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----- Original Message -----

From: chris clarke

To: croquet@... ; aus list ; Adrian Wadley

Sent: Monday, November 30, 2009 7:46 PM

Subject: [AUS-Croquet] Video of the final

 

I have posted 5 clips of the final on youtube. I only had 2 minutes of tape left for the last 5 hoops, so I had to miss a few strokes. The footage hopefully shows plenty of good shots, some bad ones, some tactical positions and probably the best stroke I have ever seen a woman play. I hope some of you enjoy it.
 
I will post more footage from earlier in the event later this week, but know that several people are keen to see the final.
 
Chris
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR0V1zp5JT0
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uExHOwmWxKQ
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcYcyUvaT5s
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7bjWuDJ8Kk
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZlDaYi70p4

---

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Stunning news Alix - well done!

Can anyone supply any good photos of Alix in action at Cairnlea?? Alix is
much more photogenic then the WCF mug shot implies!! These are for
publication on the Croquet NSW web site.

Thanks,
David.

----- Original Message -----

From: Stephen Meatheringham

To: AUS-Croquet@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Saturday, November 28, 2009 6:00 AM

Subject: [AUS-Croquet] Congratulations to Alix Verge - Women's World Golf Croquet Champion

 

Wonderful news for all Australian Croquet players.

Alix Verge is the new WCF Women's World Golf Croquet Champion defeating
Iman Elfaransawi 7-6, 5-7, 3-7, 7-6, 7-6

Alix is the first Australian world champion in either AC or GC.

regards to all
Stephen Meatheringham

Wonderful news for all Australian Croquet players.

Alix Verge is the new WCF Women's World Golf Croquet Champion defeating
Iman Elfaransawi 7-6, 5-7, 3-7, 7-6, 7-6

Alix is the first Australian world champion in either AC or GC.

regards to all
Stephen Meatheringham

Alix Verge won the first 7-6
Iman Elfaransawi the next two 7-5, 7-3
Alix the fourth 7-6
It's all down to the final 13-point game to decide the WCF Women's World GC
Champion

Jenny Clarke defeated Shaden Okasha 7-1, 7-3 to take third place

Anne Quinn defeated Laura Whittaker 7-5, 7-5 in the final of the plate

Dear Stephen,

I just saw your email and everything is now
finished.  Jenny Clarke lost and Alix Verge
won.  In the Plate Ann Quinn beat previously
unbeaten Clare Stableford in one QF and the
others were won by Dallas Cooke, Mavis Brogden
and Laura Whittaker.  Tomorrow DC plays MB etc.

The semis were thrilling with lots of "Bravos"
and applause.  I'm glad we finally found eight
for the QFs of the Plate after having four
play-offs to determine the Quarter finalists.

Cheers in haste,

Tony

At 12:50 PM 27/11/2009, you wrote:
>
>
>Afternoon All
>
>If anyone is watching the semi-finals of the WWWGCC can we get an
>update? Nothing is coming through to the Croquet Australia web site :-(
>
>regards
>Stephen Meatheringham
>Canberra Croquet Club
>

Afternoon All

If anyone is watching the semi-finals of the WWWGCC can we get an
update?  Nothing is coming through to the Croquet Australia web site :-(

regards
Stephen Meatheringham
Canberra Croquet Club

Bundanoon Croquet Club membership is increasing at present because our July
AGM voted to introduce golf croquet. In NSW golf croquet has been pushed
hard for the past couple of years, and my guess is that the ratio of golf
to association players has increased as a result. I would be interested if
anyone has this ratio for each State, and for other countries.

While I realise that this is generalisation, my feeling is that golf
croquet players tend to have more active social skills than association
croquet players, and that association croquet players tend to have more
active intellectual skills than golf croquet players. As a result I believe
that golf croquet players find it easier to persuade new members to join
their clubs, whereas association players find it easier to sit back and
just enjoy the exclusive nature of their sport.

