Author: Alisonadmin

Tony Hall has devoted himself to croquet for more than twenty years, both as a player and an administrator.  He served as an active and ambitious President of the World Croquet Federation from 1998 to 2003 and then promptly undertook the role of Treasurer of the Australian Croquet Association from 2004 to 2012.  Before becoming President of the World Croquet Federation, he had served as as President of his club and of the Croquet New South Wales and as the Senior Vice-President of Australian Croquet Association.

Tony spent 38 years in the Australian Army, joining in 1949 and serving overseas in the Antarctic, Malaya, England, Thailand, Vietnam and Papua New Guinea.  He retired as a full Colonel in 1987 and was awarded the OBE. He gained considerable administrative experience both as an officer and from playing and being actively involved in the administration of hockey, squash and swimming.  He helped to start a hockey club, was secretary of the Canberra Veterans Hockey Association for three years and represented his State for ten years.  He served as the treasurer of a squash club for 14 years and spent ten years administering a swimming club in which time he became a senior swimming referee and was made a life member of the club after it became the top club in Australia.  His involvement with swimming also gave him direct experience of high level sports politics with the New South Wales and Australian Swimming Associations.

He took up croquet in 1989 became Secretary of the Canberra Croquet Club within months of joining and then its Treasurer after two years.  As President of Croquet NSW from 1993 to 1996, he visited all NSW clubs, helping to increase membership from 48 to 62 clubs in three years.  During his term as President of the WCF he visited all 24 countries who were then members and ten other potential members.

In 1998 to 2006, he acted as chairman of the first WCF Golf Croquet Rules Committee and then continued to serve as Australia's representative until 2013.  The adoption of the new rules in 2001 are widely regarded as greatly assisting the dramatic increase in the popularity of Golf Croquet all over the world.

On becoming its President, Tony had several ambitions for the WCF. He wanted it to become a genuine international body for croquet, having responsibility for the rules of the games of Association Croquet and Golf Croquet, for organising international competitions and for standardising handicapping and everything that happens on the court.  He also wanted to expand the number of office bearers and officers so that the duties of the Secretary-General could be delegated among a larger number of administrators.  He also performed the duties of the Secretary-General as well as those of the President for one year in the middle of his term before finding a replacement for the inaugural incumbent and a number of other officers.  He saw most of these ambitions realised during his term if office and some of those that remained, such as the management of the Laws of Association Croquet and of the MacRobertson Shield, have since been brought under the WCF umbrella.

Since 1990, Tony travelled around the world every year to play and administer croquet, including attending every World Championship and MacRobertson Shield competition. He played in the Australian Association Croquet Championships every year and has been ranked in the top hundred in the world. He has played in the British, New Zealand, Irish, Canadian, German and United States Association Croquet National Championships and in all other WCF countries with courts, winning the German Open in 2001.  He also won the British GC Open Doubles and won his Australian tracksuit in 1998 to play for Australia in the third Golf Croquet World Championships.  Since then he has since played in five more Golf Croquet World Championships, with a best placing of twentieth.  From 2001 to 2006 he represented NSW in the Australian Interstate Association Croquet Championship and also represented NSW in 2007 and 2008 in the first two Australian Interstate Golf Croquet Championship.  He won the 2002 and 2005 National Golf Croquet Handicap Championship, the 2004 Australian Golf Croquet Open Singles Championship and, in 2005, won the NSW and Queensland Open Singles Association Croquet championships.  While doing all this, he also played hockey with his veterans’ team for twenty years, touring England, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Australia and South America!

Tony also found time to serve for five years as Tournament Referee of the Sonoma-Cutrer World Championships in California and as the Tournament Referee for the 1997 WCF Golf Croquet World Championship at Leamington Spa.  He also acted as a referee in almost all the world level events since then until 2011.

Tony is a widower with three children and seven grandchildren.  He has displayed an extraordinary amount of energy and commitment to croquet and other sports since his retirement in 1989 both as a player and, above all, as an administrator who knew how to run sports bodies to a very high standard.  The world of croquet owes him a considerable debt.

