Category: WCF Business

WCF Gender Policy published

I am pleased to announce that Council voted to approve the WCF Gender Policy (version 1.0), with 21 votes in favour and 16 against.

The Management Committee will continue to monitor this subject. Any queries with respect to the policy and how it is interpreted should be addressed to the Secretary-General.

The policy has now been published on the WCF website and can be found on page: Gender Policy

Mohamed Raslan is elected to the Management Committee

The WCF is pleased to announce that the management committee will be joined by Mohamed Raslan from Egypt who successfully won the election that closed on 20th March 2022.

Mohamed Raslan will join the Management Committee immediately and serve until 31 December 2025.

Raslan’s croquet journey started in 1982 in Alexandria, Egypt as a player for Somouha and Alexandria sporting clubs. When he moved to Cairo, he joined Maadi club and within a few years, he became involved with the team management. As the head of the team’s management committee, he led the efforts to organize a successful annual national tournament. He also facilitated corporate sponsorship allowing the team to gain financial independence.

In December 2021, Raslan was elected president of the Egyptian Croquet Federation.

 

Temporary Amendment to Sports Regulations – clarification 25th February 2022

In February 2021 Council voted 38-0 in favour of accepting a Temporary Amendment to the WCF Sports Regulations. This amendment is relevant to the upcoming GC World Championship in July. Please see updated link: https://worldcroquet.org/temporary-amendment-to-sports-regulations/.

This amendment allows players to qualify for Ranked Places by playing 10 games in the previous 24 months, instead of the previous 12 months.

It has recently come to light that this amendment does not fully cover what was intended and is unclear. The Management Committee (MC) minutes from January 2021, minuted that “The agreed alternative was to use the MaxGrade over 24 months and require 10 games in 24 months”.

Two other clauses within Appendix 2 of the Sports Regulations also make reference to the 10 games in 12 months, and as a result, the temporary amendment, as published above, is left ambiguous.

To clarify, the additional relevant clauses in Appendix 2, where 12 months should be replaced with 24 months are:

4.2.3 in the case of the Initial Allocation Ranking List and, subject to paragraph 7.4, the Replacement Ranking List, are based on a minimum of 5 ranked games (AC) or 10 ranked games (GC) in the 12 24 months ending on the relevant day and on the highest grade achieved by players in that period; and

7.4 Replacement Ranking List
The Replacement Ranking List may contain players who were not on the Initial Allocation Ranking List provided that they have played a minimum of 5 ranked games (AC) or 10 games (GC) in the 12 24 months ending on the date on which the vacancy arises and have informed the S-G by e-mail that they wish to play in the Event.

The Ranking Lists created for the upcoming GC World Championship will be created and applied on the basis of 24 months in all 3 clauses.

We apologise for any confusion this may have caused.

Update to WCF Ranking Regulations

The WCF is pleased to announce the publication of version 1.1 of the Ranking Regulations.The only change is to amend clause 4.5 from 50% to 75%. It now reads:

4.5     Open nature of event
An event is not an Eligible Event if more than 75% of the places are reserved for members of one club.

The new version of the Regulation can be downloaded here: WCF Rankings Regulations version 1.1 or on the Statutes & Regulations page of this website.

The change was requested by Spain who have been struggling to run tournaments and grow our sport in an environment where nearly all their clubs are member-only sports clubs. The WCF Ranking Operations Committee (ROC) reviewed the request and concluded that no harm or damage was likely to result from this change. WCF Council voted to approve the change on 17th January 2022.

Would you like to help run the WCF?

Amir Ramsis resigned from the Management Committee (MC) on 26th December 2021. The MC wish to thank Amir for his many years of service, including his 8 years as President, and wish him well with all his future endeavours.

This leaves a vacant position on the MC. We will therefore run an election, firstly asking Members for nominations, then following with a Council vote should we get more than one candidate.

If you are interested in helping to run the WCF, please contact your governing body and they will explain in full what is required for your nomination. Applicants from RCOs are welcomed but you need to be aware that you must be nominated by a Full or Associate Member.

Nominations are required into the WCF by Sunday 13th February 2022 at the latest, so please allow time to liaise with your nominating Member so that they have time to process your application.

I am happy to talk to anybody who wishes to discuss what is involved.

