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Croquet Associations Charity One-ball Competition

12 April, 2023 | 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm

We are planning to hold a heat of the Croquet Associations Charity One-ball Competition on the Wednesday 12th April starting at noon. Whilst this is a national competition (and there’s an opportunity to go to a national final if you want), its really a chance to get people together, raise some money for charity and have a fun day.

One ball is an easy game to learn designed to be played by players of both Association Croquet and Golf Croquet, with each game taking about 30 minutes.

Every year at the start of the season the Croquet Association holds a national One-ball competition with heats at club level. Depending on the amount of money raised each club can send one or more people to the national finals. This year the finals are being held at Nottingham (6th May) and Surbiton (7th May). The precise format of the competition will depend on the number of people who enter, but it’s likely to involve playing ~3 games in blocks, with the winners of the blocks playing a knock out (a further 2-3 games) to determine a champion. The champion will get the first opportunity to attend the finals but if they don’t want to go (or we raise lots of money!) there will be opportunities for others to attend the finals.

Each game of one ball involves two people each with one ball (hence the name). It is essentially a race to go through 12 hoops and hit the peg with your ball. Most shots tend to be positional shots or running hoops (as in Golf Croquet) but if you hit your opponent’s ball you can take a croquet shot where you put the two balls together and move both balls (as in Association Croquet). It’s the game that we played at the Thatched Roof fund raising day last year. You don’t need to understand how to play in advance as we’ll explain everything on the day but if you’re interested there’s a good introduction at http://www.oxfordcroquet.com/coach/oneball/index.asp or there’s a video explain the rules for Golf Croquet players (which also works for Association Croquet players) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fD39v9lLO9g – the video also contains a demonstration game if you want to see it in action.

The game is played using handicaps so everyone has a chance of winning.

This year’s charity is UNHCR, the UK arm of the United Nations Refugee Agency (www.unrefugees.org.uk), who have a lot on their plate at the moment. Most of their work was being concentrated on helping refugees from Ukraine until the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria led to an even bigger call on their services and funds. There is no entry fee for the competition, but a donation of £10 is suggested (some clubs get very competitive about the amount they raise!). Donations are welcome even if you’re not taking part. Gift Aid forms are available if you’d like to get the government to top up the donation. The ‘house colour’ for the charity is the UN’s ubiquitous sky blue and so all participants are encouraged to wear something in this colour.

If you have more questions or want to enter please contact Stephen Mills (stephen@smills.co.uk), or Richard (richard.everett.croquet@gmail.com). Early indications of your intention to enter would be very welcome (so we can get an idea of numbers and hence competition format). Cut off for entries is 10th April (Easter Monday).

Sign up sheets are up on our croquet board now as well!

Details

Date:
12 April, 2023
Time:
12:00 pm - 4:00 pm

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