BURY Croquet Club held their annual dinner and presentation of trophies at Bury Golf Club last Friday.

The evening was attended by 34 members and guests including members from the Pendle and Culcheth clubs.

In his address, chairman Tony Rudkin, outlined some of the highlights of the season.

Once again the club had two teams in the Full Lawn league and one each in the Short Lawn and Golf leagues. There were reasonable successes in the first two but less so for the Golf team.

For the first time the club entered three teams in the Federation Championships at Southport and finished in third place.

Robin Gibson won the 2000 Short Lawn Handicap, the final of which had to be held over until 2001.

Barbara Young was the Croquet Association Peel Memorial Silver Bowl Ladies winner picking up a trophy that dates back to 1898.

Ken Anderton was runner-up in the Huntanton 50+ and Sheila Bruckshaw was our first representative at the Golf Croquet All England Handicap at Wrest Park.

The internal competitions were not completed due to the autumn maintenance of the lawns taking place earlier than expected. These games will be completed in the new season.

In April the club held an Open Day in support of Bury Hospice. September saw them hosting the Croquet Association National Short Lawn teams final and a very popular Fun Day was also organised.

Work is currently being carried out on the lawns and the clubhouse in preparation for the start of the new season on Saturday, March 23.

Plans are also in progress for an Open Day on April 20, again in support of Bury Hospice.

Barbara Young then gave a brief account of the five games she played to win the Peel Memorial Bowl.

Her first was against Gail Currie - the England's number one women's player.

Having won that game Barbara felt there was no turning back and she won the competition in style, winning the remaining four games to take the trophy - the oldest in the Croquet Association.

Len Forkin - the club groundsman - finished with a short humorous talk abou;the coloured legs on the clubs hoops and where they should go!

Croquet is a game for everyone - age is no barrier (the club's youngest member is 10).

Not everyone plays in competitions, some just for enjoyment.

For further information contact Mr Geoff Young on 0161 766 6048.