Dame Mary Berry has kindly agreed to attend the Opening Ceremony as Guest of Honour.
Dame Mary is an English food writer, chef, baker and television presenter. She studied in France at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school, before working in a number of cooking-related jobs. She has published more than 75 cookery books, including her best-selling Baking Bible in 2009. Her first book was The Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook in 1970. She hosted several television series for the BBC and Thames Television. More recently, she was a judge on the television programme The Great British Bake Off until 2016.
The Opening Ceremony will commence at 3.45pm on Sunday 6th August and play will commence on Monday 7th August culminating in Final’s Day on Monday 14th August.
The event is being contested by most of todays top Women players. Egypt’s Soha Mostafa will be defending her title which she won in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand in 2019. Soha is one of 13 strong Egyptian players competing for the trophy. Home contenders include Rachel Gee, Debbie Lines & Gabrielle Higgins. Rachel Gee is the current holder of the European Golf Croquet Championship as well as a previous winner of the Women’s World Championship. Debbie Lines is the current holder of the Association Croquet Women’s World Championship and Gabrielle Higgins is the current runner up in the same event. Other strong contenders include Jenny Clarke from New Zealand and a previous finalist and Judith Hanekom from South Africa, the 2014 champion.
Spectators are most welcome.
One day Entry Fee £10 or whole tournament pass £25 payable at the gate.
(Children up to age 12 FREE, over 12’s half price).
Free parking available adjacent to the club in Kingston Lane, Southwick BN43 6YW.
Light lunches, refreshments and a licensed bar available throughout the Championship.
For further details visit the Women’s GC World Championship Website: www.gcwomensworld2023.org
Congratulations to Rachel Gee - winner of the 2023 European GC Championship
This European event was held between 25-28th May at the Budleigh Salterton Croquet Club in Devon, England. A field of 32 keen GC players attended the event.
Rachel Gee beat Aston Wade, last year's winner, in the final in 3 games 7-3, 6-7, 7-2.
Full report to follow soon.
For the results see: Results in Croquet Scores
Coming up soon!
The 2023 Championship will take place in London, England between 15-23 July. Plans are well under way to welcome players from around the world to this championship. Can holder Reg Bamford retain his trophy or will someone new step up to take the title?
To find out how to spectate at any of the 7 event venues, please see the dedicated event website: 2023 AC World Championship Website
2023 GC Women’s World Championship
The 2023 Championship will take place in Sussex, England between 7 -14 August.
For more information about the event please visit the dedicated event website or the Facebook page: 2023 GC Women's World Championship Facebook
Qualifier Entries:
The AC World Championship still has spaces but the GC Women’s is now full (although you can be added to the Reserve List).
To enter either qualifier go to the English CA Fixtures Calendar, 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.
Later this year
The GC Over 50 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.
This event also has a Facebook page: GC World Over 50 Bunbury 2023
There are two qualifiers, one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast. See this post for more information and how to enter: O50's Qualifier entry information
Membership News
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.
Details for the Sussex County Croquet Club can be found on their website
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.
LiveStreaming of the Knock-Out stages can be found on the WCF YouTube Channel U21 Playlist