So my guess is that the recruitment of association croquet players is the
real challenge. When Bundanoon only played association croquet, we also
tried posters and come and try days, with almost no success. Now that we
have introduced golf croquet the word is being passed around the village
like wildfire, and no doubt the resulting new members will play golf croquet.

To understand the market for association croquet, it may be worth drawing
comparisons between Australia and the UK (where I learnt the game) and
perhaps other countries, to understand where new players come from.

In the UK quite a few players start playing association croquet at
universities, particularly Oxbridge. This is because association croquet is
an intellectual pursuit, and universities are intellectual places. Many
long term croquet friendships are made in this way, and these strong
friendships are a foundation for the UK croquet culture. I think that far
less croquet is played at Australian universities. Do we want to think
about ways and means to improve this situation?

In the UK a larger proportion of croquet players are still in the
workforce. This may partly be due to the latitude of the UK where summer
evenings are long enough for a full game of croquet even after an evening
meal. In Australia I feel that croquet is generally regarded as a sport for
retired people, whereas in the UK is tends to be more regarded as a sport
for eccentric people, which gives it a slightly better spin. Can we
encourage more younger players by holding corporate croquet events, for
example?

So what about some new strategies? My belief is that to be effective this
needs to be addressed at higher than club level, because the most important
strategy is the promotion of croquet as a very worthwhile sport, and doing
this properly takes more resources than are available from a single club.

Croquet promotion has had all kinds of problems over the years, with
condescending and patronising attitudes often destroying rather than
enhancing its image. Some first rate high level promotion of croquet - for
example on radio, TV and in major newspapers - would really make a
difference to the sport and its popularity.

The media should be invited to every top croquet event, and be carefully
chaperoned to ensure that, instead of filling their copy with inanities due
to a lack of worthwhile information, they leave each event with a high
respect for croquet, having properly understood its challenges.

There should be more exhibition matches between top players, accompanied by
good commentaries over public address systems by other top players. These
should be publicised to attract members of the public, and good quality
movies carefully edited and made available to the media and on internet
sites such as youtube.com.

To be effective, croquet promotion needs to be addressed by the ACA and by
each State croquet organisation. In NSW it is perhaps symptomatic that the
position of Publicity Officer in our State body is currently vacant. I hope
this is taken more seriously elsewhere, because in today's world effective
marketing is as much the future of croquet as it is of anything else.

Regards,
David Archer.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [AUS-Croquet] Recruitment
Date: Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:02:05 +1100
From: Martyn Prins <martyn@...>
To: <AUS-Croquet@yahoogroups.com>

Membership of Mosman Croquet Club has increased by more than 20% in the
last 18 months to 93, with a fair chance of hitting 100 by xmas. My recall
is that structured approaches - such as Try days, poster billing, and
school sessions - did not yield anything of note. As we allocated no funds
at all to recruitment, I am pretty sure that the following reasons were
instrumental:

- word of mouth (lots of our ladies play bridge and some golf, etc)
- enthusiastic welcome and early lessons (the lion's share done by our
industrious secretary Mary Gibson)
- continual follow-up - both from inexperienced peers and more practised
club members.

Although some members come from far afield, the demographics of the Sydney
Lower North Shore may be a factor in this. And our flat annual fee of $420
for any amount of play is clearly no barrier.

HTH
Martyn Prins
Mosman CC

-----Original Message-----
From: AUS-Croquet@yahoogroups.com On Behalf Of Ted
Sent: Thursday, 26 November 2009 6:28 PM
To: AUS-Croquet@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [AUS-Croquet] Recruitment

Are there any Australian clubs that have increased their membership in the
past 12 months by 15 to 20 percent.  I'd like to hear from them as to how
their club managed to achieve the growth.  We had what we thought was a
well structured plan over the year that had a budget of $3 500.  Our result
was 80 visitors through the gate but only 4 joined.  My club is looking for
new ideas or strategies other clubs found were successful in recruiting.

