WHERE IT ALL STARTED
By Chris Alvey, dbmallets@gmail.com, Sponsors of the Townsend Club Award
Anne and I met at Cober Hill Hotel in North Yorkshire, which was also where we got our introduc6on to croquet. Although more suited to garden croquet than associa6on, the lawn was always seen as a place only serious players went, no kids allowed. A run across it when no‐one was there was the height of rebellion. The game there is a simplified version of AC where you play in colour order, there are no roquets un6l all 4 balls are through hoop one and you only get one set of roquets
between hoops, (regardless of how many 6mes you come on and off the lawn). This means there’s no need for complex openings, break‐building and leaves; and some of the rules are altered to make it easier for a novice. What it meant for us was that we could do full rolls before we understood a 4‐ball break and ul6mately adap6ng to AC was reasonably straigh5orward. Corinne, a good friend, and I now run the summer
week, or Holly’s week as it’s called; with Anne keeping us (me), in line. It’s a family‐orientated holiday with dances, a quiz and other evening ac6vi6es and where guests compete in friendly tournaments including ski7les, clock golf, bowls, table tennis, pool and of course croquet. Over the last 19 years of hos6ng, more and more people have given croquet a go, and for the last 2 summers we have run introductory sessions to Cober croquet. This year we provided our demo and personal mallets for them to use. It was so successful that the 2025 tournament was made up of 8 experienced Cober players and 8 complete novices.
The important thing that allowed the new players to take part was the acceptance, guidance and good‐ natured approach of the experienced players. There were 4 AC players on that week with Anne and I being 2 of them, so guests that weren’t used to coaching players, or explaining what they were doing and their tac6cs, really stepped up and helped their partners. If nothing else, it served as an amazing example of what pa6ence and understanding can do to help introduce new people to our amazing sport. (PS it also looks like 4 people who had a go for the first 6me are going to try it at their local club!!)
www.croquetengland.org.uk | 7
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