Author: Alisonadmin

Reg Bamford

Hall of Fame
Reg Bamford

Born: 1967
Inducted: 2011

Reg Bamford is one of the most accomplished players in croquet history.  He is a three-time WCF Association Croquet World Champion and twice the WCF Golf Croquet World Champion (in 2013 and 2017) and held both titles simultaneously from April to August 2013.  He has won the British Association Croquet Open Championship eleven times since 1992 and the British Golf Croquet Open Championship ten times since 2002 and is the holder of more than 50 individual championship titles.

Beginning the game at age nine in South Africa, Reg began competing at the highest level almost immediately.  Since 1986, his end-of-year playing grade has only dipped below 2,600 on two occasions.  He has achieved the year-end Number One world ranking eight times and has been consistently ranked among the top five players in the world for nearly a quarter of a century.

Reg is also one of the most likeable individuals in the game, a great ambassador for the sport and his native country. Despite living in the UK since the early 1990s, Reg has consistently maintained his South African nationality in world croquet competitions.  This devotion has surely kept him from competing for Great Britain in the prestigious MacRobertson Shield, as his residency in London and an Irish grandfather would allow.

Reg is also the only known individual to have ever played croquet at the North Pole.  This occurred in April 2005, when Reg trekked to the Pole with, among much needed survival provisions, a croquet mallet and a ball.

Reg’s adventurous spirit is amplified by his intense determination and dedication  to croquet.  He is known among players for his rigorous training exercises, spending hours alone on the court after matches are completed, perfecting his swing and technique.

Reg’s dedication reaches well beyond croquet.  He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and founder and CEO of Sable Group (formerly 1st Contact) —a recruitment enterprise which provides financial and migration solutions to South African and other professionals living in the UK and Europe.

Reg and his wife, Adrienne, currently reside in London and have two children, Alex and Oliver.

Updated August 2017

Tom McDonnell

Hall of Fame
Tom McDonnell

Inducted: 2011

Tom McDowell and son (Author:Croquet World)

Tom McDonnell played croquet in the company of the Hollywood elite on his  home court in Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles.  Actors, including David Niven, Louie Jordan, Gig Young, George Saunders and Diana Hyland would always be at the house to play.

Tom was introduced to the game while working in the television industry in the late 1950s by movie producer Sam Goldwyn.

He ultimately was inducted into the U.S. Croquet Hall of Fame and was responsible for the development of tournament croquet on the West Coast, starting croquet clubs in Beverly Hills, San Francisco and at Sonoma-Cutrer winery in Santa Rosa.

It was at the family's home court in the hills west of St. Helena that he introduced the game of croquet to Meadowood Founding Partner H. William (Bill) Harlan.

At that time, in 1986, Harlan and his partners had owned Meadowood for approximately seven years and with some gentle persuasion decided to include croquet as an activity at the retreat.

To ensure the courts would satisfy world-ranking croquet players, Harlan engaged McDonnell to collaborate on the development of the competition lawns.  They opened in 1986 and that same year, Meadowood co-hosted the U.S. Croquet Championships, the first time they had been held outside of the state of New York.

Tom had also been responsible for the laying of world-class courts at Sonoma-Cutrer.  Those courts were awarded the 1986 USCA championships jointly with Meadowood.

As a direct result of the tireless work put in by Tom, Australian players Damon Bidencope and Neil Spooner attended those championships and in the following year became the resident professionals at Meadowood and Sonoma-Cutrer respectively.

Without the wonderful dedication of Tom Mc Donnell, the sport of croquet in the USA would not have reached the level it currently maintains.

Chris Williams

Hall of Fame
Chris Williams

Inducted: 2011

 

Chris  learnt how to play croquet whilst studying for a physics degree at Oxford University.  In 1986, he became a founder member of the Dyffryn Croquet Club near Cardiff, Wales.  As a player he has won the Welsh Championship on three occasions and the Spencer Ell Cup. He has been a regular in the Wales Home International team since 1992 and captained Wales to their WCF World 14pt Team Championship triumph in 2000. 

However it is for his role as the WCF Association Croquet Ranking Officer that the sport owes him recognition.  Since taking over the maintenance of the Association Croquet rankings from Stephen Mulliner in 1997, he has worked tirelessly to maintain and improve the service offered.  In 2004, the service was updated to the interactive version that we know today but even since then Chris has continuously sought to improve the service offered by the site and the statistics that can be accessed.

Results of games are entered as soon as they are received meaning that the ranking list is always as up to date as possible.  As well as the site being of general interest to players, it serves as an invaluable tool to managers looking to seed events and to selectors, not just from the point of view of the grading information supplied but also by making accessible the huge database of results on which the system relies.

