Hassocks Croquet Club
History of the Club
We have an early press cutting about Hassocks Croquet Club which refers to croquet being played at the old tennis court at Stafford House in 1984 when the club was founded. A group of about a dozen members met on Tuesday afternoons for a game of association croquet.
We continued to play at Stafford House throughout the 1990s but were limited to one session a week and a single small lawn so we restricted our membership to 18 players to avoid undue sitting-out time. As time went by other problems arose and, in particular, it became apparent that our future use of this venue was uncertain.
Incearingly members felt that we should look for a site with more space and better facilities and we decided to approach the Hassocks Parish Council with a view to moving our venue to Adastra Park. The Council agreed and we moved in time for the start of the 2005 season. The hire arrangements covered the use of the lawn area and the pavilion; they also allowed us to arrange our games on any weekday.
The first three seasons in Adastra Park saw little change in the club, membership was steady with around 16 players, we had one lawn and we met once a week for organised association croquet. However we were receiving a number of enquiries from people wishing to join the club so in 2008 we decided to mark out a second lawn and, starting in the 2011 season, we arranged to have two club days per week. It was about this time that we decided it would be more appropriate if we changed to golf croquet for our club days. Over this period our membership numbers increased dramatically, rising to 33 in 2011 and 43 in the 2013 season.
This was an important period in the history of the club. The small casual club which had existed for 20 years had rather suddenly reached a critical mass. Apart from the increase in membership we were introducing handicaps, social events, competitions, and a new committee structure. All of these changes were in place for the 2013 season.
In 2015 the Club left Adastra Park and moved to two new Lawns at St.James's Montefiore Cricket Club, Keymer Road, Hassocks (the road between Hassocks and Ditchling)
2019 saw our club celebrate 35 year since it's founding in 1984 - now with a membership of 53 - The highest number of members the club has ever had
In 2019 Jeff Devereux was made Life President - Jeff joined the Club in 1996 and was deeply involved in the Club's development in the following years