[Updated August 2017]

John Jaques II was the grandson of Thomas Jaques who founded a company in 1795 that can claim to be the oldest manufacturer of games in the world.  Thomas was a farmer’s son of French Huguenot descent whose recent forebears had found refuge in England sometime after 1685 when the Edict of Nantes forbade Protestantism in France.

Thomas’ son John went into partnership with him and so began a long family tradition which survives to today.  Originally, the firm described itself as a “Manufacturer of Ivory, Hardwoods, Bone, and Tunbridge Ware” but John’s son, John Jaques II, built a reputation for Jaques & Son as a publisher of games.

John Jaques II enjoyed considerable success in promoting croquet and it speedily became the vogue, not only in England but also in Europe and throughout the British Empire.  Croquet became especially popular in India, reportedly played by The Viceroy himself with a solid ivory mallet, which was probably made by Jaques as part of their finest set of croquet equipment.

The attractions of croquet were obvious with the benefit of hindsight.  It allowed fashionable people to step outside the claustrophobic Victorian parlour and "take exercise" and enjoy the fresh air without any risk of breaking into a sweat.  It provided an opportunity to show off their finery which is probably why the term "crinoline croquet" entered the lexicon.  It also provided young men and women a legitimate reason for mingling and sometimes wandering off into the proverbial rhododendron bushes, momentarily out of sight of the ever-present chaperones!

"Nothing but tobacco smoke has ever spread as rapidly" commented Dr. Prior, an early enthusiast of the game.  Certainly, Jaques and Son, as the modern firm of Jaques of London was then called, had no trouble selling large quantities of croquet equipment.  By the early 1860s, John Jaques II was regarded as the greatest authority on the game and, in 1864, wrote and published Croquet; the Laws and Regulations of the Game which is recognizably the foundation of the modern laws of Association Croquet.

Nigel's rise to the top of the sport was nothing short of spectacular.  Studying as an undergraduate at Bristol University, he arrived as a new member at the local Bristol club in 1965 at the age of 19 or so and was immediately given a handicap of six.  He had, he later explained, played a bit at home from the age of 12 or so.  His father had bought a second-hand croquet set and the family had played on a former grass tennis court - despite two Victoria plum trees.  They made up their own rules.

In Bristol, he discovered the real game.  "I could," he says, "hit one ball on to another, at, say, 10 or 15 yards, and I think I had a basic idea of tactics.  But I was playing roll shots inaccurately, and I think I was still playing the sequence game."

A few weeks after arriving at Bristol his handicap was reduced to 3.  He had time before the end of the season for a weekend tournament at Cheltenham and a visit to Parkstone in September.  Next season, with a handicap of 1, he played in the Open Championship at the suggestion of a fellow club member, John Simon.  Together, they won the Open Doubles Championship.  Both were then selected for the President's Cup and Aspinall came joint second to William Ormerod.

Nigel had gone from his first tournament to selection for the President's Cup in just 10 months!  What is all the more remarkable is that there were no lessons on the way.  All he did was to ask a few questions.  As he said: "You pick it up like that, really."  Neither did he ever enjoy the luxury of fistfuls of bisques.

The record books show that, having risen to the top so effortlessly, he stayed there for over 20 years.  In that time, he won the Men's Championship twice, the Open Championship eight times and the President's Cup 11 times, a record that was equalled in 2012 (by Robert Fulford) but has yet to be surpassed.  He won the Open Championship three times in a row twice (1974 to 1976 and 1982 to 1984) and he won four President's Cups back to back (1973 to 1976).  He played in the MacRobertson Shield four times, from 1969 to 1986.  It is worth remembering that when he wasn't actually winning championships, he was usually the runner-up.

Prichard in his The History of Croquet described Nigel as a "practical, match-winning machine," and he was considered by some to be more or less unbeatable for some years.  "No," he says, "not quite unbeatable. No. There were all sorts of people who would occasionally beat me, and equally there were one or two people who found me - um - difficult."