Since 1997, Chris has entered the results of more than 180,000 games into the system, but, as if this were not enough, Chris is now going back through old records with the aim of creating ranking lists back to 1918.  His role of CA Archivist helps to provide access to the historical information for this latest project.  Through his tireless efforts and by constantly seeking to provide another angle for the user to view the information in the vast database, Chris has made the rankings so much more than a list of numbers. It is through his efforts alone that the resource of the interactive ranking database is available to us all, a resource without which the sport would be much the poorer.  

2017 GCWC Ranking Places

Following the passing of the Announcement Date, Ranking Places have been awarded to the following players:

    Player Country       12m peak
                    grade
         
1   Chris McWhirter AUS 2522
2   Greg Fletcher AUS 2510
3   Peter Landrebe AUS 2453
4   Alix Verge AUS 2422
5   John van der Touw AUS 2420
6   Wendy Dickson AUS 2388
7   Geoffrey Jamieson AUS 2377
8   Barry Haydon AUS 2373
9   Pierre Beaudry BEL 2433
10   Ahmed Nasr EGY 2812
11   Hamy Erian EGY 2799
12   Mohamed Karem EGY 2779
13   Ahmed El Mahdi EGY 2769
14   Moustafa Eissa EGY 2594
15   Fathy Farouk EGY 2527
16   Hisham Abu Osbaa EGY 2507
17   Salah Hassan EGY 2496
18   Mohamed Walid EGY 2492
19   Hisham Yassin EGY 2450
20   Khaled Kamal EGY 2437
21   Sherif Abu Osbaa EGY 2426
22   Karim Ghamry EGY 2425
23   Tarek Mamdouh EGY 2424
24   Walid Wahban EGY 2421
25   Nihal Ahmed EGY 2408
26   Stephen Mulliner ENG 2669
27   John-Paul Moberly ENG 2501
28   Duncan Dixon NZE 2738
29   Jenny Clarke NZE 2550
30   Felix Webby NZE 2480
31   John Christie NZE 2453
32   Joshua Freeth NZE 2440
33   George Coulter NZE 2408
34   Mike Crashley NZE 2402
35   Ben Rothman USA 2649
36   Sherif Abdelwahab USA 2500
37   Mohammad Kamal USA 2400
38   Ahab Dincer USA 2397
39   David Walters WAL 2522
40   Reg Bamford ZAF 2786

2017 Golf Croquet World Championship

The 2017 Golf Croquet World Championship will be held at Cairnlea, Melbourne (and other venues) from Saturday, 25 February to Sunday, 5 March 2017 in accordance with version 4.8 of the Event Regulations and version 8.8 of the Sports Regulations.

The Event Website may be found at http://croquetvic.asn.au/2017-gcworlds/

Entry list

The list of players who have been awarded places may be found here.

The Replacement Ranking List ceased to operate on the Cut-Off Date, 8 January 2017.  The right of a Member to reallocate a returned Membership Place ceased on the Qualifying Tournament Closing Date, 5 February 2017.  All withdrawals by a player now create an extra Qualifier Place.

 

Other event details

The Event Capacity will be 80.  Other Player Information including venues, balls and hoops may be found here.

Qualifying Tournament 

The QT will be held at Cairnlea from Monday, 20 February to Wednesday, 22 February 2017 from which the eight highest-placed finishers will gain Qualifier Places in the GCWC.  The next two highest-placed will take part in the Qualifier Play-Off as described below.

The names of the 28 players who have been allocated places in the QT may be found at http://croquetvic.asn.au/2017-gcworlds/qualifier_players.

If any player withdraws from the QT, the place will be offered to the player on the QT Reserve List with the highest grade at midnight on the day on which the withdrawal is communicated to the Event Host.

Qualifier Play-Off

A Qualifier Play-Off will be held for two more Qualifier Places on Thursday, 23 February 2017 between:

the two highest-placed finishers in the QT who have not already gained Qualifier Places; and

the two highest-placed and available finishers in the Under 21 Golf Croquet World Championship who have not already gained a place in the GCWC.

 

 

 

2017 Under 21 Golf Croquet World Championship

The Championship will be held at the Victorian Croquet Centre, Cairnlea, Melbourne from Saturday, 18 February to Wednesday, 22 February 2017 in accordance with version 4.8 of the Event Regulations and version 8.8 of the Sports Regulations.

The Event Capacity will be 28.

RESPONSE DATE: Sunday, 25 September 2016

This is the date by which Members are asked to supply the names of the players they wish to send to the Event.

The top two finishers in the Event who do not already have places in the Golf Croquet World Championship (“GCWC”) and are available to play in the GCWC (which will be held from Saturday, 25 February to Sunday, 5 March 2017 and will be headquartered at the VCC) will be awarded GCWC Wild Card Places.

