Debbie has been playing croquet since she was six years old, when she started playing at home with her father Don and brother Stephen. Every year the family would go on holiday to a hotel in Cromer and play an American rules tournament that was taken very seriously. Then, in 1985, the family entered the Hunstanton week and discovered the delights of Association Croquet.
Debbie developed her skills over the next 10 years - winning the Ladies Field Cup in 1986, completing her first triple peel in 1987 and in 1988 she won the Spencer Ell and the British Women’s Championship. She went on to play in the Chairman’s Salver and President’s Cup, the Solomon Trophy, came second at the Sonoma Cutrer World Championships and has also twice been USCA American rules doubles champion. Her best year was 1995 when she was a Quarter Finalist in the 1995 World Championship in France, lost to Reg Bamford in the semi-final of the British Opens and beat David Maugham to win the North of England Championship. These achievements were enough for her to be selected to represent Great Britain in the team that won the 1996 MacRobertson Shield, where she won 11 of her 15 matches, demonstrating conclusively that women could compete at the highest level.
Following the 1996 victory in the MacRobertson Shield, Debbie focussed more on her career and other interests for the next decade, before making a comeback in 2008. Since then she has won a number of events, most notably the 2024 Women’s AC World Championship, the Bowl at the 2024 AC World Championship and the 2025 British Mixed Open Doubles. Debbie continues to play at the highest level – regularly winning tournaments and being selected to play in the President’s Cup in 2023, 2024 and 2025. She is also one of only four women to have ever completed a tournament sextuple peel. Debbie has recently returned to the Great Britain team, captaining the GB Solomon Trophy team in 2024, and playing again for the winning GB team in the 2025 Solomon.
In addition to playing Association Croquet all over the world, Debbie is an accomplished Golf Croquet player, reaching the last 16 of the 2023 Women’s GC World Championship, and she is currently ranked as the number 3 woman in England.
Debbie has been playing croquet at a high level for forty years, and was hugely influential in being the first woman in the modern era to show that women could compete at the highest level, reaching a world ranking of 6 in 1995. Debbie was also clearly the number one ranked woman in the world for 16 years from 1989 to 2004, and is still ranked as the number two woman in 2025, as well as being the current Women’s AC World Champion.
From 2021 to 2025, Debbie took on the role of WCF Secretary General in a time of many international challenges, and has guided the organisation expertly with her knowledge and experience. This has included helping to organise multiple world championships, bringing the European Croquet Federation into the WCF as the European Regional Committee, developing several new WCF policies, being responsible for writing and updating numerous regulations and statutes, and leading on major initiatives such as incorporation of the WCF, ranking system amendments and development and running of the WCF website and social media. Debbie is also Secretary for the Peterborough Croquet Club and serves on the Croquet England Sport Development Committee helping to promote and develop the sport at all levels.
Having been a senior manager with Interflora, Debbie semi-retired in 2019 in order to give more time to the sport that she loves. Debbie is now living in Lincolnshire with husband Ian Lines, with whom she enjoys fell walking, travel and the occasional game of croquet.
Whether it be playing, managing tournaments, refereeing, coaching, administering or promoting the sport, Debbie has performed her role admirably, been a popular presence wherever she has travelled and has helped the global progress of the sport. Debbie has been at the forefront of world croquet for forty years and will always be known as the first woman of the modern era who showed that women could compete at the very top level.
Born in North Sydney, Australia, Damon grew up in a small country town before going to boarding school at Knox Grammar School in Sydney. At St. Paul’s College, University of Sydney, he earned double degrees in Architecture and served as a resident advisor at the Women’s College. Those years gave him a lifetime of entertaining stories, cherished friendships, and the first taste of croquet, which became his lifelong passion.
