East Midlands Federation (FEMCC)
The Administrative body of Croquet in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland
News from the federation
The 2026 Dixon Cup and Shield will be held at Ashby Croquet Club on Saturday 16th May, start time 10.00am. The entry fee is £30 per team of 3 payable on entry and closing date for entries is 25th April 2026.
Click here to see the Dixon Cup and Shield 2026 flyer
Applications open on 1st January for this Doubles Golf Croquet competition organised by Southwell Croquet Club. Further details are on this flyer.
On 19th August four teams contested the 26pt AC league event: Ashby, Leicester, Nottingham and Pinchbeck. It was the first time the event had been held at Leicester, and with only two lawns available the format had to be adjusted somewhat. Each match consisted of a doubles and a singles game, with 3 rounds of the teams playing each other. Different doubles pairings were used for each round, with the teams free to choose to play conventional or alternate strokes doubles. One substitute was allowed for each team, and Ashby and Leicester took advantage of this in the last round, to allow a player to attend an evening commitment, and to give a new player a chance to play competitive AC.
The result was decided on match wins (ie both singles and doubles game won), game wins, who-beat-who, then net hoops. The rounds were run with set finish times, which meant that the event finished roughly when expected – and before it was dark! At the end, every team had 3 game wins, but only 3 teams had one match win (Nottingham finished 1-1 in all their matches). The three teams had all beaten each other, and so it came down to net hoops and Ashby emerged as the winner after a few minutes checking the results.
Ashby will therefore represent the East Midlands in the Secretary’s Shield national competition next year.
The winning Ashby team of (L to R) Andy Sherwood, Arthur Rowe and Richard Sanville
The team of David Bell, Mark Buckley and Alison Murray all of Leicester were joined by Keith Pound (Ashby) and John Carrington (Broadwas – his mum was born in Leicester) at Cheltenham to represent Leicestershire in Division 2 of the inter Counties. The aim was not necessarily to win but to ensure promotion to avoid travelling to Southwick in 2026. The lawns lacked grass and the hoops were rock solid which was testing most people. At the end of day one Leicestershire were in 5th position so still in with a chance. Some teams dropped away but the overall winners were Croquet England Select but as composite team they cannot officially win, followed by Northamptonshire and then Leicestershire with the same number of test wins but a few less games. Leicestershire attained their objective with promotion and back to Cheltenham next year. Good job done!
The Leicestershire team Keith Pound, David Bell, Jon Carrington, Alison Murray and Mark Buckley
Four players contested this FEMCC 14pt handicap event on Saturday 2nd August, in an all-play-all format played to base 6 (meaning that everyone with a handicap above 6 got some bisques). This worked well with all the games being completed within the 90 minute time limit, although only just in some cases. Half the games were close, with a difference of 4 or less. Andy Sherwood from Ashby won all his games and took home the trophy, with Tim Ash from Nottingham runner up with 2 wins. Andy also earned a handicap reduction to 6.
Arthur Rowe our AC leagues manager presenting Andy Sherwood (Ashby) with the Jim Kirby Cup
Ant Graham, Peggy Dellar and Mark Innes – the winning Nottingham team
The Jim Kirby Cup will take place at Ashby Croquet Club on Saturday 2nd August. It is open to any AC players who might be interested in playing but primarily players who are in their first few years of playing AC.
Dixon Engineering have kindly sponsored this East Midlands Federation Competition hosted by Ashby Croquet Club. This competition has run for many years and was previously called the Coors Cup and Bass Shield.
Teams from Derby, Leicester, Long Eaton and Nottingham joined the two Ashby teams Ashby A and Ashby B.
The teams were divided into two blocks: Block B comprising Ashby A, Long Eaton and Nottingham and Block G had Ashby B, Derby and Leicester.
Ashby A and Ashby B both won their blocks convincingly and at the end of the block stage Tim Ash from Nottingham and Andy Sherwood from Ashby both had 4 out of 4 wins and were in strong contention for the individual trophy.
The finals rounds consisted of teams in each block playing the team in the other block in the same position so Ashby A played Ashby B, Nottingham played Derby and Long Eaton played Leicester. The cold weather from the morning had now been replaced by sunshine and the final positions were not resolved until the last games finished.
Andy Sherwood (Ashby A) played John Picken (Ashby B) in the crux match. Tim Ash had already won all his six games and Andy had won all his five so far with a strong hoop difference so if Andy won he would take the Dixon Cup and Ashby A would take the Dixon Shield, if John won then Tim Ash would take the Dixon Cup and Ashby B would take the Dixon Shield. In the event their game was drawn so Ashby A (Mike O’Brian, Andy Sherwood and Pete Bensley) took the Dixon Shield with a much bigger hoop difference than Ashby B and Tim Ash from Nottingham won the Dixon Cup.
Photos from Alison Murray
Click here to see the Branston dates for your diary
For further details go to the Branston croquet club website