Latest News Archives - Page 12 of 24 - World Croquet Federation

Position	Country	Average	Players
1	Egypt	2,558	6
2	England	2,488	6
3	USA	2,397	6
4	New Zealand	2383	6
5	Spain	2,351	6
6	Australia	2,297	6
7	South Africa	2,278	6
8	Wales	2,198	6
9	Ireland	2,182	6
10	Canada	2,110	6
11	Germany	2,090	6
12	Sweden	2,056	6
13	Latvia	2,034	6
14	Switzerland	2,029	6
15	Scotland	1,995	6
16	Czech Republic	1,923	6
17	Norway	1,901	6
18	Mexico	1,751	6
19	Austria	1,882	5
20	Finland	1,755	5
21	Portugal	1,960	2
22	Belgium	2,243	1
23	Uruguay	1,805	1

Position	Country	Average Grade	Players
1	England	2523	6
2	Australia	2511	6
3	New Zealand	2501	6
4	USA	2388	6
5	Wales	2155	6
6	Scotland	2145	6
7	Ireland	2130	6
8	South Africa	1957	6
9	Canada	1914	6
10	Sweden	1689	6
11	Germany	1551	6
12	Austria	1521	6
13	Czech Republic	1310	6
14	Switzerland	1772	3
15	Spain	1758	3
16	Iran	2150	1
17	Jersey	2120	1
18	Mexico	1761	1

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 9^th 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.

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 4^th November and implemented on 18^th 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.

2023 AC World Championship – How to enter the Qualifier

A qualifying event will be held from 10-13 July 2023 at the Sussex County Croquet Club in Sussex.

Currently there are 4 places available. This may increase if there are withdrawals from the main event after the cut-off date of 11th June 2023.

It will be open to 32 players who have not been able to secure a place through their ranking, their national association or via a WCF wildcard.

If the qualifying event is oversubscribed on the allocation date of 8 May 2023 places will be allocated via the WCF Qualifier Ranking list. In all other respects CA tournament conditions rather than WCF sports regulations will apply to this event.

How to enter:
The qualifier can be entered via the English CA's Online Tournament Entry System, 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 (caoffice.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.

Congratulations to Aston Wade, the new 2023 GC Under 21 Champion

Aston Wade beat Fawzy Helmy 3:1 in an exciting final to become 2023 Under 21 GC World Champion.

Cyclone Gabrielle ensured dreadful playing conditions throughout the match, with strong gusty winds and sometimes torrential rain.

The first game was almost faultless from both players, with impressive clearing and jump shots from Fawzy, whilst Aston's positioning and backball control was exceptional. The later games saw the weather worsen and some mistakes crept in from both players, but overall play was to an extremely high standard. Aston's style of controlled position taking combined with strong clearing and hoop strokes eventually took the win, but it was extremely close throughout.

The fourth game went to the 13th. Aston immediately took perfect position, but Fawzy cleared with his second shot. Some in and out ensued, with good clearing from Fawzy before he finally missed one and Aston took the hoop.

Congratulations also to Levi Franks who won the Shield, Josh Winter, winner of the Bowl and to Inigo Castanan who took the Plate.

U21 finalists and semi-finalist. [Left to right: Joel Steele, Te Kiri King, Aston Wade and Fawzy Helmy]

Full results can be found on CroquetScores

LiveStreaming of the Knock-Out stages can be found on the WCF YouTube Channel U21 Playlist

GC Country Rankings as at 31st December 2022

Position	Country	Average	Players
1	Egypt	2,565	6
2	England	2,492	6
3	USA	2,403	6
4	New Zealand	2392	6
5	Spain	2,337	6
6	Australia	2,299	6
7	South Africa	2,243	6
8	Wales	2,202	6
9	Ireland	2,182	6
10	Canada	2,131	6
11	Germany	2,090	6
12	Switzerland	2,064	6
13	Sweden	2,056	6
14	Latvia	2,034	6
15	Scotland	1,985	6
16	Czech Republic	1,923	6
17	Norway	1,901	6
18	Mexico	1,707	6
19	Finland	1,755	5
20	Austria	1,940	4
21	Portugal	1,960	2
22	Belgium	2,243	1
23	Uruguay	1,805	1

AC Country Rankings as at 31st December 2022

Position	Country	Average Grade	Players
1	England	2523	6
2	Australia	2514	6
3	New Zealand	2490	6
4	USA	2383	6
5	Scotland	2156	6
6	Wales	2155	6
7	Ireland	2130	6
8	South Africa	1949	6
9	Canada	1876	6
10	Sweden	1689	6
11	Germany	1551	6
12	Austria	1488	6
13	Czech Republic	1310	6
14	Switzerland	1772	3
15	Spain	1758	3
16	Iran	2150	1
17	Jersey	2120	1
18	Mexico	1761	1

2023 Women’s Association Croquet World Championship – Champion: Debbie Lines (ENG)

The 3^rd WCF Women's Association Croquet World Championship
Venue: Christchurch, New Zealand
Dates: 7-14 January 2023

Champion: Debbie Lines (England)

Finalist: Gabrielle Higgins (England)

Debbie Lines from England beat Gabrielle Higgins, also from England, in the final of the 2023 Women’s World Croquet Championship.

The championship was held at 3 clubs in Christchurch: Cashmere, St. James and the headquarters club was United. The lawns were immaculately prepared with well set tight Quadway hoops and despite rain on the first day, generally fast lawns running at between 11 and 12.5 seconds. This provided challenging conditions, particularly the hoops.

Debbie’s run to the final included wins against the 2015 Champion Miranda Chapman and the 2012 Champion and top seed Jenny Clarke. Gabrielle, who was second seed, beat third seed Alison Sharpe in the semi-final.

Debbie won the first game of the final fairly easily, but the second game was a close fought match. Both players started to make errors as the tension of playing in a World Championship final showed. Gabrielle completed a high pressure finishing turn to steal the second game, taking it to the third, much to the spectators’ delight. The third game came down to hoop running and shooting, and there wasn’t much in it, but Debbie held her nerve to take some breaks round as time was running out. The final match result was +23, -3t, +11t.

The Shield was an all New Zealand match, with Miranda Chapman beating Alison Robinson 2-0.

The Bowl was won by Cindy Clarke from New Zealand, beating Kerri-Ann Organ from Australia in the final.

The Plate was an all Australian match, with Jacky Lynch coming through to win against Lois Kirk.

Thank you to Croquet New Zealand, the Christchurch organising committee and to the host clubs and their busy team of volunteers.

Full results can be found on Croquet Scores: https://croquetscores.com/2023/ac/3rd-wcf-womens-world-championship

Live-streaming was provided by Maori Active, led by Greg Bryant and his excellent camera and technical team. A link to this can be found on the WCF YouTube playlist: Association Croquet Women’s World Championships. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgah3IfifX61arq7wKWJl6Z21GI7Nk9Fd