Saturday 13th March 2021 – More People: Pay and Play sessions (Duncan Catterall & Annabel McDiarmid)

Croquet clubs have a unique opportunity to boost their visibility, promote croquet and gain potential members, by opening their doors for public Pay and Play sessions.

CA Marketing & Communications Team encourage you and your club to set up regular Pay and Play sessions, and will offer tips on scheduling and advertising these sessions virtually (the Covid-19 secure way), as well as some thoughts on overseeing public sessions.

• Why run ‘Pay and Play’ sessions; the Pay and Play model
• Managing bookings and taking payments using Eventbrite – practical walkthrough
• Extracting data from Eventbrite for follow-up marketing and membership drives
• Marketing your Pay and Play sessions without spending money – virtual options
• Practical tips for managing and overseeing Pay and Play sessions
• Q&A

Duncan Catterall is the founder of Croquet & Cocktails, a croquet-themed event company with a storming social media presence. An architect at Fosters + Partners with an eye for design, he was previously Events Manager at Academy Music Group, responsible for booking and promoting major music acts across London’s O2 venues. Duncan is a rapid improver, having won the 2020 GC C-Level series, and plays at High Wycombe and Surbiton.

Annabel McDiarmid is the CA’s Commercial Events Manager, coordinating and staffing corporate croquet bookings across the country. A leading female croquet player who has won the AC Women’s Championship and Mixed Doubles Championship, she is a regular on the AC tournament circuit and plays at Woking.

Details: Saturday 13th March 2021, 9:30-11:00am.

Please sign up on Eventbrite by 5pm (BST) on Thursday 11th March to reserve your place.

The webinar will be held on Zoom and broadcast live on YouTube. Meeting details (how to join the webinar) will be shared with registered attendees on Friday 12th March.

The Croquet Association website has a sparkling new look.

Now much easier to navigate and works really well on mobile phgonesand tablets.

Take a look: www.croquet.org.uk

Opening Date for Online Entries Postponed

The opening date for online entries to tournaments or courses (other than virtual ones) has been postponed to at least the end of February, due to the current state of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Traditionally, the calendar has been published on, and online entries accepted from, 1st February, to coincide with delivery of paper fixtures books.  It had already been decided not to print the fixtures calendar this year, because of uncertainty about the Covid-19 pandemic, but it had been intended to stick to the same timetable.  However, it is now looking increasingly unlikely that events early in the season will be able to take place, and it is too soon to be able to predict which ones will be able to proceed. 

Refunding entries for events which have to be cancelled requires significant effort, is error prone and incurs additional transaction costs.  It has therefore been decided not to accept online entries until further notice, which will be no earlier than the end of February.  The situation will be reviewed before then.

We appreciate that many players enjoy planning their season at this time of year.  Due to enhancements to the fixtures calendar system it will still be possible to do so and save a wallet of events to enter once entries are being accepted for them.

Clubs which have events with allocation or closing dates before 15th March will be asked to review them and inform the CA Office whether they want them cancelled, or postponed or retained with allocation and closing dates on or after then.  It is important that all events should have allocation dates specified, so that players know that they can delay entering until then without reducing their chance of their entry being accepted.

The allocation, closing and draw dates for the inter-club competitions have been postponed by a month, to 8th, 8th and 15th of April respectively.

We apologise for the inconvenience that will be caused by this, but are satisfied that it is the best response to these uncertain times.

I trust you have an enjoyable season once it comes. 

Link to online news item.

Best wishes,
Mark Suter
Manager Croquet Association.
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