WHEELCHAIR PROJECT AT DRIFFIELD By Mike Li1lewood
So, the posi7ves from this year, in the project. We have established that the strokes for golf croquet and associa7on can be played from a wheelchair. However, adjustments to the rules of both games need to be made for
Well, the outdoor 2025 season at the Driffield club has drawn to a close, not that we have facility to play inside in these cold and witheringly windy months. The club had some success this year in our maiden short lawn league season. The first croquet league match being played at the club in 90 years and hosted by us! I have also had personal success and now wear a weight‐bearing boot on my le' leg. S7ll with stern warnings from the podiatry team to stay off it as much as possible though. So where does this leave the wheelchair project? Well, at the moment, s7ll with many unanswered ques7ons regarding the type of wheelchair that will be best suited. Whilst the Bowls Royce wheelchair that has been lent to me proved that it could be used without damaging the lawn, it proved heavy to use and very difficult to manoeuvre. The 8cm wheels are much harder to swivel than the 1cm wheels on my personal chair. These issues were compounded when in September our warm dry spring and summer were subjected to freak weather condi7ons. It rained! This made it almost impossible to turn and posi7on the chair on the lawn, as the wide wheels just slipped on the lubrica7ng moisture. This, of course, is no issue in Formula One racing, the car just pulls into the pits and within a few seconds old tyres off, new tyres on. We don’t even know currently what width of tyre to put on. If we go too narrow, then we could be damaging the lawn again. At Pocklington, which is a town not too far away, the tennis club has three sports wheelchairs provided by the Lawn Tennis Associa7on. We are part of the LTA in our club, being a combina7on of tennis and croquet players. So, I shall see if we can be loaned one of these to see the reac7on of the lawn to its use. A'er all, these chairs are allowed to be used on the courts at Wimbledon. I believe it rains in London too. Two heads are be8er than one, so if any of the readers have any sugges7ons of how the standard wheelchair we have can be modified to prevent tyre damage to the lawn they would be gratefully received. Whilst we have the engineering capability within our small membership that eureka moment has so far eluded us. To save Alison an increased workload please forward your eureka moments to care2mike@hotmail.com . This is the style of wheelchair that we have been given to work with. Heavier than my personal one as it has a tubular steel frame. From a prac7cal point they have to be the large diameter rear wheel version, and hand wheel so that I can hold and rotate them to posi7on the chair.
game and match play to accommodate the much larger footprint the chair
creates. These being marking balls or removing hoops that impede the wheelchair being moved into a playing posi7on. In using these adapta7ons to the rules not only have I been able to join in club sessions I have managed to win a game. The wheelchair marks made on the prac7ce area seemed to recover quite quickly, but this was tested during excep7onally dry seasonal weather. At least Peter, our groundsman, didn’t seem fazed by them. I shall probably con7nue to play from the chair next year, as my leg muscles begin to rebuild, and the structure of my foot con7nues to stabilise. I don’t expect another dry spring and summer though, so perhaps adjustments will need to be made for so'er lawn condi7ons, only 7me will tell on that one. Sadly, my enquiry with the distributor of my personal chair, Mo7on Healthcare of Braintree, went unanswered, and the chair is made in China. So, I am now in the process of contac7ng, Z‐Tec Mobility, Invictus Ac7ve, and DaVinci Mobility who according to the Internet search are UK‐based manufacturers. The Bowls Royce wheelchair was developed by the Bush Hills bowls shop and retails for £1,074.00 plus a delivery fee of £130.00. Other Bowls approved chairs can be found at: whiteheadbowls.co.uk/product/chairiot bowls‐wheelchair/ para‐handybowlingwheelchair.com email: andrewgsemple@sky.com These prices leave croquet players of modest means out‐ priced from the game, so the need for the project to be successful con7nues to be an important one. So please, if you do have ideas for adap7ng a standard wheelchair that members or clubs can recycle, at much reduced cost get in touch, care2mike@hotmail.com.
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