"I think I had the ability to concentrate very well.  If you are concentrating 100%, it takes wild horses to drag you off your stride."  Another quality he had was self-belief.

However, the player who gains the greatest praise from Aspinall himself is John Solomon who, with himself, had a quality of "naturalness" of swing, shown often to perfection.

Aspinall always felt he was at his peak round about 1975, when from the end of 1974 to 1976 he won 24 consecutive games in the President's. "I'd won some in '74, all in '75 and the first five or six in '76. It was Colin Prichard who broke my run."

He believes in practising "a little", and he offers this advice on the subject: "Try to make it exciting.  For example, I have a routine of six-yard roquets, where you put four balls in a line and another four parallel six yards away, and the idea is that you hit as many consecutive shots as possible.  Say you hit three in a row and then miss.  You then have to zero your counter and start again.  But this time - say a week later - you have to improve on three.  As soon as you do, stop.  Don't let it become boring.  In other words, give yourself a target and improve on it."

Aspinall eventually gave up top-level play in 1995 when he learned he was diagnosed as having dangerously high blood pressure.  Commenting he said, " I reckoned it wasn't a good idea to increase the stress levels."

Nigel Aspinall was one of the supreme technicians of the game with his famed touch and control.  His incisiveness and fluency may have been "machine-like", but, unlike any machine, he sought to extend the notions of the possible.  To see Nigel in full flow in his hey-day, usually playing with a battered old mallet - one from his father's second-hand set, was to see croquet perfection.

Nigel is a modest man who claimed to only one significant contribution to the sport, namely that of introducing International Rules to the East Coast of the USA in 1974 on his first visit there.  However, those who saw him in action in the 1970s and 1980s do not accept such a limited account of his influence on the game.  He was the natural successor to John Solomon as the best player in the world and maintained that reputation until almost the dawn of the youthful revolution in English croquet in the late 1980s.

MacPherson Robertson was born in 1860 at Ballarat, Victoria.  His father, David, was a carpenter who had gone there attracted by the prospect of gold rush wealth.  When gold lost its steam, David persuaded his wife, Margaret, that they should move to Rockhampton in Queensland to build a new hospital as the main contractor.  However, with the money in his pocket, David departed for Fiji on a wild urge and left Margaret to return to Leith, Scotland, with four small children and one on the way.

It fell to MacPherson (“Mac”) to go out to work to support the family at the age of nine.  He rose at 3 a.m. to deliver newspapers over a ten-mile route and, by 6 a.m., he was lathering faces at a barber shop until 9 a.m.  He then attended school until 3 p.m. and went back to lathering faces until 9 p.m.  Unfortunately, even this prodigious work load did not bring in sufficient income and so Mac had to give up his education in order to work full-time.

A few years later, Mac’s father brought the family back to Australia.  Mac made up his mind to succeed in life and be able to be responsible for his entire family.  On arrival in Australia, he apprenticed himself to a confectioner in Fitzroy, Melbourne, and began a long journey which would see him become the most successful entrepreneur and highest taxpayer in Australia.

Aged 19, Mac set up a small factory in his mother’s bathroom with a “nail keg for a stove, a tin cup for a kettle and some sugar”.  His total capital was about two pounds (or about $200 in today’s money).  He made his confections on Mondays to Thursdays and sold them around Melbourne on Fridays and Saturdays.

Originally, his called his business the Mac Robertson Steam Confectionery Works.  By 1925, MacRobertson Chocolates employed 2,500 people.  Mac had built so many factories in Fitzroy that the block became known as “White City” because he had all his buildings painted white.

Although unions were trying hard to bring manufacturers under their thumb for exploiting workers, his factories never had a strike.  He often said that he should have liked to have done more for his workers but the union made it too difficult.  Nevertheless, he instituted an innovative pension scheme.  His annual turnover rose from £300 in 1880 to £2 million in 1925 ($200 million in today’s money).