In addition, a play-off will be held for two Qualifying Places on Thursday, 23 February 2017 between the two highest-placed finishers in the GCWC Qualifying Tournament who have not already gained Qualifying Places and the two highest-placed and available finishers in the Under 21 Golf Croquet World Championship who have not already gained a place in the GCWC.  This provides an additional opportunity for two more Under 21 players to obtain places in the GCWC.

August 2016 Newsletter

WCF August 2016 Newsletter

The newsletter provides a summary for WCF Members of what the Management Committee has been doing recently and what is on the agenda in the near future.  Your comments are always very welcome.  It is also made available to all on the WCF web-site and via the Nottingham list and other croquet bulletin boards.

Council debates and decisions

The amendments to the AC Impasse Procedure contained in Appendix 1 of the Refereeing Regulations were approved by Members.  This involves no change of substance but ensures conformity with the the procedure set out in ORLC and the MacRobertson Shield Regulations.

What has happened in June to August?

There was a welcome reduction in administrative demand after the two world championships.

The new draft of the WCF Statutes has reached version 12.4 and is expected to be published to Members as a consultation for formal consultation in September and October.  In addition to the deletion of provisions relating to general meetings, the opportunity has been taken to re-organise the Statutes to make them clearer and more accessible.

The first steps in the 2017 GCWC timetable have been achieved.  By the Response Date of 31 July 2016, Members had requested 32 Membership Places and put forward 116 players for Ranking Places.  The names of players awarded 40 Ranking Places and two Wild Card Places were announced to Members on 28 August 2016.   Details may be found on the WCF website under World Championships.

The WCF was informed that the manufacture of Dawson Balls is under new ownership.  We wish the new owner every success in continuing the supply of what is regarded as the standard competition ball and express the deep appreciation of croquet players everywhere to Brian Dawson for his 25 years of service to tournament croquet.   

Forthcoming WCF championships

2017 Golf Croquet World Championship and Under 21 GC World Championship

Both events will be held at the Victorian Croquet Association headquarters at Cairnlea, in the western suburbs of Melbourne.  The Under 21 will run from Saturday 18 to Wednesday 22 February 2017 and the Qualifying Tournament from Monday 20 to Wednesday 22 February 2017.  The main event will begin on Saturday 25 February 2017 and end on Sunday 5 March 2017.

2017 Association Croquet World Team Championship

Tier 1, the MacRobertson Shield, will be held at Mission Hills Country Club, Palm Springs, California from 18 April 2017 to 4 May 2017.

Tiers 2.1, Tiers 2.2 and 3 will be held at Sussex County Croquet Club in England from 17 to 22 July 2017.  The Invitation Date for the lower tiers is expected to be in October 2016.

Membership enquiries

There are none to report.

MC Topics recently completed or closed

MC 281:          Dawson Balls Working Group

MC 295:          2016 AC World Championship, April 2016

MC 313:          2016 GC World Team Championship, May 2016

MC 326:          WCF Event Income

MC 328:          Membership status of France

MC 339:          WCF Event and Sports Regulations

MC 347:          WCF Treasurer – co-option of Martin French

MC 349:          Video Working Group – establishment

MC 350:          MC conference calling – proposal to move from Skype to phone

MC 351:          Refereeing Regulations Appendix 1 – proposed amendment

MC 353:          Golf Croquet Ranking Review Committee 

MC Topics open, pending or under administration on 31 August 2016

MC 291:          Appointment of GC Ranking Officer and Assistant Ranking Officers

MC 318:          2017 GCWC and Under 21 GCWC, February 2017

MC 324:          2017 AC World Team Championship, April 2017

MC 331:          International Laws Committee

MC 346:          WCF Statutes revision project

MC 348:          Wimbledon Cup – repairs and flight box

MC 352:          10-year World Championship schedule

MC 354:          2018 Association Croquet World Championship

MC 355:          Australian Perpetual (WCF Friends) account 

MC 356:          Finance Regulation amendments

MC 357:          Election of Treasurer

Outlook for September

The Closing Date for both the 2017 Golf Croquet World Championship and the 2017 Under 21 Golf Croquet World Championship will occur on Sunday, 25 September 2016.

The draft revision of the WCF Statutes will be published to Members as a consultation. 

Stephen Mulliner

Secretary-General

7 September 2016

April 2016 Newsletter

WCF April 2016 Newsletter

The newsletter provides a summary for WCF Members of what the Management Committee has been doing recently and what is on the agenda in the near future.  Your comments are always very welcome.  It is also made available to all on the WCF web-site and via the Nottingham list and other croquet bulletin boards.

Council debates and decisions

There have been none this month.

What has happened in April?

