2024 Canadian National Golf Croquet Tournament
Contributed by Gopal Gowda
This is a short report to provide you a summary of my participation at the Croquet Canda Tournament in Toronto – July 12-14. The national competition was held at two clubs – North Toronto Croquet Club (NTCC) and Lawrence Park Lawn Bowling and Croquet Club. NTCC is exclusively a Croquet club while the Lawrence Park club has both bowling and croquet. Both clubs located in the heart of Toronto, south of 401 and north of downtown. Among the 24 participants (men and women), majority were from the host clubs and several from the USA (Florida, Colorado and California). The 24 participants were divided into two groups of 12 based on their international ranking. The higher ranked players played (for Championship Trophy) at NTCC and the lower ranked and unranked players at the Lawrence Park (for Plate Trophy). There were three unranked players including myself. The ranking is determined by the World Croquet Federation based on how many games one played in officially sanctioned tournaments and the corresponding win/loss percentage. Needless to say that all ranked players have played for a number of years and a lot of tournaments. Majority of the Canadian ranked players are members at the NTCC.
Our group of 12 were divided into two sub-groups of 6. Each group played a round robin format within their group leading to quarter finals, semis and finals. All 5-round robin games were played on day-1 under scorching sun, heat and humidity! Day 2 and 3 were equally hot and humid. The winner from our group was a player from Colorado – USA and the winner of the Championship Plate was Adam Barr-Canada.
Ideally, I would have loved to have finished higher but realistically for a first-timer competing against a more experienced pool of players, finishing 10th out of 12 is satisfactory. FYI, we at VBCC play predominantly Snake-in-the-Grass format and Association Croquet (AC) but not golf croquet. Essentially both GC and Snake are similar except for the big difference where you do not get another shot if you hit the partner ball in GC. As a result, there are obvious differences in tactics and strategy between the two formats. Unfortunately, Snake-in the-grass format is yet to be recognized officially by Croquet Canada. The only two formats officially recognized by the World Federation of Croquet are AC & GC. Although I do like playing snake croquet, I am more attracted to golf croquet format as it allows you to compete in officially sanctioned tournaments. I went to the National tournament to explore the landscape of croquet talent in Canada, gather information and gain experience at the national level, while establishing network connections.
Compared to playing at VBCC, there were many challenges in this tournament: I found the mid-July weather conditions in Toronto were extremely challenging; the hoops were narrower and firmer in the ground, hence not much room for error in hoop-shooting; court size was larger (same as our larger court we set up here for the AC). Playing for the first time in a tournament of that magnitude made me nervous. To emphasize nerves played a part – I lost to two players in the tournament whom I had beaten in practice and on two occasions, after a lead of 3-0 lost the match!
In summary, it was a great experience watching some of the best Canadian, American and Egyptian croquet players including the finals of the Championship Plate. I even managed to get a friendly game against an Egyptian player. The Egyptians are well known around the world for their hard-hitting and aggressive style of play – several of them now live in Toronto.
I am very proud to have represented VBCC at this tournament. Based on the standard of play that I have witnessed, I believe there are several players at VBCC and neighboring clubs who can compete at least in the second division if not in the championship division.
Unfortunately, due to the numbers, most of the croquet tournaments tend to take place in Ontario and Quebec. However, one way to stimulate interest in Western Canada and make Croquet Canada notice the talent and pool of players in and around Victoria is to start organizing GC tournaments locally. I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to Pierre Dunn, Lorne Oakes, Chris Percival-Smith, KC and Michael Dowling of the Happy Valley Croquet Club for affording their time for practice games. Finally, many thanks to VBCC members for their best wishes, encouragement and moral support.
Croquet Players Keep the Lawns Active at Victoria Bowls and Croquet Club
Thirty-five croquet-playing women from across the city descended on the Victoria Bowls and Croquet Club (VBCC) June 3rd for an evening of games and excellent food.
See full writeup and more photos here.
But that’s only the tip of the croquet iceberg at VBCC. This spring has seen around 30 new members sign up to play croquet and participate in the club’s league play, daily games, and frequent tournaments. For example, there’s the Advanced Doubles tournament in Snake Croquet (a popular variation of Golf Croquet) held June 15 under sunny but breezy skies and won by Lorne Oakes and Peter Rassenti at the last possible moment. Coming up soon are tournaments for intermediate and novice players and mixed doubles.
And play is not limited to the home courts. A few days after the women’s event here on the Island, two of VBCC’s men played in Canada’s national Association Croquet championships, held in Bayfield, Ontario, June 6-9. One of these players, James White, took first place in his division of the competition.
Another VBCC player, Gopal Gowda, will be heading for a national championship tournament, this time for Golf Croquet, to be held in Toronto in July. Gopal may be the first player from Western Canada to have entered this competition, but he clearly won’t be the last.
VBCC players, whether new members or well-experienced players will be out every day practicing, playing, having fun, and enjoying each other’s company. – contributed by Pierre Dunn
VBCC welcomes guest players from around the croquet world.
