Sidmouth Croquet Club crown winner of One Ball event

An appropriate title given that it was quite Brass Monkey weather, sunny in part but cold, oh so cold.

This competition is an annual England-wide competition in aid of charities.

This year, the organisers chose The British Heart Foundation, and donations at the tournament and other fundraising goes to the charity.

Every Croquet club in England runs its own One Ball competition, with the winner going to the national final in Surbiton.

One Ball croquet is as its title says, a version of the game in which each player is matched against one other, each having one ball to hit through 13 consecutive hoops over a number of rounds.

Striking the opponents ball results in extra turns which can aid progress through the hoops.

This was our first competition of the season so enthusiasm was slightly higher than usual because of confinement over the winter period.

24 players entered the competition, a record for the club.

Players, though becoming colder as the day wore on, each played five games; amazingly there were no drop outs during the tournament despite frostbite, hunger and perhaps boredom setting in.

Perhaps hot soup as a first prize would be an enticement next year.

The eventual winner was Jane Bell, with 150 points (the maximum), with Jon Ball, Duncan Hasell, Roy Hubbard and Andrew Thomas as runners-up on 130 points each.

Jane has the dubious honour of going to Surbiton for the final.

A total of £175 was raised for the charity