ACA is participating in the 2019 GC Trans Tasman Tournament in Australia (Date TBC). ACA GC Selectors will select the national squad and EOI are to be forwarded to the Chair, Terry Ericson - [email protected] (Expressions of Interest stating: name, address, phone number, email address, ACA ID and Club). The training squad for this competition will be under the direction of the ACA GC High Performance Manager. The final team will be selected in 2019 from this squad. The squad will be added to and reduced in accordance with the requirements of the tournament and the team’s preparation needs.

Closing Date for initial squad is 17th August 2018 Should you require further information please contact Ron on 0427259751 or email to above address. Please note: ACA will be having a team in the WCF GC World Team Championship’s Tier 1 in 2020 to be held in New Zealand and the above squad will continue to support this tournament.

Ron McBride ACA GC HPM

ACA is accepting expressions of interests for the President’s AC Eights to be held at Cairnlea, Victoria from Friday 12 to Monday 15 October 2018. Please send your expression of interest via email to Croquet Australia by August 6 2018.

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact ACA EO Rob Murray.

Reminder that expressions of interest close on Sunday the 22nd of July for the WCF GC Women's World Championships. Please send your expression of interest via email to Croquet Australia.

Several potential breaches of the Australian Croquet Association (ACA) Code of Behaviour have come to the attention of the ACA Board.
The Board considers that all participants in the Sport of Croquet should be reminded of their agreement to abide with the Code of Behaviour. The Code of Behaviour, as part of the Member Protection Policy is there to allow all participants to enjoy participation without being subject to duress.

In particular, the following points from the Member Protection Policy are relevant –

Code of Behaviour The ACA requires every individual and organisation bound by this policy to: B1: 1 Respect the rights, dignity and worth of others. B1: 2 Be fair, considerate and honest in all dealings with others. B2: 1 Respect the rights, dignity and worth of other players, coaches, officials and spectators.

ACA encourages all members to read the Code of Behaviour which can be found on the ACA website under the Member Protection Policy. The ACA will be less tolerant with breaches of this Policy in the future.

Regards

ACA Board

ACA is accepting expressions of interests for the WCF GC Women's World Championships to be held at Heretaunga and Marewa Croquet Clubs in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand from Saturday, 2 February to Saturday, 9 February 2019. Please send your expression of interest via email to Croquet Australia by July 22 2018.

Currently there is a vacancy on the Australian Croquet Association Board. In order to fill the vacant Director role, the Board would like to call for nominations from any interested individual.

Nominations for this role must be submitted in writing, briefly highlighting the applicant’s skills and experience. Nominations can only be submitted by financial members of a State Croquet Association and the nominator must be an official of a State Association.

All nominations must be sent to the Executive Officer, Rob Murray [email protected] by no later than Friday 8th June 2018.

UPDATE ON ENTRY FEES AND TOURNAMENT PRIZE MONEY Executive Officer – Rob Murray

Tuesday, May 22, 2018 – Following the recent Association Croquet Australian Championships in Adelaide, ACA has received several complaints regarding both the increase in entry fees as well as the removal of all prize money to the winners of these tournaments. Back in December last year the ACA board made the decision to increase the entry fees for all ACA sanctioned tournaments and remove all prize money. This decision was not made lightly and was purely the result of budget constraints. The removal of prize money is only meant to be a temporary change until sponsorship can be sourced for these events.

These budget items were discussed in detail at the AGM and were accepted by all State Delegates. Changes were made to the tournament entry conditions by removal of the normal advertisement regarding prize money being offered. However, ACA accepts that these changes to the event could have been better communicated to members, officers, committees and players. Notwithstanding this, ACA believes that the flier advertising the Events was sufficient advice of this change.

In the future ACA will endeavour to communicate these types of issues more thoroughly to its members, players and tournament management through the website and social media.

Any further queries regarding this matter should be directed to Executive Officer, Rob Murray at [email protected] or 0457 678 380

The Events program for the Australian Golf Croquet Championships is now available by clicking on the Program link.

Events include - 9th Golf Croquet Open Doubles Championship of Australia - 20th Golf Croquet Open Singles Championship of Australia

If you have any issues downloading the program please email ACA office directly for a copy.

Trans Tasman Report: Test 3.

On day 4, Australia had won the Series 2-0, but the New Zealanders were playing well, and with only a 7-5 loss in the Second Test, had the potential to take the Third and dash Australia’s hopes of running away with the Series 3-0.

As it turned out, the final Test was a long and arduous battle, despite the Aussies starting well. At the end of the doubles, the match score was 2 all (7 needed for a Test win), with 8 singles matches still to be contested, which kept the result in doubt until the very end.

As the final day progressed, Australia took a 6-4 lead, meaning that the Test would be at least a draw, but, with two matches to go, event management chose to dissuade players in one of the them from playing a 3rd game in a best of 3 – an odd decision, as a NZ victory in the one continuing match would have resulted in an AUS lead of 6-5, and an unresolved Third Test. Thankfully, Australian Alison Sharpe won the continuing match, to make it a 7-4 win, and 3-0 Series victory for Australia, a marvellous effort given the high quality of the NZ opposition. Both the Australian and New Zealand teams faced difficulties both on and off court, but players showed real sportsmanship and unity to overcome all obstacles, and this, regardless of all else, made the Series a genuinely enjoyable one for all of the players.

Overall, Australia won with a match score of 3-0, winning 23 matches to 12, 52 games to 35, and 1658 hoops to 1356. Australian Malcolm Fletcher also took home the Player of the Series trophy, making it a resounding victory over our Trans Tasman friends.

Callum Hyland (Australian Team Manager)

The Over 50 GC Worlds in Cairo in October 2018 is limited to a maximum of 48 players. A total of 36 Ranking Places (including Wild Cards) were available, determined by the highest maximum grade achieved by players in the 12 months ending 15 April 2018.
Australia nominated 7 players for Ranking Places. WCF announced the 36 Ranking Places on 29 April 2018; and Peter Landrebe, Brett McHardy & David Hanbidge have been awarded places Over 50 GC Worlds. In addition Australia has 2 Member Places, and will be nominating these before the Closing Date of 27 May 2018.