Fenwick Elliott Mallets news

Wayne Davies, the former real tennis world champion and now pro at the Westmoor Club in Nantucket, has been appointed as our agent for USA and Canada. Some stock is on its way to him, and he will be able to supply American customers more promptly, and without any customs intervention.

Ian Plummer Comments

Dr Ian Plummer, author of the Oxford Croquet site, has been testing the Series 4. His comments are on the What they say page.

The World Championships

Congratulations to Chris Clarke, for winning the World Championship for the second time.

And also to Michael Wright, who followed up his recent 4th in the recent NZ Opens (see the What they say... page) with a final 16 performance, using his recently acquired Series 4 mallet. Michael's recent scalps thus now include Reg Bamford, Aaron Westerby, Bruce Fleming and Peter Landrebe.

Eels

Mark Oliver Everett, leader of the Eels, has the right sort of attitude for a rock star. He was quoted the other day as saying, “I hate sport – except croquet. That’s a real man’s sport.”

A New General Manager

We are really sorry to say that Bryan Ewart-Searle, who has done a great job as General Manager over the last year or so, has been forced to give up the role in face of the weight of his other commitments. Thanks, Bryan, for all your hard work.

Happily, Gavin Bow has agreed to take over, and has already started taking over the task of keeping the wheels turning.

O-rings

One or two people have found that the alignment spline has not been enough to keep the shaft in line with the head, and maybe have been wrestling with their Allen keys a bit hard! We have started supplying 0-rings, which you slip over the shank before the head, and that seems to fix the problem. Contact us if you would like one.

A Where On Earth page

A Quotes Page

We thought it might be helpful to include some comments from people who have been using our mallets, so see the new What they say page.

If you are prepared to share your experience, please email us. We will try to be reasonably balanced, but that does not mean, Mrs Trellis, that we will automatically include anything you say... It may well be tempting fate to launch this page on Fireworks Night, but hey ho.

Production humming along...

We are pleased to say that the production delays which plagued us in the early days seem to be behind us; we have stock and can supply pretty much anywhere in the world - expect delivery within about a week. So far, we have delivered to Australia, Canada, England, Monaco, New Zealand, Spain and the USA.

End caps

The original end caps we supplied were designed to sit inside the shaft, and maybe the material was a shade brittle, since one or two people found that they cracked. The ones we now supply fit around the outside of the shaft, and the material is a bit softer.

If anyone has got one of the cracked old ones, and would like it replace, please contact us: we will replace it free of charge.

Caps

We have some FEM baseball caps for sale; see the Accessories page for details of these caps, and also some news on where we are going on some other accessories.

At long last!

We are really pleased to say that, after what seems like an eternity, production is now rolling out. The first consignment promptly sold out, the second has arrived and is now mostly sold, and the third is on order.

So far the feedback has been pretty much universally positive, and the early teething problems seem all to be fixed.

All this new production is of the narrower 2¼ inch head, see the specification.

A roll grip?

We made the fatal error on our specification pages of remarking that no one had ever found the need for a roll grip, including the fate-inducing remark, "Bring it on Mrs Trellis".

There is a user who has since remarked on the Nottingham List that he has put some grip tape around the lower part of the shaft.

Well, there you go. One of the many merits of the croquet world is its well-cultured anarchy! We still do not recommend it; we think it is like fitting leather bonnet straps onto a modern sports-car.

3rd July...

A production shipment including shafts and 20 heads is due to be shipped to Adelaide on 3rd July, with the balance of heads on 10th July. These initial runs should hopefully be enough to supply all those of you who have been so patiently waiting.

Nearly there...

"We will push the heads when the new sample is tested to be ok and send those 5 sets out asap. So please hold on."

Production News

Production is still not quite there.

The prototype Series 4 heads were approved a while ago. We are happy that they work as designed, and the early reliability problems seem to be well sorted. The shafts likewise work well without any significant hitches.

Our heads are certainly rather more complex than anything else on the market, and the materials used in them are relatively expensive. This means that, in order to produce them at a price that is not significantly greater than any other mallet, we have gone for production in South East Asia. The facility chosen is based in Taiwan, with a factory in PRC, and they have been working hard with out R&D people to fine tune their production methods to match the prototypes. This fine tuning includes shifting from a foam core to a pre-preg pressure bag system of manufacture that is quicker, more efficient and more exact (which is good, since it means that shaft weight and chassis weight can be reduced even further) but it has been taking longer than expected - much longer than expected - to iron out the production methodology issues. They say that they are nearly there now...

Meanwhile, the prototypes are still winning

Tim Murphy has won his ACA Bronze medal with his reworked short-run Series 4 mallet, and so will be representing NSW in the next Australian Gold Medal. Meanwhile, he has kept his hand in by winning the Z knockout at the Australian Open Singles in Sydney, leaving more than one MacRob Player in his wake.

In South Australia, Harley Watts has won the CB Sharpe Gold Medal with his now well-used prototype Series 4, joining the ranks of the successful competition sextuple players in the process.

And elsewhere...

Bill Grimsdale has won Masters First Flight singles and also the combined First Flight doubles at the The Seniors & Masters in West Palm Beach, Florida, Robert Fenwick Elliott finished as runner-up in the South Australian Selectors' Invitation Event with the latest factory prototype head, and Harley Watts has been continuing to win games at the MacRob, all with Series 4 mallets.

Fenwick Elliott Mallets

News

Wayne Davies appointed as US Agent