Croquet Gazette Online 002 - July 2025

MIKE’S STORY By Mike Li1lewood

My name is Mike Li8lewood, and I’m a member of Driffield Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club [DLTCC]. Driffield is in East Yorkshire, a moderate sized market town. DLTCC was formed in 1879, with both tennis and croquet being played. Croquet playing lapsed and eventually was restarted under the guidance of Chris Atkinson (the club President) in 2021. In 2021 my health took a tumble and, like my wife Lesley, I had mobility issues, but with her to inspire me as she had learnt to walk again. We both joined the club to learn croquet because it was a sport we could play together. I suffer from neuropathy in both feet and, to an extent, lower legs and was eventually diagnosed with an autoimmune condi7on, chronic inflammatory demyelina7ng polyneuropathy [CIDP]. Croquet comes with a walking s7ck called a mallet, so I was able to play. Even so I spent many club sessions si9ng out and watching. The CIDP was then in 2023 compounded with a diagnosis of asymptoma7c type 2 diabetes, with a blood sugar reading that made the medical staff wince. It took 18 months, but the blood sugars are now back in the normal range. Having the knowledge that 30% of CIDP suffers become wheelchair users, I contacted Croquet England on 1st September 2024 asking ques7ons about wheelchair croquet. Does it already happen somewhere, are the rules different if it does, and is any addi7onal equipment needed? Mark Suter replied very quickly saying, “I think it’s a very good idea but I’m not aware of wheelchair croquet being played anywhere. Hopefully, you could lead by example and report your progress”. With the full support of our small group of croquet players and backing of the full commi8ee of the club, I began the project. We iden7fied the ini7al ques7ons that needed answering before we found a

wheelchair user, as we were reluctant to pick up a chair and pretend to be disabled by playing the required shots from a normal si9ng posi7on. I also wanted to establish if commercially available wheelchairs would work, since sports chairs were out of the price range of most people with a disability. The ques7ons were: 1. The ability of the wheelchair user to strike the ball from the chair’s posi7on to make a roquet. 2. Can a ball be reached from the si9ng posi7on to reposi7on the ball for the croquet stroke? 3. Can a half roll be played? 4. Can a full roll be played? 5. Can a rush be played? 6. Posi7oning the wheelchair in rela7on to the ball to be hit. We Iden7fied that If 1 & 2 were achieved then golf croquet was playable, if 1 to 6 then playing associa7on croquet was possible. Of course, the assistance of a pusher may be required.

I was readily able to prove on 29th April that ques7ons 1 to 6 were playable. This chair, being the large solid rear wheeled variety with smaller front wheels, marked the prac7ce area, causing grooves. (And this was during our driest and warmest spring for 60+ years.) This also raised ques7ons about the arm reach of smaller players; could they pick up balls from the ground and move them in an acceptable way? Unknown to me, around 19th April I was hit by another health problem. This was Charcot foot [le'], a rare complica7on of neuropathy in the foot. Numerous bones in my foot had broken or fractured and joints had dislocated. This can and did happen without any external trauma. Of, course, the neuropathy took care of the pain, and I walked on blissfully unaware, un7l directed to hospital on 8th May for a full board weekend break. The online Croquet Gaze8e was launched on 16th May, which was about the date when I was fi8ed with a removable fibreglass slipper cast to keep the foot bones stable, and on top of this a removable aircast boot to make sure all the foot bones and ankle stayed fixed and supported. I was warned not to walk too much on the foot, to rely on the elbow crutches, and maybe in 9 months the broken and displaced bones might have fused together, and my mobility could be reviewed. So I had been unable to report to Mark Suter and Alison Maugham (the editor of the Gaze8e) prior to the launch that, with true irony, we had found a wheelchair user ‐ myself. I do now own my very own personal lightweight wheelchair; unfortunately, also unsuitable for playing croquet.

We did eventually in April 2025 have the loan of a standard wheelchair, courtesy of the Driffield Lions group. I found out from research that there are basically two types of standard commercial wheelchair: those with big narrow rear wheels, and those with smaller rear wheels, either solid or pneuma7c.

www.croquetengland.org.uk | 21

Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online