Thursday 24 April 2014

Thankful Thursday

I've been a bit tardy recently in the Thankful Thursday posts.  I've got all sorts of excuses.  I've not had anything to be thankful for (completely untrue).  I've been away (true).  I've been doing lots of other things (true).  I've forgotten on the day or been travelling (true).  One or two things have happened to friends around me which temporarily made it a bit difficult to be thankful all the time (true).  I'm sorry Jaz.  I should have more faith and perseverance.

Anyway I've decided that it's about time I pulled my socks up and got on with it.  Why is it, by the way, that when people one knows are having a Bad Time it makes one feel a little guilty for being thankful?

Warning! 

It's a while since I mentioned croquet.  I think at some time I probably said that I would give it a rest before I became even more boring than I am already.  Well, for reasons you will appreciate before I leave for Scotland next Tuesday, I'm going to do a review of my croquet year for which I am exceptionally thankful. 

Enough!  You don't really need to read the rest of this: it's here for the 'diary' aspect of my blog.
 I didn't win the Golf  Croquet Club Championship this year.  My GC partner, Judy, (we won the GC Doubles together) did.  Today.  I was far more nervous for her than I was when she and I played in the semi-final and she beat me making it, I think, the first time I've not been in the final for, I think, six years just after I started playing croquet.  I played well and she played better and beat me fair and square.  Today she beat the Club's pretender for the Championship.  No, she annihilated him in the second game (best of 3): 7:6, 7:2.    We (Judy and her granddaughter, Zoe, whom I used to coach) went out for lunch to celebrate.

So this year I've not won any of the three GC club championships.  However I have won the Association Croquet (the 'original' and 'thinking' croquet) A Grade and the Intermediate Grade Champs.  However I let my partner down and we were only runners up in the AC Doubles.

In the greater scheme of things amongst the goings on in this world of ours all this is very shallow.  However today I am very thankful for my successes this year.  It may never happen again and I shall return to Scotland with the rather shallow thought that my name is etched in gold on the hallowed A Grade championship board at the Marewa Croquet Club.

16 comments:

  1. I think you have earned the right to feel a little proud about your achievements on the croquet lawns :)

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  2. I really envy you the croquet, GB. It's an evil game (in my limited experience), but great fun. But I have no opportunities to hone my ...well, to hone something.

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    1. Yes, Frances, it's not the nice genteel game that some people think it is even when played at Club level. When you play at national level it really gets serious. I suspect in that respect it's no different to any other sport.

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  3. I can't be alone in enjoying all the peripheral activity which surrounds croquet.
    Congratulations for your successes and I'm sure when you lost you were robbed or someone cheated.

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    1. I'd like to think that Adrian but, unfortunately, although I played well on the day my partner and, on this occasion also my opponent, played better than I did.

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  4. GB ~ as you won't have another Thankful Thursday here before you fly north, I imagine you are most thankful for the last six months. And I think we all wish you a comfortable and joyful trip home ~ to your other home.

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    1. Carol you're correct. I'd overlooked that. I'm very thankful for the last six months. In truth if I wake up in the morning I feel thankful.

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  5. All this keeps your head in the game of life. Keep on playing.

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  6. My name is nowhere etched in gold, so I am quite envious!
    Back to business:
    a) You don't need excuses for not posting a Thankful Thursday post.
    b) You know you aren't boring, so stop fishing for compliments.
    c) Your worries and joys may seem shallow compared to the big goings-on in the world, but these are the things that concern YOU and the people you care about, so they are not shallow (says I, the Queen of Shallowness).
    d) Congratulations on your Croquet successes!

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    1. Meike I love you! You are always so straightforward and honest and cut through the crap (if I may use such a slang phrase). Actually I do tend to think that I'm boring. I've had a complex for nearly 40 years when one of my, now, closest friends called me a 'boring old fart'. Which, I have to say in his defence, he strenuously says that I took out of context. I laughed, though, because when I write that I do rather hope that people will say I'm not. I shall not do it again! As for you being shallow what you are saying is that you sometimes read or post 'shallow' things. We all do. Some of us are happy to admit it and others are not. I am. I often read and watch 'shallow' books and films and most of my posts are pretty inconsequential. Should we be apologetic? Certainly not. We cannot campaign to save whales and the environment all of the time.

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  7. You did well, I know you would have liked to do a bit better, but you did well.
    You have a lot to be thankful for.....at least you have hands and feet and eyes to be able to play croquet.

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    1. Virginia you really hit the nail on the head there. If we have our body intact we have a lot for which to be thankful. If we have our health as well we have a very great deal for which to be thankful.

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  8. You did well, GB. Even I know you don't have to win every time to do well. And leaving your name etched in gold, that really is something to be thankful for.

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