2020-02-22

WCF 2020 Association Croquet World Championship

A personal account from Pete Landrebe:

Wow ! what an event to be part of as a player and a spectator.

The Australian players were all able to enter this event with good confidence and expectation of result. We knew the lawn conditions and knew how to handle what only western Melbourne could offer in weather - weather that can be quite different each day.

Nothing disappointed. 

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2020-02-19

Close contests in Wimmera CA Doubles

Wimmera golf croquet doubles championship was played at Kalimna on Wednesday 19 February. Thirty players from our four clubs were involved, playing in three closely contested sections.

Each pair played 4 games in a 13 hoop game (first to 7).

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Tight competition for Croquet Vic Silver and Bronze Medals

Croquet Victoria turned on a great weekend of excellent courts, fine weather and very, very competitive play for the Victorian AC Silver and Bronze Medals.  

Although not at the level of the past few weeks of World Championships nevertheless the results in both events went right to the last few minutes of the last round. Tight indeed.

The winners in play: Lachlan (left), Ruth (right)

Silver Medal
There were seven players in this event.  It was pleasing to welcome Bill Humphries (Golden Square) back to competitive croquet. Many of you will know Bill had open heart surgery just before Christmas and we are delighted his recovery is so good that he has resumed playing.

Lachlan Berryman (Ringwood) went through to his last game undefeated. Greg Hill (Brunswick) had lost one game (by 1 hoop) going into the last round against Lachlan.  Greg got the better of the start and jumped to a considerable lead before Lachlan had moved on the first hoop.  Slowly but surely Lachlan started to get into the game and Greg was unable to hit back in.  At the end Greg won 21-16 but it was not enough to make up the hoop differential. Lachlan takes out the Silver Medal with Greg a very very close runner-up.

Bronze Medal
Again seven players. We welcomed Andrew Moulton (Kew) to competition at Cairnlea for the first time. Andrew is a a very new player and took the challenge of playing in the event despite playing on a handicap of 16!  And he won two games. I am sure we will see and hear from Andrew around our tournaments.  

While the scores were generally low the games were close and tightly contested. Going into the last round Ruth Duffy (Corowa Civic) or Kevin Bluff (Belmont) were possible winners. Ruth took her chance and had a nail-biting 1 hoop win over Louise Vale (Numurkah). Kevin missed his chance when he went down by one hoop - golden hoop - to Roger Lee (Brighton). Hence Ruth wins her first Bronze Medal and Chris Eiffert (Quarry Hill) snuck into the runner up position one hoop ahead of Kevin.  

As usual all results are on Croquetscores.

Two interesting events and a tremendous camaraderie among the players. Our thanks to Mike Cohn, Eric O’Donnell, Brian Foley and Chris Grant who refereed over the two days. Much appreciated.

We now turn our attention to our wonderful State Team as they move to Brisbane in the next two weeks to compete for the Eire Cup. We wish all members of the team a great event and trust that Cup comes back to Victoria.

A shout out to Kevin Beard who will be representing us in the Gold Medal. This event is held just before the Eire Cup.  Kevin will be playing in Maryborough (Qld) against the other state winners of the Bronze Medal.  

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2020-04-10

VICTORIAN CROQUET RESPONDS TO CORONA VIRUS

At the meeting of the Croquet Victoria Committee of Management on 17 March, it was agreed that in the interests of members' health and to support "smoothing the curve" in the spread of the Corona virus:

• all Croquet Victoria events at Cairnlea are cancelled, until at least the opening of the season on 5 August
• the Victorian Croquet Centre will not be available for Croquet Australia events during this time.

Following more stringent isolation advice from the Government, clubs generally have now cancelled tournaments and competitions and closed their premises completely. Croquet Victoria supports this approach.

Members and clubs are asked to keep an eye on the Department of Health and Human Services website [Victoria] and the Health NSW website [NSW] for up to date guidance.

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2020-04-11

Croquet Victoria makes hard call

At a special meeting, held online on 11 April, the Croquet Victoria Council decided that its financial situation is such that it can no longer afford to pay its staff and maintain the Victorian Croquet Centre at Cairnlea. Staff costs and the costs of maintaining the building exceed present and projected income. To balance the books, now and in the future, would require selling shares, which would continuously erode our investment base.

Staff have now been advised that they have been declared redundant. Council agreed unanimously to express their appreciation to them for their work over the years and to thank them for their contribution to Croquet Victoria.

The Croquet Centre is in any case closed down due to the Corona virus, and it is to be mothballed for the time being. Its future will be decided by a General Meeting of the delegates of the thirteen Regional Associations.

Croquet Victoria has not gone broke. We still have investments, though their value has declined in the current Corona-virus situation - as at 31 March they were valued at around $3.5m.

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