What a fabulous weekend. I’d never been to Bristol before and I went this time to play in a croquet tournament. I was very kindly hosted by Richard Williamson, an English croquet player I’d met for the first time at Cheltenham in 2009 and who I’ve kept in touch with as we’ve played in tournaments since then both in England and in New Zealand. He was also playing in the tournament but he took it upon himself to make sure my four days in Bristol were very memorable.

I arrived on Thursday evening having, unbelievably, left my mallet in London. Poor Richard moved mountains to find me a replacement the next day and I was very glad to be able to play with one similar to mine.

The tournament was just for the weekend so on Friday Richard not only organised some practising on the lawns but also took me to a special late Jubilee (indoor) Street Party at the Clifton Club, for a very smart lunch. It was great fun.

By coincidence, one of my old school friends, ‘Ginia, lives just a few doors from the Club so we dropped in there for a cup of tea afterwards – a lovely reunion.

Then it was time to visit the lawns to get some much needed practice and to meet some of the other competitors.

Bristol is quite a small club with only three lawns. For some reason they’d allowed 14 to enter which meant that there were byes which involved some sitting out – bit of a shame really. I only managed to win my first game, narrowly losing two by one hoop, and only had four altogether. So the weekend turned into more of a social event but a good warm up for Budleigh in a few weeks. Another of my old school friends, Sue, drove all the way from Minchinghampton to watch for a while and catch up on our news. 

There was quite a bit of rain during Saturday so we all got pretty wet. Ginia had asked me the day before whether I’d like to join her and Jay for a ‘champagne and supper’ party on Saturday evening and Richard very kindly dropped me there after my third game to change quickly and join a very pleasant evening.

On Sunday we were given a late start. Richard had asked me whether there was anything specific that I wanted to do while I was there and I mentioned that I’d never set foot in Wales. We just had time to remedy that and he drove me across the smaller bridge across the Wye and into Wales.

And just a short time later, we’d turned around and were headed back into England passing the sign leading to Tintern Abbey.

Back at the lawns there was only time for one more game before the trophy was awarded to the winner. We could have played a friendly game but the rain was closing in so Richard suggested that he drive me just south of Bristol where a couple whom Ken and I had met on our respective honeymoons in North Africa were holding an ‘Open Garden’. We decided to visit and arrived just as the last visitor was leaving. There was just time for a very brief reunion with Chris and Mere and a lovely saunter through their very beautiful garden with a glass of wine – in the pouring rain!

My train on Monday wasn’t until the afternoon and Ginia had suggested that I come to lunch before I left so that we could maximize our time together. Very kind. The day dawned somewhat sunny so Richard very kindly put down the roof of his vintage MGB and took me on a quick Tiki Tour of Bristol. His car is almost identical to the MGB I owned when I was a young thing in England in the 1960s. It brought back so many beautiful memories and brought back such joy as we hummed along.

First he took me to check on my tickets at the Railway Station, a beautiful building.

And after that he whisked me round the various tourist attractions, such as catching a quick glimpse of the SS Great Britain before depositing me at Ginia’s in time for lunch. He’d been an absolute star and a wonderful host.