Helen Heppner takes
a shot at the Epsom
Remuera Croquet
Club, as (from left)
Maida Beetson,
Regan Doherty and
Bruce Heasley look
on. Photo / Peter
Calder
dress code requires only flat-soled shoes, and
cheeky banter was the order of the day.
"Have you got a Gold Card?" my partner Regan
Doherty asked me as one of our opponents
lined up a shot. "You'll need one to get the bus
back from where your ball is about to end up."
Croquet with a rule book is barely 150 years old
but its precursors go back to the 15th century.
One of its French ancestors, paille maille
became pall mall (the London street took that
name from a nearby field where the game was
played).
From an early stage, it was a gender-integrated
game, though the modern between-the-legs
swing style was unknown to extravagantly
skirted women in the Victoria era. Club member
and historian Bruce Heasley shows me a
clipping from an 1874 Auckland Star in which
the paper criticised those who "find fault with it
for its tendency to foster flirtation".
"This we regard as its great charm," the paper
editorialised. "There is that soupcon of danger
which is necessary to make any English pastime
alluring."
***********************
Orewa Croquet Cub
Full fields for cro quet tournament
Representatives from around the Auckland
region enjoyed fine weather for the 3rd Forrest
Funeral Services Golf Croquet tournament held
recently at the Orewa Croquet Club.
Competition, which was close in most games,
was played in two sections, each section with its
own winner.
Section one winners were Gloria and Trevor
LeComte (Orewa) with Sue Bradziak and
Shirley Schofield (Warkworth) runners-up.
Section one winners
Gloria and Trevor
LeComte receiving
their prize from
Leanne Little (left)
of tournament
sponsors
Forrest Funeral
Services
One of the appeals, Les Wakley tells me, is that
it takes only a few minutes to learn the basics.
People who have never played a sport pick it up
really quickly, he says, which makes it an ideal
social activity for corporates ("The lawyers are
the worst," he says. "They are so competitive.")
Like bowls, croquet has its work cut out
attracting young blood. The 80-odd clubs
nationwide - there are 11 in Auckland - average
fewer than 50 members and Wakley accepts that
it is primarily a sport for seniors. The mallet
makes the ball reachable for people who can't
get down to a bowl any more.
In section two, local members
Robert Letcher and Ann
Strasser won this section with
Pixie Jones-Meredew and Lesley
Dallimore (Orewa) runners-up.
"It's gentle exercise with social contact and you
can play the game even if you haven't done it
before," he says.
Have-a-Go open day at Orewa
That's true, so far as it goes. I will draw a veil
over the result of my match though. My excuse
is that the grass was just too flat: a few clumps
of kikuyu, a pohutukawa root or two, and I
would have nailed it.
The equivalent of a whole new croquet Club
attended the Orewa Croquet Club ‘have-a-go’
day on Sunday 22 February with 42 prospective
members attending the event including one
Orewa have-a-go a great success