Ian Burridge has been involved at the top-level of croquet as a player since he late 1980s and as an administrator since the early 1990s. Ian, who was born in Aberdare, South Wales, was introduced to croquet when at school in Colchester in the late 1980s together with a fellow pupil Robert Fulford. Ian progressed rapidly reaching A Class within a couple of years and international selection for Wales in 1990. Ian has been a regular in Welsh teams since then and has captained Wales in the Home Internationals and WCF and European team events for many years.
ents for Wales Ian captained Wales to victory in the WCF World Team Championship Tier 2 in 2010 and 2017 and the inaugural European Team Championship in 2007. In 1996 Ian was part of the victorious Great Britain MacRobertson Shield Team and in 2000 was a member of the victorious Welsh team in the WCF 14-point World Team Championship.
Ahmed Hamroush was an Egyptian intellectual and visionary. He was born in 1921. He graduated from the Egyptian Military College in 1942 and later acquired an advanced military degree at the Egyptian Military Academy in 1953. He was a member of the “Free Officers” Organization that led the 1952 movement. In 1955, he changed career by leaving the military to pursue his passion for writing and journalism. He was chief editor of many Egyptian newspapers and weekly magazines and was a regular columnist. He authored books and articles with special focus on modern Egyptian history, particularly the July 1952 revolution of which he was considered one of its most prominent historians. He published 25 books in politics, arts and literature. He was elected as secretary general of the Egyptian Committee for Afro-Asian Solidarity and president of the Egyptian Organization for Solidarity. He continued to be productive until he passed in 2011.
Under his leadership, the ECF formalized 5 national championships in men’s singles, ladies’ singles, men’s doubles, ladies’ doubles and mixed doubles. In addition, the ECF established a well-designed club league that allowed teams to compete in home-and-home events competing in five matches in men and women’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles. This brilliant design allowed equal representation of men and women on every team. Something that we rarely see today in national or international team competitions, which is a testament to Hamroush’s progressive and forward thinking.
During the late 70s while still a teenager, Khaled Younis started playing croquet at Zamalek, a club known for its strong croquet traditions. Khaled has always been a gifted athlete. Before croquet, he was considered one of Egypt’s top young field hockey players. He excelled in football, table tennis, snooker among many other games. In croquet, Khaled found his life passion.
Geoff has been a dedicated servant to the game of croquet for almost 40 years. His contributions to croquet administration at all levels, from club through to the World Croquet Federation, makes Geoff an excellent candidate for induction into the World Croquet Federation Hall of Fame.
Joe came to croquet along with a group of teenagers in the Gisborne area in the 1970s. Gisborne was a fertile seedbed for young people to take up and develop in the game of croquet. Joe Hogan was surrounded by people who enjoyed their croquet at different levels and abilities. Playing croquet was fun. The group was tutored and encouraged in the sport by Mr and Mrs R A Clarke, parents of Richard and Judith, who all played at the Barry Memorial Croquet Club. The BMCC club members made for a positive place for the younger ones to feel welcome and accepted. These young players achieved various levels of local and national success in the 1970’s before choosing to take up other activities. Judith Clarke won the NZ Womens at the age of 16, Ross Smith won the NZ Levels Singles and, with Paul Stuart, took out the NZ Levels doubles, and Peter Adsett won the NZ Mens Singles after only playing Croquet for just over 2 years, having to beat John Prince on the way through. Joe Hogan and Richard Clarke, along with other BMCC and Gisborne Croquet Club players, Allen and Cliff Anderson reached the dizzy standards asked for being a member of the MacRobertson Shield team. Cliff Anderson captained New Zealand’s 1974 Mac Robertson Shield team in which his son, Allen, was also a member . In 1974 Allen was runner up to Nigel Aspinall in the British Open Singles. Richard Clarke played for New Zealand in 1982 but has since moved on to playing and coaching Hockey.
In February 1990, he won the World Croquet Federation Championships Singles, the British and New Zealand open singles, the British and New Zealand open doubles titles (both of the latter with Bob Jackson), the NZ Men’s and Mixed Doubles titles and was widely regarded as the best player in the world. He partnered Bob to win 9 NZ Doubles Championships between 1979 and 1990 and also won the title with Aaron Westerby in 1991.