Croquetwest

The library is on the site of the former Croquet and Bowls clubs.

The croquet closed first and it is not known what happened to the club records and any honour boards.

Cottesloe croquet began at private residences of D.G.Gawlers and O.L.Haines in 1903.

The club then became located at the corner of Leake St and Stirling Hwy, where it remained until disbanding in 1970.

Cottesloe was a strong club from the beginning and along with Fremantle, Subiaco, Mount and Swan played interclub matches that eventually morphed into a serious pennants competition. Cottesloe did not really impact this competition until the 20’s, winning A grade in 1923, 1925 and 1930.

Other pennant success came in;

A2  1947 and 1950

A3  1939

Cottesloe was involved in the initial meetings to consider forming the Western Australian Croquet Association but did not initially join this body after formation.

The club colours were Violet and Gold in 1913 and Violet, Gold and Black in 1949.

Upon disbanding the club donated the Cottesloe trays to the croquet association and these are still in use today.

2022 ACA President’s AC Eights 7th -10th October, Cairnlea.

The ACA Selectors call for Expressions of Interest ( EoI ) by all interested Association Croquet players who would like to play in this prestigious event.

Entries: EOI can be sent to ACA Events Peter Freer pfreer@netspeed.com.au with a closing date of 31 Aug 2022. Depending on entry numbers late entries may be accepted to fill the four Eights but better to be safe and enter early.

Format: The event will be four open Eights of 8 players in each event , consideration will be given to making the 4th Eight a Women’s event if the EOI’s received make this a better format for all the players entering. Each Eight will be filled based on players grade on 31 Aug 2022, but there is also a provision in each of the 4 events that up to 2 wildcards may be chosen outside of the players current grade Consideration will be given to making the 1st Eight a single round of Bo3 play , this consideration will be made after the EOIs have been completed.

Eligibility: All players in Australia can EoI, with a requirement to have played a minimum 20 games in the preceding 12 months up to 31 August 2022. Players who have not played 20 games are still welcome to EoI and be considered for a wildcard (the selectors will take in consideration the different difficulties players have faced with Covid-19 over the last few years).

Entry Fee: Further detail will be announced as to the fee structure for this event .

Croquetscores: EoI’s will be placed on croquetscores as received. Please check https://croquetscores.com/…/australia-presidents…/eoi to make your name is on the list of entrants, as confirmation that your EoI has been received. Contact Peter Freer if your name does not appear, asap.

Peter Landrebe for ACA Selectors

The following 8 players have accepted their places in the 2022 AC State Team Development Squad.

Women: Jennifer Brand, Megan Fardon, Judith Nicholls & Elizabeth Petrich.

Men: Tim Barkes, Rob Bowling, John Doepel, Gary Phipps.

Susan Sands

MTP is currently touring the northern hemisphere and managed to find time to take in the British Open at Southwick. He was kind enough to send through this email which I post in full. Happy travels MTP.

Dear Fellow Croquet Buffs!

Just wishing to share with you some pics I took at the GC 2022 UK Championships played at Southwick, Brighton over the weekend.

I’d felt privileged to rub shoulders with people like Jenny and Chris Clarke (NZ), Stephen Mulliner (who lies on his tummy when he has an angled shot to the hoop, to determine his line!) and watching characters like Lionel Tibble who still smokes while playing!

On Saturday, I’d introduced myself and my friend Tim Johnson to past World No 1, Reg Bamford, telling Reg I was a big fan of his.

Reg was playing tremendously well and I was very impressed with his consistency, demeanour and style.

And then on Sunday, during Reg’s semi-final with Stephen Mulliner, Reg spied us on the boundary and asked, ‘Is it Michael and Tim?’

‘Yes’, I replied, ‘ But I’m worried you don’t have a cap on. Would you like to borrow mine?’

‘No thanks’, said Reg. ‘I’m a great Vitamin D Guy!’

I love that quote!

Reg’s jump shorts were particularly breathtaking.

Some highlights:

1. On Saturday, Reg did a successful angled double-bounce jump through the 5^th from the boundary – his shot was from about halfway between Hoops 4 and 5!
2. Yesterday, during one of the first two games in the Final against Robert Fulford, Reg did a beautiful full jump without a bounce from the boundary, directly over Robert’s ball which was in the jaws of Hoop 3
3. And in Game 2 of the Final (Reg had won the 1^st game) when the scores were 6-5 in Reg’s favour, Reg attempted a massive 18 yard double-bounce jump at an angle of perhaps 30 degrees from close to Hoop 7, to the 12^th. After the first bounce his ball struck the outside leg of Hoop 12 – so close!
   Had the ball gone through, Reg would have won the game and the match and the Tournament!
4. However, unfortunately for him, Robert ran the 12^th.
   Reg’s first to the 13^th (Red) was perfect – landed about half a yard in front of the hoop.
   Rob then had the luck of an Englishman!
   His first to the 13^th (Black) went through the back of Hoop 13, landing 1 inch on the other side.
   Reg then landed his Yellow about 2 yards in front of Hoop 13, and then Rob cleared Red with his Blue.
   Reg then had a go at clearing Black with Red from an angled shot on the boundary, but unfortunately Red struck Black on the left side instead of the right side, pushing Black through the hoop!
   So the score was now ‘One Game All’ and then Rob ran away with Game 3 to win the tournament!

But what a great weekend of croquet it was!

All photos courtesy of MTP!

Click here to access the full flyer.

This weekend Nedlands was host to the GC Bronze Medal and Selectors 6 events.

Successful for the 3rd time in the Bronze Medal was Brett McHardy (2018,2019) with Robyn Dart coming in 2nd. Brett will now have the opportunity to play for the Gold Medal in September in Adelaide. This was Robyn’s first entry into the Bronze and no doubt, won’t be her last.

Full results can be found on Croquetscores.

In the Selectors 6, Joyce Carbone was successful and continues her good results in these types of events. Joyce had previously won the Ladies Invitational in 2020 and 2021. Runner up was Marcus McGavock.

Full results an be found on Croquetscores.

Country Week appears to have first started in 1934 with the A Grade singles.

A Grade Singles Winner: E Thorogood

In the subsequent years, it wasn’t held regularly and there was a definite break from 1942 until 1949.

The A Grade doubles first appeared in 1937, B Grade Singles in 1949, B Grade Doubles in 1950 and the C Grade Singles and Doubles in 1953.

These images are from the 1950 carnival.

On the green are Mrs E Kemp, Mrs I Christmas and Mrs D Pike from Collie

The two Goldfields representatives were Mrs L Williams (left) and Mrs E Hansen of Kalgoorlie

Spectators Mrs W. E. Richmond Mrs A. Leeder Mrs G. A. Richardson and Mrs E. Whitfield all from Katanning

Spectators Mrs E. C. Morris of Perth Mrs E. M. Brinkworth of Swan and Mrs W. A. Duffield of Nedlands

L-R Mrs HE Smith and Mrs EM Pound of West Leederville, Mrs EM Fitzsimmons & Mrs EM Hyne of Swan, Mrs E Hilkin of Royal Park Club, Mrs N McGhie of Hollywood & Mrs K Dunning of Perth

From Yarloop were Mrs A Exelby, Mrs A Maddison and Mrs G Currie.

All photos Reproduced with permission from State Library of WA 221368PD, 221369PD, 221370PD, 221371PD, 221372PD, 255563PD, 25564PD, 22565PD

Another interesting video by John Hutchison. You can find links to all of his videos here

This image is courtesy of the ACA Online Magazine – Spring Edition 2021