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North West Honoured with CA Awards

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At the Croquet Association AGM last weekend, the north west gained three awards.

Crake Valley were awarded the Apps-Heley Award for 2021 – this is awarded by the CA every two years to the club with three or four courts that has made most progress at a national or local level in the last two years. The club receives a handsome trophy and £250. Crake have secured much local funding and redeveloped their clubhouse, car park ands lawns. This was reported on this website in March 2021, you can read more at this link: http://www.croquetnw.co.uk/apps-heley-award-for-crake-croquet/ The trophy is now on show in the clubhouse.

CA Diplomas, for outstanding services to clubs and federations over a long period, were awarded to: Margaret Eccles (Bury) and Paul Rigge (North West Federation);

We reported on Paul’s success in May and you can read more details here – http://www.croquetnw.co.uk/paul-rigge-awarded-a-ca-diploma/

The details of Margarets award are as follows:

Margaret had served as our Club’s Secretary for over three years and was due to retire from this post when the Covid Pandemic struck. Since then, she has undertaken ‘101’ additional jobs as well as agreeing to continue as Secretary.  

Her dedication and enthusiasm has kept the Club alive and functioning to the highest possible standards during these difficult times.

 She has worked tirelessly whilst trying to maintain contact with each one of our 70 members on a personal level and help them with their countless worries and needs.  

Government and Bury Council’s stringent conditions needed to be followed at all times so Margaret stepped-up and became our

KEYWORKER and FIRST RESPONDER  
in every sense of the word.

Anything and Everything to do with Club was arranged through her.

Distance – Timings -Locations and Protection became major issues which required careful and thoughtful planning and she stepped up in each case to arrange things.    

She took control of a new on-line Booking system which has proven invaluable in keeping members safe and players limited in number in accord with Government Regulations at both of our Venues at Whitehead Park and Coronation Park.

Due to her love of croquet and her caring welcoming nature, we all became reliant on her to set-up the introduction of all newcomers to the Club which has resulted in a much high intake for this time of year.

Margaret love’s playing both Association and Golf croquet and is Captain of one of our Teams in the North West League, where she is also well respected.

Paul Rigge Awarded a CA Diploma

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Paul Rigge (l) being awarded the CA Diploma by Angharrad Walters (r) Federation Secretary.

Paul Rigge (aka Riggy) Chair of the North west Federation has been awarded a well deserved Diploma by the Croquet Association, for his massive contributions to Croquet.

Paul started his croquet some 24 years ago at Bury Croquet Club.  In 2002 he was involved in setting up the facility at Heaton Park in Manchester and in 2010 was on the team that organised the MacRobertson Shield there, being instrumental in getting television coverage of the event.  In fact he has been a television and radio presence representing the North West Croquet Scene on several occasions. 

He is larger than life character and has had a very positive effect on croquet in the North West in the last 10 years. In 2012 Paul became Secretary of the Federation and served a three year term.  Since 2016 he has been the  Federation Coaching Officer.  His coaching is second to none for beginners, improvers and at an advanced level.  Together with another player he ran the “Advanced Pods” at Bury.  He is willing to travel anywhere to deliver his help and advice to the Federation members.  

In 2017 Paul also volunteered to Chair the Federation, a post he also still holds at present.  In 2019 he visited Stoneyhurst College and helped establish a new croquet club at the school, which is now a member of the Federation. He has constructed and maintained the websites for both Bury and now Pendle.  For many years he has been Team Co-ordinator for the Lancashire team at the Counties.  

He has recently become a very active member of Pendle Croquet Club and despite the Covid crisis has co-ordinated and run no less than 6 competitions in 2020.  10 more competitions are scheduled at Pendle this year – all motivated and co-ordinated by Paul.  

He is active on the Tournament scene representing the North West countrywide.  He works hard for the sport both on and off the lawns.

Great Opportunity for You ???

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The Federation League Manager, Ivan Wheatley, has announced he will not be standing for re-election at the AGM in November. He has fulfilled the role in an excellent manner for the last five years. So now we are looking for a new League Manager for next season, would you, could you, do the job? This is an ideal opportunity for someone to make a real contribution to the work of the Federation and play a major role in developing the competitive side of croquet throughout the North West region.

The League Managers Year at a glance:

Here is the way it works at the moment:
Dec – send out entry forms for the following season and receive them back from Clubs before January.
Jan – devise the fixture lists for the forthcoming season – not as difficult as it sounds because it means basically interchanging the home and away teams from the previous year and making amendments due to new teams entering league or others dropping out.
Feb – send out fixture lists asking clubs to confirm dates or change them in consultation with opponents.
Mar – send out the official fixture list for the season
Apr – manage the league programme by receiving match results from clubs and passing these to the Web Master who keeps the League Tables up to date on the Federation website. As the season progresses you may occasionally have to adjudicate in disputes and make rulings about matches that did not take place on the scheduled dates. You have a set of League Rules to guide you.
Sep – as the league season ends, announce the league winners.
Nov – ensure all trophies are returned to the AGM. Present a report to the AGM on the success of the season and propose any amendments to the League Rules for the following season.

Over time, you may feel that some of the league documentation needs updating, especially the League Rules whenever the CA or WCF announce changes to the Laws. You do not have to be an expert player or have an in-depth knowledge of the Croquet world to do the job! You have a Federation Committee to rely on, so can always request them to propose any necessary changes to Rules, documents, etc.

The Best Job on the Federation Committee!

The role of League Manager is a very satisfying job – you devise a programme and have sole responsibility to manage it through to the end, but with a Committee willing to back you up whenever the need arises. You obviously need an ‘eye for detail’ and good organisational and time management skills. If you have a logical mind and like communicating with people, this is the job for you.

Interested?

Why not have a chat with Ivan Wheatley (07881 581 349), or his predecessor, Tony Thomas (07841 538 676), or the Federation Chair, Paul Rigge (07947 333 236) or indeed anyone on the Fed Committee. You can be assured of great support and advice when sought, indeed, Ivan is very happy to mentor the new manager throughout the first few months in the role.

Willing to have a go?

Just contact Federation Chair Paul Rigge or Federation Secretary Angharad Walters.

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Webmaster – Chris Alvey (webmaster@croquetnw.co.uk)