On June 23, Chris Williamson and Louise McElarney came by to share some Snake, Golf, and Association croquet with us. Chris and Louise are in BC as part of a vacation trip from Greenodd in the UK’s Lake District, where they play at the Crake Valley Croquet Club. The Crake Valley club has three full lawns and was founded in 1897. Chris and Louise have promised to send us a book about the club.
Another pair of visitors who join us almost every year are Jan Wall and Chanda Carlson of Vashon Island, Washington. They really enjoy their trips to Victoria, and having the chance to play on our lawns is a good part of the reason why.
Victoria Players Take Top Prizes
in Victoria Day Croquet Tournament
Victoria BCC and the Canadian Pacific LBCC joined together once again to co-host the annual Victoria Day Association Croquet Tournament, British Columbia’s premiere croquet event. Over three days, from May 18 through May 20, thirteen focused competitors battled for hoop-running glory in fine weather on the two clubs’ excellent, fast lawns.
The games were split into two flights — a Championship Flight in which each of 6 players participated in ten two-and-a-half-hour games, and a less demanding Seniors’ Flight in which the remaining 7 competitors played six two-and-a-quarter-hour games.
At the end of Monday’s play, Chris Percival-Smith, a member of both Victoria clubs, took home the Championship winner’s bottle of wine with a 9-1 winning record. Brian Wasylyk of Campbell River and Gary Anderson of Seattle duked it out for second place, both ending with 6-4 records, but Brian snatched the glory by running one more hoop than Gary. Also playing in the flight were Michael Kernaghan of Abbotsford, and Tony Simmonds and James White, both of Saturna Island and members of VBCC.
The Seniors’ Flight was won by Pierre Dunn with a 6-0 record, in a game that was second-place finisher Lorne Oakes’ only loss. Both play at VBCC. Other combatants were Jorn Soegard of Nanaimo, Peter Rassenti of VBCC, Mike Holt and Bruce Gillespie of CPLBCC, and Jeff Wright of Happy Valley CC.
With the exception of Anderson, the field consisted purely of BC players, unusual in recent years. The presence of so many newly active AC players on the lawns provides hope for the continued growth in the sport in British Columbia, where the more social games of Golf Croquet and Snake-in-the-Grass have recently been dominating play.
Victoria Day Tournament Director Chris Percival-Smith expressed pleasure after the games in how smoothly the competition ran and the level of satisfaction the players had felt. Of particular assistance were the contributions of Kathy Moi-Barker and Sandy Hodel, both members of VBCC and its board, who handled the catering and bookkeeping for the tournament with ease and aplomb. (contributed by Pierre Dunn)
2024 Heineken Cup Croquet League
Every Thursday, for 8 weeks in February/March, 26 croquet players participated in a league competition. Each week different partners competed against different opponents playing best of three games and earning one point for a game-win and one point for just showing up. Gopala designed and managed (with weekly updates) a scoring program to keep track of the scores/standings of all 26 players each week. This year, a trophy was also introduced for this event and going forward this winter league will be named “HEINEKEN CUP”. This year’s league and the inaugural Heineken Cup winner is Rolf Bertsch. The league devised and run by Gopala and Donna was very popular and the participation was high. The league came to its conclusion with the top 16 league-finishers playing in a one-day tournament doubles format on Thursday, March 28. Peter Rassenti and Donna Del Torre finished first in the playoffs. All players enjoyed the day with pizza and refreshments.
(click on photo to enlarge/sideshow)
2024 Heineken Cup Croquet League Summaries:
Contributed by Gopala Gowda
2024 Third Annual Victoria Snake Croquet Inter-club Tournament
Third annual Victoria Snake Croquet Interclub Tournament was held Saturday, March 23 and 24th. It started out raining and lasted all Saturday. Sixteen teams playing at two different locations. Eight teams at Victoria bowls and croquet club and eight more teams at Oak Bay Lawn Bowling Club. Sunday, the second day were the top eight teams where there would be a double knockout format until the final four teams playing for first, second, third and fourth.
First place went to Pierre Dunn and Brent Jansen, Oak Bay, second place to Ralph Street and Rolf Bertsch from Victoria, third place to Lorne Oakes, Donna Del Torre and Peter Rassenti from Victoria, fourth place to John Dolman, Jim, Howard, and Brian Sandercock.
It was a very successful tournament, and all enjoyed. Players came from lower Vancouver Island, and as far away as Saturna Island to play in the tournament.
A special thank you to all involved that made this happen. Thank you to Victoria BCC, Donna Del Torre for arranging the use of your club.
Special thank you to Oak Bay for all their volunteers: Garry and all helpers in the kitchen, bartenders, John Dolman and all helping to set up the greens and take them down. Thank you to Beth for collecting all the money, dispersing the winnings, score keeping, timekeeping. Also, I’m sure there are people I forgot to mention but thank you.
(contributed by Brent Jansen)