The amendments to the Event and Sports Regulations were further discussed by MC members during the recent AC World Championship in Florida and will be put before the Council in early May.

Draft Version 12 of the WCF Statutes is with the MC for review and comment.  Once finalised, it will be sent to Members for formal consultation.  The operation of the WCF has evolved over the years and the current version 11.6 needs revision, notably in relation to the provisions relating to general meetings that are no longer relevant since the Council agreed to make all decisions by email voting.

Gabrielle Higgins has informed the MC that the requirements of her new job do not allow her to devote the time she would like to her MC responsibilities and she has decided to step down as WCF Treasurer with effect from 30 June 2016.  The MC has co-opted Martin French, the former Secretary-General, as her replacement for the remainder of 2016.  An election for the post will be held in December 2016.

The 2016 Association Croquet World Championship was held at the National Croquet Centre, West Palm Beach, Florida from Saturday, 16 April to Sunday, 24 April 2016.  The winner was Stephen Mulliner (ENG) who, at the age of 62, is the oldest first-time winner by 29 years and the oldest winner of the seven title-holders by 17 years.  Croquet is truly a game for all ages.  He won the hard way, recovering from 0-2 deficits against both Reg Bamford (SAF) in the semi-final and in the final.  The final was the longest ever at 11.5 hours, the first to be played on two courts and the first to be finished under floodlights.  His opponent was David Maloof (USA), who was also 62 and had played superbly to defeat Paddy Chapman (NZE), the 2013 runner-up, and David Maugham (ENG) in the semi-final.  The Shield, Bowl and Plate events were won by Stephen Forster (AUS), James Death (ENG) and Ian Lines (ENG) respectively.

Forthcoming WCF championships

2016 Golf Croquet World Team Championship

Tier 1 will be held at the Surbiton Croquet Club in south-west London from Sunday, 15 May to Saturday, 21 May 2016.  The competing teams are Egypt (holders), England, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, Wales and USA.

Tier 2 will be shared between the Bath Croquet Club and the Camerton & Peasdown Croquet Club from Sunday, 15 May to Friday, 20 May 2016 with the intention that players from teams in both tiers can meet for a combined championship celebration on Friday, 20 May 2016.  The competing teams are Australia, Belgium, Czech-Moravian Republic, Germany, Latvia, Scotland, Spain and Switzerland.

Tier 3 will be held at the Guildford & Godalming Croquet Club from Wednesday, 18 May to Friday 20 May 2016.  The competing teams are Georgia, Norway, Portugal and Russia.

Details of the Tier 1 and 2 teams and squads are available on the WCF website at http://www.worldcroquet.org/index.php/world-championships/2016-gc-world-team-championship


 

2017 Golf Croquet World Championship and Under 21 GC World Championship

Both events will be held at the Victorian Croquet Association headquarters at Cairnlea, in the western suburbs of Melbourne.  The Under 21 will run from Saturday 18 to Wednesday 22 February 2017 and the Qualifying Tournament from Monday 20 to Wednesday 22 February 2017.  The main event will begin on Saturday 25 February 2017 and end on Sunday 5 March 2017.  The Invitation Date is expected to be in June 2016.

2017 Association Croquet World Team Championship

Tier 1, the MacRobertson Shield, will be held at Mission Hills Country Club, Palm Springs, California from 18 April 2017 to 4 May 2017.

Tiers 2.1, Tiers 2.2 and 3 will be held at Sussex County Croquet Club in England from 17 to 22 July 2017.  The Invitation Date for the lower tiers is expected to be in October 2016.

Membership enquiries

There are none to report.

MC Topics recently completed or closed

There are none to report.

Topics open, pending or under administration on 30 April 2016

MC 291:           Appointment of GC Ranking Officer and Assistant Ranking Officers

MC 295:           2016 AC World Championship, April 2016

MC 313:           2016 GC World Team Championship, May 2016

MC 318:           2017 GCWC and Under 21 GCWC, February 2017

MC 324:           2017 AC World Team Championship, April 2017

MC 326:           WCF Event Income

MC 328:           Membership status of France

MC 331:           International Laws Committee

MC 339:           WCF Event and Sports Regulations

MC 344:           2016 Ramsis Cup

MC 345:           Development – further projects in 2016

MC 346:           WCF Statutes revision project

MC 347:           WCF Treasurer – co-option of Martin French

MC 348:           Wimbledon Cup – repairs and flight box

MC 349:           Video Working Group – establishment

MC 350:           MC conference calling – proposal to move from Skype to phone

Outlook for May

The main focus will be on holding the GC WTC, publishing the proposed revisions to the Event and Sports Regulations to WCF Members and finalising the Statute revisions.

Stephen Mulliner

Secretary-General 4 May 2016