Nailsea and District Croquet Club hosted this year’s golf croquet Home Internationals over the weekend with resounding success as England reclaimed the trophy.
The annual competition sees squads from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales battle it out to be named the best in the team in the UK, with the event moving from nation to nation each year.
This year’s 2024 edition was meant to be hosted by Wales, but due to a lack of facilities the honours were brought to the nearest suitable greens, Nailsea, and the club put on a show on their four-lawn premises.
Matches were intense and the quality of play was high all-round with players having to thread shots through hoops just 1/16th of an inch wider than the balls they were playing with.
All the greens were in use over the busy weekend as the teams of four competed against each other in a round-robin format, with play being conducted under golf croquet rules.
The team’s played each other in two doubles matches and four singles matches, with a point being awarded for each victory and a draw earning half a point.
England were looking to avenge last year’s loss to N. Ireland having won all the previous iterations of the competition and brought along a talented young side to do just that.
Aston Wade captained England’s squad of Euan Burridge, Jack Good, Callum Johnson, and Nailsea’s Croquet Club’s Marcus Evans as reserve.
Wade helped lead the England team to a clean sweep of wins to re-gain the Home Internationals trophy.
The England squad were dominant, beating Wales 4-2, Scotland 5.5-0.5, and N. Ireland 6-0 to raise the trophy in magnanimous fashion.
After the event, Chairman of NDDC Steve Durston spoke about his club hosting the international competition.
He said: “It feels good you know, it’s just a very good feeling.
“We need to grow the club, preferably younger members maybe through schools getting involved (with the club) throughout the summer and hopefully this helps.
“It’s a great tournament and we’re fortunate enough to have the four lawns so we were able to host it on behalf of Wales.
“We just hope it encourages more people from the local areas, we have the coaches, we have the kit, we just want more people to get involved.”
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