I’m pleased to announce that on 4th January 2022, Members voted to re-appoint Brian Havill as Independent Examiner for 2022. Brian was re-elected with 42 votes out of a possible 60. No Members voted against.
We express our thanks to Brian for his continued support.
Thank you to Brian Wainman for developing this Handicap Calculation tool.
By entering the type of game, such as GC 13pt or AC Handicap, and each players handicaps, the tool will quickly work out how many bisques you should have in AC handicap, how many extra strokes in GC handicap and the winner and loser points impact when playing AC advanced games.
Click here> https://chc.eu.pythonanywhere.com or access it from the Global Resources page of the WCF Website.
The operation of handicap systems is a matter for individual national governing bodies, however this calculator is believed to work in most WCF Member countries.
Brian welcomes any feedback or ideas for further development. Please contact him directly by email: wanderingwainmans@blueyonder.co.uk
The WCF is pleased to announce that Peter Payne has been elected as the new WCF Treasurer.
Peter won the election from Jose-Maria Alonso-Gamo. The WCF is pleased to have had such strong candidates and thank Jose for his interest in supporting us.
Peter had a career in banking for 44 years and now runs a financial consulting and services company.
Peter joined CERN Croquet Club in Geneva in 1989 and helped to create the Swiss CA in 1991 and the European Croquet Federation in 1993. He was on the WCF Management Committee for a while previously and during this time worked with the committee that first unified the rules of GC.
On the lawn, he was a keen and active player for many years before personal reasons led to a sabbatical from croquet in 2006. Since returning to the game in 2018 he has been improving his game (both AC and GC), and recently was a proud member of the Swiss team that participated in the GC World Team Championship (Tier 2) in Spain.
He is keen to contribute his time and energy to develop our sport in the future.
Peter starts his role from 1st January 2022 and his term ends 31st December 2025.
Graeme Roberts
Graeme has been playing croquet since 1970 and has had a long and illustrious croquet history. He represented New Zealand in the MacRobertson Shield in 1982 and has played in the WCF World AC Championships twice, in 1990 and 2005.
Graeme has served on many croquet committees locally in Wellington and also at National and International level.
As a Championship referee he has officiated at many World Championships. He is one of the founding members of the NZCC Laws Committee and has served on the Committee since then. He is also New Zealand's representative on the AC Laws Committee (ACLC), and has been chair since 2017.
Graeme worked in New Zealand Public Service, within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and its predecessors. Over a period of almost 36 years he served as a physical sciences assessment analyst, assessments manager, intelligence coordinator, senior policy adviser and principal policy adviser.
Roberts Stafeckis
Roberts had a career in the diplomatic services for Latvia and went on to be Commissioner General of Latvia at the World Expos in Shanghai and Milan. He currently runs a private business advisory company.
He started playing croquet in 2009 when he established the Ogre Croquet Club in 2009, and Latvian Croquet Federation later the same year. He has been President of the Latvian Croquet Federation since 2009.
Robert has been a member of the WCF Management Committee since 2014. His objectives are the promotion of croquet (AC and GC) as a serious sport in the existing WCF Member countries, as well as reaching out to new territories. He is keen to foster croquet activities in mainland Europe through the new WCF European Regional Committee due to launch early in 2022.
Roberts has played in the 2012 and 2021 GC WTC, 2019 GC WC, 2015 and 2017 GC European Championships.
Begoña Elzaburu
Begoña, and her sons, are keen croquet enthusiasts and have supported croquet in Spain for many years. In particular, she was a founding member of the Croquet Committee of Real Club de la Puerta de Hierro, a large multi-sports club in Madrid with 16,000 members. Since 2016 Begona has helped drive growth at the club by organising coaching, marketing and organising events, and as a result the croquet section has grown from just 30 keen players to over 250 players. She is now involved in helping other clubs to grow and serves on the Spanish Federation Committee.
Begoña recently helped to organise and run the successful World Team Championships Tier 2 held in Spain in October 2021.
As a player, she is one of the top Spanish Women GC players and has played in the GC Women's World Championship. A keen croquet traveller she has also played in England, Egypt, Ireland and even in Senegal.
Retiring Management Committee Members
Peter Landrebe (Australia) and Geoff Young (New Zealand) finish their terms of office on 31st December 2021 after serving on the Management Committee for many years. We thank them both for their contributions and hard work and wish them every success on and off the lawns.
Amir Ramsis Naguib began playing Golf Croquet with friends at the Gezirah Club in Cairo in 1968. He became a strong player and represented the club in Men’s Doubles in matches from 1970 to 1975. However, marriage, children and building up and running his own tourist agency took him away from the game until 1992.