He was not one to indulge himself with fine homes, yachts and beach houses, as other successful businessmen were prone to do.  Instead, he had an obsession with keeping fit both physically and mentally.  He punched a boxing speed ball each day to maintain his physical fitness and played croquet to gain relaxation from business concerns.  He enjoyed its strategy and believed that it reinforced his successful business psychology.

After the First World War, Mac saw the new entertainment of cinema as a new outlet for his lollies and chocolates.  He enlisted veteran servicemen to take up these concessions.  Most of the young veterans had no idea of running a business and some failed, owing Mac money for his stock.  He realised that he would have to train them and his other concessionaires in business management.  He realised the benefits of a thinking sport like croquet and encouraged them all to take it up and play it whenever they were free.  Croquet proved to be a wonderful teaching aid for training these young men m in self-discipline and risk management and other attributes conducive to business success.

In 1925, wishing to do something spectacular to create more media interest in his products and to encourage his newly-recruited croquet players, Mac established and sponsored the MacRobertson Shield between Australia and England.  The “Mac”, as the Shield is popularly and appropriately known among croquet players all over the world, remains the most iconic, historic and significant competitive croquet event in the international calendar.  New Zealand joined the competition in 1930 and the United States of America in 1993.  It is the Ryder Cup of Association Croquet and selection to represent one’s country in the Mac remains the pinnacle of a croquet career.

In 1927, Mac co-founded MacRobertson-Miller Aviation Co. and sponsored an around Australia Expedition by two motor lorries in 1928.  Then, in the early 1930s, Mac sponsored a British, Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition under the leadership of Douglas Mawson.  This gave Australia a physical presence on the Antarctic mainland and, in recognition of his patronage, Mawson named a large tract of the continent as MacRobertson Land.  Mac was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Geographic Society in 1931, was knighted in 1932 and appointed K.B.E. in 1935.

Despite the onset of the Great Depression in the 1930s, Mac was able to buck the trend and hire even more employees because his “Old Gold” Chocolate Box and Columbines were so well sponsored and advertised.  Mac was an active and generous supporter of charities and unemployment relief but was often disappointed at the wretchedness and demands of some of the poor together with the stupidity and avarice of federal politicians.

This experience led Mac to re-evaluate his charitable actions and financial support to the individual poor.  He concluded that his generosity often simply encouraged others to ask for a free handout as well and that some of the poor were idle and demanding while despising and abusing the prosperous and hard working.  He decided to cease making indiscriminate donations to the individuals and instead concentrate on projects that created wealth for the nation.

In 1933, he donated £100,000 to Victoria for its centenary celebrations.  He was asked what he thought should be done with the money and suggested building a Girls High School; a much-needed bridge over the Yarra River at Grange Road; a fountain in front of the Shrine of Remembrance on St. Kilda Road and an Herbarium in the Melbourne Botanical Gardens.  His point was that these building projects would help to provide employment.

In addition, with part of his donation, he decided to advertise Australia and Melbourne by organising and sponsoring the great London to Melbourne Centenary Air Race.  This was then the most gallant and gruelling air race of all time and bought Australia unprecedented publicity.  The top aviators of the world competed and the publicity and status of the event assured the future participation of Australia in international commercial aviation.

However, the federal government responded to this generosity by demanding £42,000 of the £100,000 as tax.  At the time Mac was the highest taxpayer in Australia and one of the biggest employers.  Nonetheless, Mac decided to pay the tax and investigate this extraordinary example of inequity and by bringing it before the highest court in the land.  As a consequence of his action, donations to prescribed charities became tax deductible.

Sir MacPherson Robertson loved Australia and patriotic Australians.  He made “rich” a proud and honourable accolade.  It is said that, whereas Ned Kelly is the patron saint of the Australian poor, Mac is the patron saint of the true Aussie Battlers who are prepared to learn, work hard, persevere and never give in.

He was one of the greatest entrepreneurs and philanthropists in Australian history and his contribution to international croquet will never be forgotten.