Category: Latest News

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/

 

Formation of European Regional Committee [ERC] and Invitation to Nominate Candidates for the Committee

The WCF is delighted to announce, that following a recent WCF Council vote, our statutes now provide for the creation of a European Regional Committee (ERC) as a sub-committee of the WCF. The ERC will fill the gap left by the now defunct European Croquet Federation. As such it will run the European Championships and work to develop croquet within Europe.

We therefore now need to put a committee in place. In accordance with the agreed WCF statutes, this committee will consist of 5 representatives, elected by European WCF Full and Associate members (see list at end of this email). Nominations may be received from European Members, Associates or RCOs but only Full and Associate members will be entitled to vote should an election be required.

This committee will be joined on an ex officio, non-voting basis, by the members of the WCF Management Committee from European Members, one of whom will be chosen by the new elected committee as the Chair. The Chair will have a casting vote should the elected committee be tied on a decision.
Note: MC members may also choose to stand for election to the ERC, in which case they would be entitled to vote if elected.

The Terms of Reference for the Committee can be read here: ERC Terms of Reference version 1

Nominations should be made via your Governing Body who need to submit them to the WCF Secretary-General by the Closing Date of 20th February 2022. Please allow time for them to pass them on. Your application should include a brief résumé that can be used if we have more than five applicants and need to hold an election.

If an election is required, a formal Notice of Election will be emailed to the European Members together with a closing date, which will be the first Sunday four weeks later. Votes received after the Closing Date will not be counted. In the event of a tie, the decision will be made by drawing lots. Successful candidates will take office immediately.

Applicants will normally hold office for a four-year term. However, to ensure some retention and cross-over of experience, this first committee will be split into two groups:
i) 3 will remain in post until 31st December 2025
ii) 2 will remain in post until 31st December 2023
The split will be drawn by lots at the first meeting of the committee. At the end of their term, committee members may re-stand for election.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask either myself or Roberts Stafeckis who is acting as ERC Liaison in this interim period.

Debbie Lines - WCF Secretary-General
Roberts Stafeckis - on behalf of the ERC

Update to WCF Ranking Regulations

The WCF is pleased to announce the publication of version 1.1 of the Ranking Regulations.The only change is to amend clause 4.5 from 50% to 75%. It now reads:

4.5     Open nature of event
An event is not an Eligible Event if more than 75% of the places are reserved for members of one club.

The new version of the Regulation can be downloaded here: WCF Rankings Regulations version 1.1 or on the Statutes & Regulations page of this website.

The change was requested by Spain who have been struggling to run tournaments and grow our sport in an environment where nearly all their clubs are member-only sports clubs. The WCF Ranking Operations Committee (ROC) reviewed the request and concluded that no harm or damage was likely to result from this change. WCF Council voted to approve the change on 17th January 2022.

GC Country Rankings as at 31st December 2021

The latest GC Team Rankings (as at 31 December 2021) are:

Position

Country

Average

Players

1

Egypt

2,548

6

2

England

2,461

6

3

New Zealand

2,412

6

4

USA

2346

6

5

Australia

2,301

6

6

Spain

2,249

6

7

Wales

2,174

6

8

South Africa

2,164

6

9

Canada

2,144

6

10

Ireland

2,048

6

11

Sweden

2,021

6

12

Germany

1,996

6

13

Switzerland

1,986

6

14

Latvia

1,952

6

15

Scotland

1,942

6

16

Austria

1,924

6

17

Norway

1,871

6

18

Czech Republic

1,828

3

19

Finland

1,706

3

20

Mexico

1,607

3

21

Belgium

2,339

1

22

Jersey

2,008

1

Would you like to help run the WCF?

Amir Ramsis resigned from the Management Committee (MC) on 26th December 2021. The MC wish to thank Amir for his many years of service, including his 8 years as President, and wish him well with all his future endeavours.

This leaves a vacant position on the MC. We will therefore run an election, firstly asking Members for nominations, then following with a Council vote should we get more than one candidate.

If you are interested in helping to run the WCF, please contact your governing body and they will explain in full what is required for your nomination. Applicants from RCOs are welcomed but you need to be aware that you must be nominated by a Full or Associate Member.

Nominations are required into the WCF by Sunday 13th February 2022 at the latest, so please allow time to liaise with your nominating Member so that they have time to process your application.

I am happy to talk to anybody who wishes to discuss what is involved.

Debbie Lines
WCF Secretary-General

Terms of Reference for the Management Committee

The MC shall settle urgent questions and have general administrative powers to carry out the work of the WCF and manage its financial affairs on a day-to-day basis, subject to the direction of Council.  The role includes condensing issues into a manageable size in order to facilitate Council considering them efficiently and in reasonable timeframes. Its terms of reference are:

    1. To implement policy and actions in pursuit of the agreed direction given by Council.
    2. To present to Council an annual plan for the following year including a budget.
    3. To manage the operating funds according to the budget.
    4. To inform Council regularly of progress, activity and issues.
    5. To prepare proposals and make recommendations as part of formal Consultations to Council.
    6. To distribute to relevant sub-committees the tasks they are to execute, to oversee their activity, to take decisions concerning the reports of these sub-committees, and to forward them to Council.
    7. To present to Council recommendations for the admission, the striking off the rolls, or expelling of Members, as well as for any sanctions which might be imposed.
    8. To monitor the Statutes with a view to identifying possible improvements for proposal to Council.
    9. To maintain and approve all WCF Regulations, subject to ratification by Council.
    10. To manage a rolling 10 Year Schedule of events, to solicit bids against this plan once approved by Council, to assess bids and reach formal agreement with the host Member, and to ensure the event is organised according to Statutes and Regulations.
    11. To publish the International Sporting Calendar for the year(s) ahead.
    12. To gain Council approval for any novel event types not already included in an approved 10 Year Championship Schedule, before soliciting bids.
    13. To promptly alert Council should the MC consider that the sporting interests of the WCF are not adequately defended in a particular territory.
    14. To appoint or dismiss the Secretary-General.