playing tennis. You should stick to croquet and
not play such dangerous sports, André!
NZ Women’s Invitation
Friday 20th to Sunday 22 February 2015
Hosted by Croquet Manawatu at Rangatira
Croquet Club Dannevirke
Winner: Nina Mayard-Husson
Runner-up: Alison Robertson
NZ 0-3 & 4+ Championships
Wednesday 25 February to Sun 1 March 2015
Hosted by Otago Croquet Association at
Forbury Park and Tainui Croquet Clubs
Winner:
Graeme Fisher
Runner-up: Ian Campbell
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News from the Regions
Croquet Auckland
Les Wakley Publicity Officer for Croquet Auckland
told us that in the process of trying to get some
newspaper space to publicise Croquet
Auckland’s “Have a Go” day, he e-mailed Peter
Calder of the New Zealand Herald.
To Les’ amazement he came to Epsom Remuera
on Saturday 14th February and his article
appeared on Tuesday 18th February.
In the article he referred to the Have a Go day
and 5 out of the 14 people that came along on
Sunday were there because they had read
Peter’s “take” on croquet.
Peter Calder has agreed to his article and
accompanying photo being reprinted here
Coming in off beach to flirt with
croquet
Once faulted for fostering risque play, the
game is not stuffy at all.
Had I ever played croquet, he asked. "Maaate!" I
thought, though I didn't have the nerve to say it
out loud because I knew what he'd say next.
Les Wakley is an amiable and scrupulously
courteous Englishman (sees you to your car
when you're leaving, that sort of thing) who acts
as the publicity officer for Croquet Auckland.
He was offering me a chance to try the sport out
in anticipation of the "Have a Go" Day they are
planning for Sunday.
I didn't tell him that I am something of a
croquet veteran, because he probably would
recognise the game I had learned to play: with a
toy set on the undulating sand and kikuyu
surface of a council campground, not always
putting my drink down before I took a shot.
At the Epsom Remuera Croquet Club, encircled
by old trees at the end of a lane off Gillies Ave,
the very faintly spongy browntop lawns are like
the proverbial billiard table. A trio of members
make room for me to try the simpler version of
the game, called golf croquet (association
croquet, more tactical, is keeping other players
occupied with what looks like grim
concentration on the other lawns) and I start
swinging.
In common with my beach version, this game
allows - indeed requires - players to give equal
weight to getting their ball near (and eventually
through) the hoop and driving their opponents'
balls as far away as possible.
"Don't worry," says Helen Heppner, one of my
two opponents. "We'll be kind to you." I'm
about to puff my chest out and say "Maaate!"
when Les Wakley steps in: "If they are at all
kind," he tells me, "it will be a first."
It was a quiet morning at the club last Saturday:
the gun players were at the world champs in Mt
Maunganui, where two Egyptians tussled in the
final. The Egyptians, for reasons no one seemed
able to tell me, are the sport's perennial worldbeaters, but Kathie Grant, a national rep and
qualified coach, who inducted me into the
mysteries of the sport, told me that New
Zealand is the reigning world champion in
association croquet and the world's top male
and female players, Chris and Jenny Clarke, are
Kiwis.
Any thought that it would be a stuffy and
formal place was quickly dashed. The relaxed