Category: Latest News

GC Country Rankings as at 31st December 2022

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

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

2023 Women’s Association Croquet World Championship – Champion: Debbie Lines (ENG)

The 3rd 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

 

2023 GC Over 50’s Championship Entry Information

The 2023 Golf Croquet Over 50’s World Championship will be held in Western Australia between Saturday 14th October 2023 to Saturday 21st October 2023 at two venues, the Moorabinda Croquet Club (MCC), Bunbury and the Bunbury Tennis Club (BTC) just over the road. There are six courts at Moorabinda and 2 at the Bunbury tennis club.

The Event capacity is 48 players.

The anticipated entry fee for this event is £136 per player.

There will two qualifying tournaments:
- Western Australia, Cambridge Croquet Club, Sunday 8th October to Wednesday 11th October 2023.
- Eastern Australia ,Cairnlea Victoria, Tuesday 26th to Thursday 28th September 2023.
Information on how to enter these will be published separately.
If extra places for the main event become available after the main cut-off date of 27th August, then these will all come from the West Coast qualifier.

An event website will be launched nearer the event, but until then, keep an eye on this page for updates relating to the event.

Format
Block play:  8 blocks of 6 players (48). Top 4 of each block advance to the Knock-Out Stage.

Knock-Out:   The Knock-Out Stage will comprise 32 players.

Entry Method Main Event
Players should submit their availability to their Member Governing Body in accordance with their published entry method. Any applicants from non-Member countries should email their availability, by the response date, to secretary@worldcroquet.org.

Travel, transport, accommodation, and sustenance
Travel: Minibus transport from the hotel to the venue(s) will be provided for the players.
Accommodation: There is a variety of accommodation available in the vicinity of the two facilities, ranging from basic to the higher end of the market. There is four star rated accommodation available. Options will be listed on the event specific website.
Meals: Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner are available at the hotel. Hotel can cater for special dietary requirements. Snacks and lunches will be available for purchase at both venues.

Hoops
Atkins Quadways.

Player Information
Successful entrants should note that contact details, a photograph and a short bio for the programme, must be provided to the Secretary-General as per the published timetable.

Main Event Dates

Invitation Date

15 January 2023

This is the date that Members will be formally invited to send players to participate in this event.

Response Date

15 March 2023

This is the date by which Member nominations for Ranking and Wild Card places must have been received by the WCF Management Committee. Members must also specify the number of Membership Places they wish to take up and RCO's should advise if they would like to request a Membership Place.

Allocation Date

29 March 2023

The World Ranking List to be used to determine the initial allocation of Ranking Places is that published at the end of the Allocation Date. 

Announcement Date

12 April 2023

By this date the breakdown of places will be advised and players awarded an Initial Ranking Place or Wild Card will be announced.

Closing Date

12 May 2023

This is the last date Members can nominate players for their Membership Places. Within 1 to 2 days the MC will announce recipients of Membership Places and Replacement Ranking Places.

Player Contact Details & Bios

10 June 2023

This is the date by which players are asked to provide their contact details, bio's and a headshot photo. 

Entry Fee Due Date

12 June 2023

Per Sports Regn Appendix 2 6.1. Any players awarded a place on the Announcement Date will lose their place if they have not paid by this date.

Main Event Cut-off Date

27 August 2023

This is the date after which returned places are generally filled by creating extra Qualifier Places instead of Replacement Ranking Places. 

Pandemic
Players will be expected to comply with whatever rules the government  or host clubs have in place at the time of the event.

Further information about the event, including the venues, local accommodation and attractions, transport links, the event timetable (including social events) and any other relevant information, will be published nearer the start date.

2023 AC World Championship Ranking Places and Wild Cards

The Management Committee have agreed the following allocation of places for this 80 person event.

Capacity = 80

  Full Member Places

26

  Associate Member Places

5

  RCO Places

3

  Qualifier

4

  Wild Cards

2

  Ranking Places

40

Ranking Places

The 40 Ranking Places have been awarded to the following players, based on the Initial Ranking List dated end 18th December 2022. This is based on their Max DG ranking over 12 months as per Sports Regulations Appendix 2, clause 2.3.

Country

Player

Max Dgrade /12mths

Games Played

Australia

Robert Fletcher

2810

74

South Africa

Reg Bamford

2738

16

England

Jamie Burch

2671

54

England

James Death

2618

111

USA

Matthew Essick

2604

78

Australia

Malcolm Fletcher

2577

40

England

Harry Fisher

2566

62

England

Mark Avery

2556

60

England

Stephen Mulliner

2538

41

Spain

Jose Riva

2538

17

Australia

Edward Wilson

2535

30

England

Samir Patel

2510

65

New Zealand

Jenny Clarke

2510

51

USA

Zack Watson

2499

59

USA

Ben Rothman

2492

36

England

Christian Carter

2486

41

Australia

Dwayne McCormick

2472

83

England

David Maugham

2471

83

Australia

Stephen Forster

2443

92

Ireland

Andrew Johnston

2420

8

England

Alain Giraud

2409

58

England

Mark Suter

2399

67

England

Dominic Nunns

2396

21

England

Joel Taylor

2393

103

USA

Thomas Balding

2381

65

Wales

Ian Burridge

2381

42

New Zealand

Logan McCorkindale

2381

5

Scotland

Duncan Reeve

2377

49

England

Mark van Loon

2373

45

England

Gabrielle Higgins

2369

90

USA

Jeff Soo

2364

47

England

Marcus Evans

2355

11

England

David Goacher

2337

44

USA

Stephen Morgan

2332

51

Wales

Angharrad Walters

2325

29

England

Pete Trimmer

2325

15

England

Gavin Carter

2323

6

USA

Sherif Abdelwahab

2318

38

England

Robin Brown

2316

7

Scotland

Sam Murray

2309

55

Wild Cards

Per WCF Sports Regulations, Appendix 3, the Management Committee may offer up to two wildcards. They have decided that two will be offered, both per criteria 2.1.1 "the encouragement of young players or players showing exceptional promise of future development". 

Blake Fields - USA
Callum Johnson - England

Entry Fees

The anticipated entry fee for this event is £153 per player. This is based on a rate of £17 per player per day for 9 days. This rate is subject to ratification by the WCF Council when the 2023 Budget is approved later this year.

Players are advised that the entry fee should be paid by 8th March 2023 at the latest. Details of how and when to pay will be emailed out to players after the Closing date 5th February, once the Member Places have also been allocated.

Member Places

Members should send the Secretary-General the names of players to be nominated for their Member Places by 5th February 2023 at the latest. Some Members have already notified the names of their nominees - please note that these can be changed up to the above deadline.

Withdrawals

The Closing date for this event is 5th February 2023.

If players with a Member Place drop out before this date, Members have 14 days to nominate a replacement. After this, the place reverts to a Replacement Ranking Place.

If players with a Ranking Place drop out before this date, the highest ranked player on the Replacement Ranking list will be awarded the place.

After the cut-off date of 11th June 2023, any places returned will result in additional places awarded through the Qualifying Event.

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 13th 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 18th 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.