Ted Singleton
Caloundra Mallet Sports Club

-----Original Message-----
From: AUS-Croquet@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AUS-Croquet@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Ted
Sent: Thursday, 26 November 2009 6:28 PM
To: AUS-Croquet@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [AUS-Croquet] Recruitment

 

Are there any Australian clubs that have increased their membership in the past 12 months by 15 to 20 percent.  I'd like to hear from them as to how their club managed to achieve the growth.  We had what we thought was a well structured plan over the year that had a budget of $3 500.  Our result was 80 visitors through the gate but only 4 joined.  My club is looking for new ideas or strategies other clubs found were successful in recruiting.

Ted Singleton

Caloundra Mallet Sports Club

All

The direct link to the area on the Croquet Australia web site where results
from the 3rd WCF Women's World Golf Croquet Championship will be published
is http://www.croquet-australia.com.au/Results/2009/WWWGCC/

regards
Stephen Meatheringham
Croquet Australia Web Coordinator

Womens World Golf Croquet Champs – Preview

I have to say that I’m really looking forward to this event which starts on Sunday. I enjoyed the 2007 event in Carrickmines very much and hopefully with an even larger number of players this year, it should be a great tournament. I thought I’d just give a quick overview of some of the top contenders for subscribers who are keen on following this event over the coming days.

Australia

As home nation, Australia field 22 of the 56 competitors. Their brightest hope is probably Alix Verge who has plenty of power, but Rosemary Graham will also be tough to beat if she reproduces the form that saw her win the ACA GC Womens Champs earlier this year. There is good depth in the Australian line-up with players of the calibre of Liz Fleming, Margaret Melville and Creina Dawson all playing. If I had to pick a couple of dark horses, then Genny Vandersluys and Elizabeth Allen both had good results in the ACA GC Open recently. With strength in numbers, Australia should have several players in the last 16. My only regret is that their most talented lady player is not in the field, I guess due to financial constraint, which is a great shame – she would have had a big chance.

Egypt

Defending champion Iman El Faransawi is the obvious choice. Iman was also runner-up in the inaugural event in 2005. However, the player that impressed me most in 2007 was Manal Ali Mohsen and she would be my pre-event favourite. Egypt are sending 12 players which should ensure a really tough passage for anyone hoping to get a medal this year.

England

England are represented by Kath Burt, Theresa Burt and Ros Pimlott

Ireland

Jane Shorten carries the Irish hopes and I would expect a much stronger showing than in 2007, now she doesn’t have the worries of organizing the event to distract her.

New Zealand

Twelve Kiwis make the short trip across to the “Western Island”. Jenny Clarke heads the challenge, but there are several other strong players. Mavis Brogden is always a tough opponent and has the knack of finding the jaws of hoops from anywhere. Phyllis Young beat Iman in 2007 and then was runner-up in the plate. Her recent form has been very poor and she will be hoping that the challenge brings her best form back. The Kiwi most likely to pull off a big surprise is probably Erica Stephens. Erica is a very aggressive and powerful player and if she can avoid being too aggressive, will be a force to be reckoned with.

The New Zealand team contains two younger players, Ashley Cooke and Laura Whittaker – best of luck to both of them on their international debuts.

USA

America sends two strong players in the form of Anne Taves and Josie Jackson. I would expect both to make it through to the knockout.

Scotland

Jola Jurasinka carries the Scottish flag.

South Africa

Carole Jackson spearheads the Springbok team. Carole is a fine all-round player, winning the plate in 2007 and it will take a good performance to eliminate her. She is joined by Anne Oxton and Clare Stableford

For more information, please see the ACA website. If I can get a decent wireless connection at Cairnlea, I will try and post some video footage of the action. Good luck to all the competitors!

Chris

All

The Croquet Australia web site has an information page on the forthcoming
WCF Women's Golf Croquet Championship at:
http://www.croquet-australia.com.au/Events/2009-WWWGCC/
Included is a PDF of the souvenir programme.

A link for the results will be established prior to the event.

regards
Stephen Meatheringham
ACA Web Coordinator