Croquetwest

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Sam Cuthbert youngest competitor in the Qualifier at 19. Michael Todorovich the oldest at 78.

Another busy day. Addison claimed a great win over Tom Balding in the 3rd round of the knockout, Peter claimed 3 wins and Fran 2 wins in the Z, and Jamie and Gary made it into the semi-finals of the Big Oyster.

In the Qualifier, Karen has won 4 games and Kate 3.

We do it all again tomorrow.

The Big Oyster GC Competition got underway yesterday and is now running in tandem with the WCF Qualifier. It’s amazing to see play on all 24 courts at the same time. The weather continues to be fantastic, although the wind did spring up during the morning session.

Kate and Karen found their groove in the qualifier and gained some well deserved wins. Peter, Fran, Addison, Jamie and myself all took part in the opening rounds of the Big Oyster and it was a nice feeling to be out on the lawns.

With the dry weather and the heavy mowing, the original 8 lawns are becoming very fast. The other 16 courts have only been in use for just over 18 months and are running a little slower but I suspect by the final days of the main tournament, they too will be running quickly. All courts are marked with string lines which has been easy to adjust too.

Big Oyster results from Day 1.

After finishing my last game of the day, I got to watch the match between Addison and Steve Leonard. It was a high quality affair filled with great hooping, excellent positional play and some amazing jump shots.

After a long day we were able to take in a lovely sunset from our porch.

40 players take to the courts today, each in pursuit of claiming one of the final 6 entry spots into the main event.

We arrived at the venue yesterday in time for the player briefing and it’s amazing to see so many courts in the one location.

Matt, who came across for the Over 50’s has been very busy making scoreboards for every court based on the ones we used in Bunbury.

Another great video from John.

Wishing the best of luck to Australians Kate McLaughlin and Karen Bisley as they compete in the WCF Qualifier 13-16 October, aiming to secure their spot in the WCF Golf Croquet World Championships!

Follow along on CroquetScores

As I was wandering through Central Park this morning, I was lucky enough to spot a member practising their American 6 Wicket skills.

After introducing myself, Geoff gave me a brief run down of the club  which has a current membership of about 80. They have room for two full courts but can access to the bowling courts when running tournaments.

Squirrels are constant companions and are very adept at digging out the acorns if they happen to get buried leaving some nice holes in the lawn.

I had the great pleasure of visiting the Hong Kong Cricket Club this evening as a guest of Tom Ingram, who is representing the Hong Kong Croquet Club at the 2024 GC World Championship.

It is an amazing facility with numerous sports being catered for such as swimming, table tennis, lawn bowls, snooker, indoor cricket and even ten pin bowling.

George (president), Caroline and Tom with the club house in the background.

View from clubhouse.

if you are ever thinking of visiting HK, make sure you add a game of croquet to your to do list!