Now a successful businessman, Amir returned to croquet at the Heliopolis Club and was soon representing the club in Men’s Doubles and Mixed Doubles. Over the next ten years, he became the team manager and a generous sponsor of tournaments and the top Egyptian players.
In 2001, Amir stood for election as President of the Egyptian Croquet Federation with the widespread support of the playing community. He immediately set about reorganizing the inter-club competitions, namely the Egyptian League, the Egyptian Cup and the Egyptian Federation Cup, and introduced for the first time a domestic ranking system for men and women. His other priority was the upgrading of the Egyptian Croquet Federation centre and the restoration of its three courts.
Amir was elected to the Management Committee of the World Croquet Federation in 2002. Golf Croquet now stood on at least equal terms with Association Croquet and the Golf Croquet World Championship was now well established, having been held five times since 1996. However, Amir recognised the needs of women and the older and younger players and, with the support of David Openshaw, the then WCF President, was the driving force behind the formation of a Women’s Golf Croquet World Championship, first held in 2005, an Under 21 Golf Croquet World Championship, first held in 2009 and an Over 50 Golf Croquet World Championship, first held in 2010. All the inaugural events were held in Cairo and were great successes. These events are now permanent items in the WCF championship schedule.
Amir also travelled widely to promote Golf Croquet, visiting England, Italy, the USA and China to showcase the fearless, hard-hitting Egyptian way of playing Golf Croquet. Inevitably, the Egyptian approach influenced the tactics of top players in other countries and, eventually, led to the emergence in 2011 of the first non-Egyptian Golf Croquet World Champion. As the President of the Egyptian Croquet Federation, Amir exercised his considerable administrative skills by acting as the organiser and manager of the Egyptian squads that have had and continue to have so much success at World Championship level. During his tenure, Egypt has won four Golf Croquet World Championships, three Women’s Golf Croquet World Championships, two Over 50 World Championships and one Under 21 Golf Croquet World Championship.
Amir was elected as President of the World Croquet Federation in 2012 and served two four-year terms, retiring at the end of 2019. He was a very popular President who ensured that he attended almost every World Championship during his period in office. He remains a member of the WCF Management Committee and hopes to continue to serve croquet in Egypt and internationally for as long as he can.
The discovery in the 1980s that Egypt played Golf Croquet, and to a level undreamt of by players elsewhere, remains a pivotal moment in the history of the sport. It led to the establishment of Golf Croquet as a serious code in its own right, shrugging off its previous reputation in other countries as an unimportant practice game that provided occasional amusement for Association Croquet players.
Egypt is still the world’s major Golf Croquet nation and the skills of its players, especially the younger stars, are a continuing inspiration to players all over the world. The importance of Amir’s role in maintaining and developing Egyptian croquet for more than twenty years, and thereby supporting croquet worldwide, cannot be overstated. He has been one of the most influential national administrators in the history of croquet and the game owes him a considerable debt of gratitude.
We are pleased to report that between 11-16 October, in Cadiz Spain, we held the delayed 2020 GC World Team Championship Tier 2.
Held at the Real Club de Golf Vista Hermosa in Puerto Santa Maria, the Sherry Golf Jerez, and at the Real Club de Golf Novo Sancti Petri. Six full teams, plus a reduced Canadian team and a Select team, competed for the World Croquet Federation Salver.
Spain were seeded top and successfully beat second seeds Wales in the final by 10 matches to 3. The plate was won by Switzerland who beat Latvia. Players from Portugal and the UK joined the Canadian team and the Select teams to allow the event to continue with the scheduled 8 team format.
For full details please see our News Item on the WCF website: GCWTC T2 Spain News Item and the event website: https://gcwtspain2021.com/
Stephen Mulliner Retires as Secretary-General
Stephen Mulliner retired on 31st August 2021 as Secretary-General of the WCF. During his tenure, the WCF has taken responsibility for managing the AC Laws, GC Rules and the Rankings as well as holding many successful championships.
Stephen has worked tirelessly to support croquet and will be missed by his colleagues on the Management Committee and all the Members he has supported so efficiently.
Stephen is replaced by Debbie Lines, who took over from 1st September 2021, after shadowing Stephen as his Deputy during the previous year.
We wish Stephen all the best with his future endeavours and hope to see him at many croquet events over the coming years.
The Spanish team. On the top line you have from left to right Jose Alvarez-Sala, Rafael Romero and Basilio Iglesias, on the bottom also from left to right Andrés Alvarez-Sala, Jose Riva (the captain) and Manuel Álvarez-Sala.
