the croquet
association
wide range of ages and abilities. With over 180
fixtures, there is a tournament available at
every level, from beginner to the world’s
best players.
The game is, like many, largely
run by volunteers who give
a lot of their time to
supporting and developing
the
sport
in
coaching,
refereeing,
international
player development, youth
development, IT, publishing and
maintaining the website to name
but a few.
The major event in the Association’s
Calendar this year is the World Croquet
Federation Association Croquet Women’s
World Championship, which will be held
at Nottingham Croquet Club from 25 July to 1
August 2015. The event has attracted a strong entry
with top players from home and abroad.
Development of the game is a key area for croquet if it is to
survive and grow. The Croquet Association has given more than
£200,000 over the past 10 years to support the development of
new clubs, and it receives no government or public funding of
any kind.
The sport is gently growing and 2014 saw the founding of several
more croquet clubs and a new coaching scheme for potential
international players started. Because it’s a small sport it can’t rest
on its laurels: the Association is continually looking for ways to
recruit more players (especially younger ones) and it has started
on constitutional reorganization.
In order to help generate funding for the sport, we sell croquet
equipment and we sell many croquet sets each year for people to
play in their back garden. Last year we sold over 170 croquet sets
which equates to just over three sets per week. Croquet seems to
be a perennially popular sport and it’s easy to set up in a back
garden, no matter how large, small or bumpy!
Anyone interested i