Category: Latest News

GC Country Rankings as at 31st March 2022

The latest GC Team Rankings (as at 31 March 2022) are:

Position

Country

Average

Players

1

Egypt

2,551

6

2

England

2,461

6

3

New Zealand

2,374

6

4

USA

2339

6

5

Australia

2,275

6

6

Spain

2,249

6

7

South Africa

2,233

6

8

Wales

2,168

6

9

Canada

2,131

6

10

Ireland

2,048

6

11

Switzerland

2,028

6

12

Sweden

2,021

6

13

Germany

1,996

6

14

Latvia

1,952

6

15

Scotland

1,940

6

16

Austria

1,925

6

17

Norway

1,871

6

18

Czech Republic

1,828

3

19

Mexico

1,786

3

20

Finland

1,706

3

21

Belgium

2,338

1

22

Jersey

2,009

1

WCF Gender Policy published

I am pleased to announce that Council voted to approve the WCF Gender Policy (version 1.0), with 21 votes in favour and 16 against.

The Management Committee will continue to monitor this subject. Any queries with respect to the policy and how it is interpreted should be addressed to the Secretary-General.

The policy has now been published on the WCF website and can be found on page: Gender Policy

Mohamed Raslan is elected to the Management Committee

The WCF is pleased to announce that the management committee will be joined by Mohamed Raslan from Egypt who successfully won the election that closed on 20th March 2022.

Mohamed Raslan will join the Management Committee immediately and serve until 31 December 2025.

Raslan’s croquet journey started in 1982 in Alexandria, Egypt as a player for Somouha and Alexandria sporting clubs. When he moved to Cairo, he joined Maadi club and within a few years, he became involved with the team management. As the head of the team’s management committee, he led the efforts to organize a successful annual national tournament. He also facilitated corporate sponsorship allowing the team to gain financial independence.

In December 2021, Raslan was elected president of the Egyptian Croquet Federation.

 

WCF 6th Edition Golf Croquet Rules now published

The WCF Management Committee are pleased to report that the 6th Edition of the WCF Golf Croquet Rules was approved by the required two-thirds majority, with 50 votes in favour and no votes against.

The new Rules will come into immediate effect for WCF Events. They can be found here: WCF GC Rules 6th Edition - Final 7.3.22

They can also be found on this website on page: The rules of golf croquet

The WCF Management Committee wish to express their thanks to the members of the GC Rules Committee for the many hours of hard work spent updating these rules.

Management Committee announcement regarding our Russian RCO

In response to Russian aggression against Ukraine, the Management Committee has decided that it would not currently be appropriate for the WCF to respond positively to any request from the Russian RCO under the WCF statutes to participate in any WCF event or to receive financial assistance for the development of the sport in Russia.

This decision has not been taken lightly and it is hoped that the situation can be re-assessed soon.

The above statement was emailed to WCF Members and Recognised Croquet Organisations on 3rd March 2022.

 

Temporary Amendment to Sports Regulations – clarification 25th February 2022

In February 2021 Council voted 38-0 in favour of accepting a Temporary Amendment to the WCF Sports Regulations. This amendment is relevant to the upcoming GC World Championship in July. Please see updated link: https://worldcroquet.org/temporary-amendment-to-sports-regulations/.

This amendment allows players to qualify for Ranked Places by playing 10 games in the previous 24 months, instead of the previous 12 months.

It has recently come to light that this amendment does not fully cover what was intended and is unclear. The Management Committee (MC) minutes from January 2021, minuted that “The agreed alternative was to use the MaxGrade over 24 months and require 10 games in 24 months”.

Two other clauses within Appendix 2 of the Sports Regulations also make reference to the 10 games in 12 months, and as a result, the temporary amendment, as published above, is left ambiguous.

To clarify, the additional relevant clauses in Appendix 2, where 12 months should be replaced with 24 months are:

4.2.3 in the case of the Initial Allocation Ranking List and, subject to paragraph 7.4, the Replacement Ranking List, are based on a minimum of 5 ranked games (AC) or 10 ranked games (GC) in the 12 24 months ending on the relevant day and on the highest grade achieved by players in that period; and

7.4 Replacement Ranking List
The Replacement Ranking List may contain players who were not on the Initial Allocation Ranking List provided that they have played a minimum of 5 ranked games (AC) or 10 games (GC) in the 12 24 months ending on the date on which the vacancy arises and have informed the S-G by e-mail that they wish to play in the Event.

The Ranking Lists created for the upcoming GC World Championship will be created and applied on the basis of 24 months in all 3 clauses.

We apologise for any confusion this may have caused.

New GC Ranking Officer Richard Bilton

The Management Committee are pleased to announce that Richard Bilton has taken over from Stephen Mulliner as Golf Croquet Ranking Officer. Our thanks go to Stephen Mulliner for his many years of hard work.

Richard started playing Croquet in 2008 at the age of 11, and significantly improved when he joined Nottingham Croquet Club in September 2015. In January 2017, Richard was selected for the GC International Performance Development Squad, and finished 3rd place in his first English National Singles Championship (Ascot Cup) at the end of the season. At the end of 2017 he was awarded the Spiers Trophy for the most improved GC player that year. In May 2018, Richard won his first open tournament, the Hunstanton Open Series and finished the year by winning the Ascot Cup, his first GC 'major'.

Richard was part of the winning England team in the inaugural GC England v Spain Test Match. He came 5th in the  2019 GC World Championship in Sussex and went on to play for England in the 2020 GC World Team Championships in New Zealand, in which England came third.  Richard won the GC British Open Doubles Championship in 2021 while partnering Reg Bamford.

