Author: Debbie Lines

Upcoming Events

Starting next week! The GC World Champions starts 18th October at Chesapeake Bay Croquet Club, Virginia, USA.
Livestreaming from Tuesday 22nd October. 

See webpage: 2024 GC World Championship

... and in February 2025
We're pleased to announce that a sponsorship deal has been secured with PFC Mallets for the upcoming World Teams Championship.  The WCF PFC Mallets Golf Croquet Team Championship : The Openshaw Shield will be held between Monday, 17th to Sunday 23rd February 2025 at the Northern Tasmanian Croquet Centre, St Leonards, Tasmania.

The 8 teams competing are: Australia, England, Egypt, Ireland, New Zealand South Africa, Spain and the USA. The holders, New Zealand will be hoping to retain their trophy, whilst Spain, newly promoted from Tier 2 will be keen to challenge the others in the top tier.

Spectators are welcome at both of these events if you wish to go along. Some livestreaming is expected and links will be published on this website and on the WCF Facebook page, a few days before each event.

Telc lawns now in use

The WCF is pleased to be able to report that the Czech Republic club in Telc now has 4 lawns. The club have worked hard over the past 18 months to lay 2 new lawns at the existing club, nearly all the work was done themselves, which is a huge achievement.

This now provides a larger venue in this region that can host tournaments. The European Under 21 Championship is scheduled to be played there next July.

Refereeing Corner - Scotland course

A GC Referees course was held at Balgreen Croquet Club in Edinburgh on 29th September 2024 at the request of Croquet Scotland, sponsored by the WCF. The course was led by Ian Shore and Ian Cobbold (Croquet England Examining Referees) and the candidates were examined to Croquet England standards.

The candidates were asked to prepare using the WCFs Online Training and Study Pack and this enabled the course to be held on a single day, rather than the normal two. The first time this combination had been used. The morning was largely devoted to on-court tuition and the afternoon for the written exam and on-court test.

Eight candidates had signed up for the course but one withdrew a few days before the course. Using the online training pack proved very successful with all the candidates passing the written exam, most by a comfortable margin. Well done to everyone who qualified.

Sharing best practice….  Mobile phone use on lawns

A few months back there were some questions raised on social media as to whether players may use their mobile phones at the edge of the court, or indeed, carry them around the lawns. This issue is covered in clause 6.6 of the WCF Sports Regulations:

6.6 Mobile Phones
Players must abide by any restrictions imposed by the club at which play is taking place.
For GC, the use of mobile phones during a match and within five yards of any court in which a game is in progress is prohibited. Players who keep phones on them or in their court-side bags must ensure they are switched off or in silent mode.
For AC, Players who keep phones on them or in their court-side bags must ensure they are switched off or in silent mode. When a Player is not actually in play, they may use their mobile phone provided such use does not contravene Law 57.2 nor distract those in play and does not delay play at all.

As referenced above, in the AC Laws clause 57.2 requires that players must not take advantage of any advice during a game, no matter what form this may come in i.e. written, spoken etc. In the GC Rules, Part 4 Clause 14 has similar provisions.

Regarding Smart Devices, such as watches or similar, the Regulations, Laws and Rules don’t yet cover these devices, technology getting ahead of our updates. These should be considered on the same basis as mobiles.

Headphones – in GC, use of these is not recommended: how would you hear your opponents off-side direction? In AC, some players do find it calming, however, please ensure that you are able to hear your opponent forestall. If used at all, for instance, at your club, please ensure they are used safely and courteously.

If you have some best practice you wish to share, please get in touch, so we can feature it in our next newsletter.

EUROPE NEWS

MĀRTIŅŠ GRĪNHOFS is the new ERC Events Co-ordinator

The Spanish Federation celebrate their 30th Anniversary

Since the end of the 19th century (circa 1880) there exist pictures and graphic news of friendly or family croquet matches in Spain, especially in the north of Spain -"French Croquet" or "Crinoline Croquet". But this year marks the 30^th Anniversary of the official constitution (22 March 1994) of the Spanish Croquet Federation (SCF). At the present time the SCF has almost 3,000 members and 35 croquet clubs (with 54 playing lawns) located in various Spanish regions. It is a full member, with 8 votes, of the World Croquet Federation (WCF).

In these 30 years the National Croquet Team or players selected by the Spanish Governing Body have participated in 89 World or European Croquet Championships across the various Championship types. They have won the 2017 and 2018 European AC Championships, the 2022 and 2024 European Women's GC Championships, the 2026, 2017 and 2024 European GC Championships, and as a National Team the 2020 GC World Team Championship Tier 2.1. Currently 29 players have a GC DGrade above 2000 and there are around 30 with an AC Grade above 1200.

The SCF has organized, since its constitution in 1994, successive Spanish Championships (30 of AC, 17 of GC, 10 Women's GC, 9 of AC or GC Under-21, 8 National Inter Clubs, 3 Over-60 and 3 Spanish AC Open and 3 Spanish GC Open). In the last four years (2021-2024) 438 Spanish ranked competitions have been included in Croquet Scores.

Croquet has recently been recognised in Spain as an official sport. Currently, the SCF is working to achieve its inclusion in the Spanish Olympic Committee and hopes to be able to continue to develop croquet in Spain and, consequently, to be able to help world croquet and the WCF in its growth.

In celebrating this 30^th Anniversary the SCF would like to thank the WCF for these thirty years of great help, as well as for the magnificent work carried out by the SCF's successive Boards of Directors. Likewise, many thanks to the different countries and foreign croquet clubs for the enormous support with which they have welcomed the Spanish National Team and the Spanish players.

Ranking Updates: how are they done?

These are not automatic or immediate and rely on one of our hard-working volunteers taking the time to process the updates.

There are a team of Ranking Officers around the World who update the rankings for us. Please note that they do their best to get results entered every week, but sometimes it might take a little longer. We rely on these volunteers, so please be patient if your spectacular win, and meteoric rise up the list, doesn’t show within a few hours.

Should results still be missing after two or three weeks, please report this, using the relevant results email:

AC:  acresults@worldcroquet.org  and GC:  gcresults@worldcroquet.org