Latest News – Page 13 – World Croquet Federation

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

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

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

Brian Havill re-elected as Independent Examiner

I’m pleased to announce that on 11th January 2023, Members voted to re-appoint Brian Havill as Independent Examiner for 2023.

We express our thanks to Brian for his continued support.

2022 Management Committee Annual Report

Hong Kong Croquet Association joins WCF as RCO

The Management Committee are pleased to announce that the newly formed Hong Kong Croquet Association (HKCA) meets the requirements to join the WCF as a Recognised Croquet Organisation (RCO).

Our contact there, Tom Ingram, has been working with the Hong Kong authorities for some time now to get the HKCA formalised and approved. They have two clubs, the Hong Kong Cricket Club with 27 members and the Hong Kong Club with 15 playing members. Their website is in production and a link to that on the Members page will be shared soon.

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.

GC Ranking Changes – to be implemented 18th December

On 13^th December WCF Members approved some technical changes to the GC Ranking System.

The changes have been made to reduce artificially low grades in some of our developing Member countries. This is caused by two main issues: i) low grades set when players first start, and ii) insufficient exposure to players from other countries, causing a ‘closed system’, which keeps grades deflated.

Many players will notice a minor change to their GC grade when this is implemented on 18^th December 2022. The changes are likely to be higher for those from our developing countries, in particular Spain and Latvia, but the impact of the changes will extend out to all players.

For those interested in the details, Appendix 5: GC Algorithm of the Ranking Regulations will be re-published within the next few days on this website.

Please share this information with your clubs and federations by whatever media you have available, this will ensure as few players as possible are surprised by the change.

Congratulations to the 2022 Hall of Fame Inductees

2022 AC World Team Championship Tier 1: Champion England

England Win the MacRobertson Shield

The England team put up a fantastic performance in Australia to triumph in the MacRobertson Shield winning all three tests against the other nations.

The Croquet World Team Championships are a gruelling three-week test of stamina and skill and this series has been extremely challenging. The teams were all very evenly matched and the lawn conditions difficult with tight hoops and high winds effecting play. This led to fewer peeling turns than we might have expected, but some interesting and interactive matches.

Going into the final day the English team were in a commanding position, leading Australia 10 to 5 and needing just one match win to take home the trophy. However, it’s never easy to cross the line, and memories from 2010 will have kept tension high, it took the then British team to the final game to win. However, Mark Avery the most experienced of the English players, and playing in his fifth test series, didn’t hang around. A quick player, he beat Australia’s Edward Wilson in 2 straight games, the first match to finish of the day.

Mark and Jamie were the stars of the English team with just one match loss between them across the whole series. Jamie is only the second player in history known to have won all his matches throughout the series, both doubles and singles.

Congratulations and well played to all the England Team. Great to have a World Cup win for England.

Final score: England win 3 out of 3 tests, beating USA 16:5, New Zealand 11:10 and the final score against Australia was 13:7. New Zealand beat the USA 8:5 to come third.

The event was filmed every day by 'MySportLive' and the videos can be watched in full on their site. To see highlights go to the WCF YouTube Channel and select the 2022 MacRobertson Shield Playlist.

For background and articles, visit the The MacRobertson Shield Facebook page
For a blog, schedules and team details, visit the The MacRobertson Shield Website

And Full Results can be found on CroquetScores

Thank you to all the hard-working volunteers who helped to make this event such a success. Your efforts are very much appreciated by the whole croquet community.