Sports: Report - Croquet 2020/21

Croquet has returned to Merton! For the first time since Trinity term 2019, students are now able to play croquet within the College.

Having spent two years alone in its cupboard under the stairs of the Grove Building, the croquet equipment was in need of some attention when I came to inspect it at the end of April. Over our 757 years, Merton has acquired quite a bit of croquet kit – and on one nice, sunny day, I cleared out the cobwebs and took stock of the assorted mallets, bisques, balls, posts and hoops. The MCR and JCR Sports Officers and I deemed it time to invest in a new complete set of equipment which the older (still intact) pieces can complement. The new set has already received a lot of use and we hope it will serve many generations of Mertonians to come.

Due to the presence of Chestnut Hall on the croquet court’s usual site next to Mob Quad, the College has kindly allowed for a court to be set up in the Fellows’ Garden which has been prepared wonderfully by Lucille Savin and her team of gardeners. And with the help of Head Porter Huw James, College Web & Media Officer Simon Cope and Housekeeping Supervisor Joanna Twardowska, a safe croquet booking system is in place for junior members. A temporary cupboard has been provided (between Front Quad and St Alban’s Quad near the newly renovated Benefactors’ Arch) to reduce both the number of non-residents entering the Grove Building and the distance to the new court. It has been very rewarding to see how keen students and staff alike have been to hear the thwack of mallets return to College grounds.

Merton also fielded two teams for this year’s University Croquet Cuppers: Merton 1 (Elliott Thornley (2019), Henry Grub (2016), Matthew Lennon (2020), Kabir Bakshi (2020) and myself) and Merton 2 (Gian Piero Milani (2017), Maxwell Geurts (2018), Angela Falezza (2018) and Philippos Roussos (2020)). The first round’s matches saw Merton 1 vanquish St Anne’s College, though sadly Merton 2 was ousted by University College. Merton 1, however, was able to avenge their peers by defeating Univ 21-13. Continuing on to beat Wycliffe Hall, Merton 1 secured a place in the semi-finals. They faced Brasenose in the University Parks on Saturday of Eighth Week – a match well attended not least by the Warden, the Warden’s husband and Geoffrey Biscuit. Unfortunately this was the end of Merton’s run in this year’s Cuppers. I am incredibly proud of how well Elliott, Henry, Matt and Kabir played this year, being undefeated in all encounters ahead of the semi-finals. I trust that Merton has returned to the Oxford croquet scene on the right foot. A future Cuppers victory would see the trophy return to the College for the first time since the Golden Age of Merton Croquet which saw three consecutive undefeated seasons from 2001 to 2003. We wish next year’s team the best of luck.

I would also like to note that Professor Minhyong Kim, whom I had the pleasure of meeting in Michaelmas term 2019, served as the Senior Member of the Oxford University Association Croquet Club throughout his time at Merton from 2011 to 2020. Professor Kim took up the Christopher Zeeman Professorship at the University of Warwick last year, and when reflecting upon his tenure at Oxford he found only one regret: the unavailability of flamingo mallets. On behalf of the Merton croquet community, I would like to thank him for his service and wish him luck in his new position.

Now all there remains to do is hope the weather holds so that we can continue to enjoy the new croquet court with the best views in Oxford.

Charles Tolkien-Gillett (2019) 
Croquet Captain 2020-21