Richard is currently on the English CA Tournament Committee and GC Rules Committee. In 2020, Richard became the GC Assistant Ranking Officer for England and he spent the latter half of 2021 shadowing Stephen Mulliner in the role of WCF GC Ranking Officer.

For the time being Richard will continue as Assistant Ranking Officer (ARO) for England. In his role as RO he is well supported by the full team of ARO's, as listed below. We also thank Stephen Mulliner for continuing to enter and manage the results for Egypt.

ARO Australia - Peter Freer
ARO England - Richard Bilton
ARO New Zealand - John Christie
ARO Spain - Felipe Mestanza
ARO United States - Jeff Soo

February 2022 Newsletter

Changes to Management Committee (MC)

On first January the Management Committee welcomed three new team members – Peter Payne as Treasurer and Begoña Elzaburu and Graeme Roberts as general committee members. We welcome them to the team.

In late December, Amir Ramsis resigned from the WCF MC. Amir had recently been inducted into the WCF Hall of Fame, served eight years on the committee as well as being a past WCF President. The MC would like to thank him for his many years working on behalf of croquet.

As a result of his resignation from the MC we are currently asking Members for nominations to fill the vacant position. If you are interested, please apply via your Governing Body. Nominations close 15th February, so please ensure you allow sufficient time for them to handle your application. Please see the WCF news item: https://worldcroquet.org/would-you-like-to-help-run-the-wcf-2/


Launching the European Regional Committee (ERC)

The WCF statutes now provide for the creation of a European Regional Committee (ERC) that will, once fully functional, take care of European croquet affairs, and among other matters, will run the European Championships.

ERC Committee
The committee is currently being formed. If you wish to be nominated, please apply via your governing body. For more information, see the news item on the WCF website: https://worldcroquet.org/formation-of-european-regional-committee-erc-and-invitation-to-nominate-candidates-for-the-committee/

To learn more about the ERC, please go to the new page on the WCF Website: https://worldcroquet.org/european-regional-committee-erc/


2022 WCF Events

The 2020 GC World Team Championship Tier 3 (delayed into 2022) is to be held at Guildford & Godalming, UK, between 20th July and 23rd July. The four teams competing are Czech Republic, Iran, Mexico and Portugal.

We can now confirm that the 2022 GC World Championship is to be held at the Sussex County Croquet Club between 30th July and 7th August. Invitations for this event went out on 7th January and close 17th March. Please apply through your Governing Body in plenty of time. It will be preceded by a qualifier 25th to 28th July, at the nearby Compton Croquet Club in nearby Eastbourne.

The 2022 AC World Team Championships Tiers 2 and 3 are to be held at Budleigh Salterton, UK, from 9-14th August 2022. Twelve teams have entered: Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Iran, Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and Wales.  The 12 teams will be allocated into three Tiers.

The 2022 AC World Team Championship Tier 1 (The MacRobertson Shield) is to be held at Cairnlea, Victoria, Australia, from 12-29th November 2022.

The WCF and the Event Hosts are monitoring the pandemic closely and final decisions on whether to go ahead will be taken in late March.

2023 Events

The 2023 Women’s AC World Championship is confirmed for 7-14 January 2023 in Canterbury, New Zealand.

We are also in discussion with Croquet New Zealand about a junior GC event in early 2023.

The 2023 AC World Championship will take place in London, England between 15-23 July.

The GC Women’s World Championship will take place in Sussex, England between 7 -14 August.

The GC Over 50’s World Championship will take place in Bunbury, Western Australia, between 14-21 October.

2024 and beyond – we are currently reviewing the forward calendar following a Member and Player survey.

ERC Events for 2022

The European Golf Croquet Open will take place in Budleigh Salterton, Devon on the dates previously announced - Thursday 26 May to Sunday 29 May. If you wish to play in either of this event, you need to apply via your Governing Body who need to submit their player nominations to the ERC by Sunday, 27 February 2022.

A new European Event, the Women's Golf Croquet Championship will take place in Latvia, from Thursday 30 June to Sunday 3 July 2022. If you wish to play in this event, you need to apply via your Governing Body who need to submit their player nominations to the ERC by Sunday, 20 March 2022.

Your Governing Body may have their own selection criteria and timetable which you need to follow. Whatever the local procedure, please give them time to review your application and pass it on to us.


Gender Policy

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) published new guidance in November 2021. The WCF are currently reviewing this with Members and expect to have a policy in place within a few months.


GC Rules 6th edition

The GC Rules committee has been reviewing all the feedback from the recent Consultation. It is expected that this will be ready to put to a Council vote within the next few days.


Advantage GC – 2022 Update

The 2021 trial was extremely well received and as a result this new variant has been added to the draft 6th edition of the GC Rules.

Following analysis of the results from last year, the Starting Scores Tables (for both 7 point and 10 point games) have been updated for 2022. Please use the new tables which can be found at: https://worldcroquet.org/advantagegc/

 


Regulatory Updates

The following revisions have been published:

WCF Statutes version 13.4 published January 2022: the main changes are addition of statute 125-127 Regional Committees; references to Ranking Operation Committee as applicable and insertion of Statue 135 Ranking Operation Committee.

WCF Event Regulations version 5 published January 2022: addition of Section 7 – Regional WCF Event Regulations and Appendix 7.

WCF Ranking Regulations version 1.1 published January 2022: amendment to clause 4.5

All WCF regulations can be found on the WCF Website page: https://worldcroquet.org/wcf-business/statutes-regulations/