates.
We also run many internal tournaments, at a nominal charge to members. Please contact the Secretary if you want to enter these.
We play a number of competition and friendly matches against other clubs, both Association and Golf. Please contact the Committee Member responsible for League Matches in the first instance if you want to play in one. There is no charge for playing in one of these matches, but you will be asked to make a contribution towards the catering for all games played at home.
For the current list of matches see here.
We use the Croquet Association Automated Handicapping System for both Association and Golf Croquet. This involves separate (not necessarily related) handicaps and cards for the two forms of Croquet to record your games. Details on how to use these are on the front of the cards which are available in the Club House. Association Handicaps range from beginners at 24 down to -3 for the top experts. Golf Croquet Handicaps vary from 12 to 0 (scale revised in 2008).
The Club Handicapper is responsible for looking after, and adjusting as he thinks fit, the handicaps of players with an Association Handicap of more than 8. Contact him here. Players with an Assoiciation Handicap less than this are controlled by the Automatic Handicap System, with Croquet Association appointed Handicappers able to adjust handicaps (subject to a minimum change of 3 steps).
The non-automatic adjustment of Golf Croquet Handicaps is also the responsibility of the Club Handicapper, but there is currently no guidance from the Croquet Association as to whether he has a minimum handicap level.
A mid-2004 analysis of our handicap spread for both Association and Golf can be seen here. [Add 4 the Golf Handicaps to convert to the current scale.]
As a friendly club we also run a small Social Programme. For 2005 this consisted of
The Club is affiliated to 
and the South East Croquet Federation.
| Association | Golf | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coaching | Refereeing | Coaching | Refereeing | |
| Mick Belcham | X | |||
| Richard Clark | X | |||
| Jolyon Creasey | X | |||
| Jon Diamond | X | |||
| John Hobbs | X | X | X | X |
We can also host private parties or corporate events. See the Events Page for more details.
Copyright © Royal Tunbridge Wells Croquet Club 2003-2008