Debbie Lines
WCF Secretary-General

Terms of Reference for the Management Committee

The MC shall settle urgent questions and have general administrative powers to carry out the work of the WCF and manage its financial affairs on a day-to-day basis, subject to the direction of Council.  The role includes condensing issues into a manageable size in order to facilitate Council considering them efficiently and in reasonable timeframes. Its terms of reference are:

    1. To implement policy and actions in pursuit of the agreed direction given by Council.
    2. To present to Council an annual plan for the following year including a budget.
    3. To manage the operating funds according to the budget.
    4. To inform Council regularly of progress, activity and issues.
    5. To prepare proposals and make recommendations as part of formal Consultations to Council.
    6. To distribute to relevant sub-committees the tasks they are to execute, to oversee their activity, to take decisions concerning the reports of these sub-committees, and to forward them to Council.
    7. To present to Council recommendations for the admission, the striking off the rolls, or expelling of Members, as well as for any sanctions which might be imposed.
    8. To monitor the Statutes with a view to identifying possible improvements for proposal to Council.
    9. To maintain and approve all WCF Regulations, subject to ratification by Council.
    10. To manage a rolling 10 Year Schedule of events, to solicit bids against this plan once approved by Council, to assess bids and reach formal agreement with the host Member, and to ensure the event is organised according to Statutes and Regulations.
    11. To publish the International Sporting Calendar for the year(s) ahead.
    12. To gain Council approval for any novel event types not already included in an approved 10 Year Championship Schedule, before soliciting bids.
    13. To promptly alert Council should the MC consider that the sporting interests of the WCF are not adequately defended in a particular territory.
    14. To appoint or dismiss the Secretary-General.

Advantage GC

The current form of handicap GC uses extra strokes and is played mainly in Australia, England, and New Zealand and almost nowhere else.  It is not generally regarded as the optimal way of allowing players of different abilities to compete on equal terms.

In 2020, the WCF Management Committee (“MC”) obtained details from the Croquet Association of Ireland of a form of handicap GC that it had used successfully in recent years.  This did not use extra strokes but instead gave the weaker player an advantage in the form of a certain number of hoops.  Unlike the current form of handicap GC, this version did not require different tactics from the level game and it was believed that this made it easier for new and improving players to develop.

The MC then established a Working Group with representatives from Australia, England, Latvia, Uruguay and USA with the task of coming up with a statistically sound and yet simple-to-use algorithm which would give both players a 50/50 chance of winning a game through an adjustment of the number of hoops that needed to be scored by one or both players to win a game.

The Working Group has developed a form of GC which has been named “Advantage GC”. The MC believes that Advantage GC has an excellent chance of gaining general support amongst the playing community if they have the opportunity to try it out.

2021 Official Trial Results
An official trial took place during the English CA's Southern Croquet Federation (SCF) 2021 League season.

The WCF are pleased to report that the trial was completed successfully, with both good data and subjective feedback received.

Roy Tillcock, who organised the trial, has analysed this data and it is extremely encouraging. We know that many clubs around the world tested the new variant, and their feedback was also extremely favourable. We thank everyone who has helped test the game and submitted their data.

The full results can be seen here > SCF 2021 Advantage Trial Report

2022 update - amendments identified
The trial showed that most people felt this game provided a closer experience to level play GC than using extra strokes. The data showed that this variant provided closer matches than the use of extra strokes. Previous analysis has shown that extra strokes generally favours the stronger player, however, data collected over some 836 games of Advantage GC, showed that in some cases there was a slight advantage for the weaker player. To correct this, the Starting Scores Table has been amended.

There is a new table to be used - First to 7 point - and this should be downloaded and used for all future games of Advantage GC, not the table published last year.

Click here to download the Advantage 2022 table> Advantage 2022_First-to-7-points_Handicaps -6 to 14

A revised document explaining the game and incorporating helpful advice around scoring and use of the Starting Scores can be found here >How to play Advantage GC - March 2022 revision

Further alterations to the Table may be made at the end of 2022 if further collected results identify the requirement.

We invite you all to give the game a try and, if you wish to, please send us feedback. Please let us know your impressions and observations and also provide game results which show the handicaps and/or DGrades of the players.  Please use the dedicated email address set up for this purpose – advantagegc@worldcroquet.org

2022 Advantage GC Starting Scores Table - First to 7 Points

Starting Tables: all variants

An example Advantage Post - useful for placing starting clips to avoid overloading hoop 1