


Congratulations to our latest Champions
3 World Championships have been completed since our last Newsletter. Well done to our new Champions:
2022 AC World Team Championship Tier 1: the MacRobertson Shield: Champions England, comprising Captain Samir Patel and his team mates Christian Carter, Harry Fisher, James Death, Jamie Burch and Mark Avery.
2023 AC Women’s World Championship: Champion Debbie Lines, England
2023 Under 21 GC World Championship: Champion Aston Wade, England
The WCF would like to thank the ACA and CNZ for hosting these events for us. Particular thanks go to the army of volunteers who prepared the lawns, set the hoops, fed the players, organised the admin, billeted players and of course the many club players who gave up their lawns.
Thanks also to the live-stream and social media teams, which were superb at all three events. To watch the livestreaming, follow these links:
MacRobertson Shield – provided by 'MySportLive' all days were streamed, with commentary provided from both local players but also remotely from players around the World.
AC Women’s Championship – provided by Maori Active, under the leadership of Greg Bryant. All four days of the knock-out were streamed. These have been collected on the WCF YouTube AC Women’s Playlist Women's AC World Championships Playlist
Under 21 Championship – also provided by Maori Active by Greg and his team, these can also be viewed via the WCF YouTube channel: Under 21 World Championships Playlist
Coming up soon!
The 2023 AC World Championship will take place in London, England between 15-23 July.
The 2023 GC Women’s World Championship will take place in Sussex, England between 7 -14 August.
Qualifiers for both of these events can now be entered via the English CA Fixtures List, which is found on the Compete page of the CA Website. To enter you must first register for (or renew) a Reciprocal Rights Account. If you have any problems, you can contact the CA Office (email: caoffice@croquet.org.uk) for assistance. Once submitted, the office should take approximately one working day to provide the necessary access so that you may enter online.
The GC Over 50’s World Championship will take place in Bunbury, Western Australia, between 14-21 October. This will be the last Over 50’s event following a recent decision that in future the minimum age will change to 60.
Hosts wanted for future events
The forward calendar for the next 12 years can be viewed on the Upcoming Events page of this website. Clubs interested in hosting any of our events should make their interest known via their Governing Body.
Membership News
Hong Kong joins the WCF as an RCO
In December we announced that a Croquet Association has now been formed in Hong Kong. They have two clubs, the Hong Kong Cricket Club with 27 members and the Hong Kong Club with 15 playing members. In 2022 the HKCC hosted 4 tournaments and ran a league from Sept to April. These tournaments were singles and doubles Association and singles and doubles Golf. They have plans to hold National Championships next April.
Please offer them a warm welcome, and if you are in Hong Kong, why not get in touch and pay them a visit.
Croquet is doing well in Mexico
Mexico request upgrade to Associate Membership. It’s still going through a Council Vote, due to finish on 9th March, but it seems likely that our Mexico RCO, who have expanded to two clubs and are growing their Membership, will soon be upgrading to Associate Membership. They have recently built a fantastic new club house at their base in Valle de Guadalupe, which is in the heart of Mexico Wine Country on the Baja California.
Spain goes from strength to strength
Congratulations to Spain which continues to grow. Player numbers have increased again year on year and with their 2023 Subscription they have upgraded to the maximum 8 vote Membership.
The below article describes their amazing growth.
2023 WCF Hall of Fame Inductees
In 2023 we welcomed three new inductees to the WCF Hall of Fame: Geoff Young (New Zealand), Joe Hogan (New Zealand) and Khaled Younis (Egypt). Two of them were presented with their certificates during the recent World Championships in New Zealand.



Dawson Balls update
The original Dawson ball recipe went out of production following changes to Australian product regulations which banned one of the substances used. Testing continues to recreate a recipe that meets the specification. The WCF have been advised that there has been some success. Final testing is underway so we hope production might start again soon.
Completed WCF Business
Topic 116 – Ranking Changes Proposal: amends to the algorithm to reduce under-ranking in developing countries was passed on 4th November and implemented on 18th December
Topic 117 – For singles events, we consulted on members preferences for Single or Multi-venue events. Feedback was inconclusive but leant towards a preference for single venues but maintaining the larger entry of 80 players. The MC will bear the feedback in mind, but basically no change to the policy.
Topic 118 – Forward Calendar: Croquet England proposed moving the MacRobertson Shield to 2026. Members voted and approved the change.
Topic 119 – Equipment Regulations consultation. Thank you for your feedback, this is being reviewed and new Regulations will be put to a member vote shortly.
Topic 120 - Brian Havill was re-elected as the WCF Independent Examiner
Topic 121 – 2023 Budget: Members approved the budget. This included increasing player entrance fees to £17 per player per day. This allowed us to increase payments to our Hosts to ensure events are viable. The host now gets £15 of this for Teams event and £10 for Singles events. The WCF retains the remainder to cover our costs.
Czech Moravian Croquet Association – expansion of the facility at Telc
Topic 122, was a request for a grant for €15,000 to increase the two lawn club in Telc to four lawns. This will greatly improve their ability to host tournaments and to grow their membership. Work to lay the new lawns started a few weeks ago.