Croquet on the Mansion House lawn

One of the best things about the Mayoralty is the opportunity to raise money for designated charities. The current Lord Mayor has chosen four charities to support during his year. They are Maggies, which is based on the Singleton Hospital site and provides free practical, emotional and social support to people with cancer and their family and friends, West Glamorgan Youth Theatre, the YMCA Young Carers Service, which provides support and information for young carers aged 8-18 in Swansea, and the Swansea East Side Food Bank.

Money is raised for these charities in various ways, including a Lord Mayor's Ball and next months Strawberry Tea at the Mansion House. One tradition has been the annual croquet tournament, which from 2008 to 2016 was hosted by chartered and independent financial advisors, Estate Capital, at their Uplands office. However, when they moved office they no longer had a lawn to stage the competition on and so there was no competition last year.

At my suggestion, this year Estate Capital moved the croquet tournament to the Mansion House lawn. A long list of local, mostly financial and legal businesses turned up to take part. These included Barclays Bank, Swansea Building Society, Crossing Point, Butterfield Morgan, Estate Capital, Allchurch and Co, Broomfields, JCP, Hutchinson Thomas, PWC and Willis Jones.

Estate Capital very generously provided a substantial buffet and drinks and somehow the rain held off until just after 4.45pm. One of the semi-finals and the final were played in the rain but despite that everybody had a really good time and by the end of the day it is likely that just under £1800 was raised for the Lord Mayor's charities.

My role was presenting the trophy to the eventual winner, Barclays Bank. I very much look forward to hosting a similar event next year.

Update: The final tally reveals that the money raised on the day for the Lord Mayor's charities was £1,055. This is to be match-funded by Barclays Bank, making a total donation of £2,110.