Croquet on a hillside

(St George's Men on a Night Out)

Shut your eyes and picture yourself in a quiet country garden with nothing but the sounds of friendly banter, the knock of wooden mallets against croquet balls, the burbling of fine ale coming out of a barrel, and the sizzling of meat on the barbecue. If you've got it right then in your mind you'll have the same image as the George's Men's Group experienced for real at "Edge-o'-Beyond" for their July meeting. For those that don't know, "Edge-o'-Beyond" in Catherington Lane is the home of Sue and David Hodgens who were our hosts for an evening of croquet and fun, and what a great evening it was.

The first game of croquet was a match between Fr Mike, Colin Monk, Ian Long and Don Lloyd. Clearly these guys knew their stuff and the skill level was high. Croquet on a hillside is not easy but the players soon mastered the terrain and put on a great spectacle for the others. The second game was for the more inexperienced, but Geoff Davies, John Johnson and Tony Shepherd were joined by Ian L and gave it their best. Coaching was provided by Fr Mike who demonstrated his in-depth knowledge of the tactics, and indeed viciousness of this fine game - his years at Theological College were clearly not wasted!

Midway through the evening the Catherington bell ringers started pulling their ropes just across the road from the scene of our activities. It was a lovely sound and before long we were all giving thanks for bell ringers, and the fact that all but one of us DIDN'T have to put up with this racket every week as it was rather loud and tended to put some of our group off their stroke. (You could tell why townies that move to the country complain about the noise from farms!)

As for the refreshments, the beer from the Oak Leaf Brewery was far too drinkable and several of us were very glad that they had chosen to ride their bikes to the event. Your scribe was noticeably wobbly on his fast descent of the Col du Catherington but survived intact, but you may choose to ask David Palmer about his arrival back home (the grazes still showed a week later!) The barbecue was lovely - David H had obviously spent hours creating all manner of salads (or so he said) and Sue's puddings were amazing!

After we'd all eaten our fill, the evening finished off with a final match played under floodlight (actually a couple of torches) and it is difficult to describe the levels of skill and cunning displayed by the participants - mainly because I couldn't see a damned thing.

Thank you Sue and David for a wonderful evening, but David, please fix that death trap loo seat as one or two of us nearly lost a lot more than our dignity!

Tony Shepherd