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

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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.

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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.

CROQUET ASSOCIATION – CHILD SAFEGUARDING (9th February2021)

As we all anticipate the post-Covid return to Croquet this summer, hopefully including recruiting and training more junior players, the CA Council has approved and published a very timely revised and updated ‘Child Safeguarding Policy ‘. This incorporates the comprehensive changes required at all levels of our Sport to improve our ‘Safeguarding’standards for youngsters under 18.

As a first step towards setting up and running the new system:

All Clubs, Federations and Academies must appoint their own Local Safeguarding Officer (Welfare Officer) and register him/her with the CA.

This register will be maintained by our newly appointed National Safeguarding Officer, Dr. Ron Carter, and we have set an implementation date of 1st May 2021 so that it is actively operating for the summer playing season.

A separate Register of CA Members holding a current DBS Enhanced certificate and willing to volunteer their help with juniors will also be maintained.

Please read the attached summary of this Policy, which has links to the CA website where the comprehensive and detailed policy documents are available for reference.

The updated Policy must apply to all croquet related activities in England from the 1st May 2021. This includes everything from club sessions to top class tournaments, and Open Days or other events involving the public. It reflects the requirements placed upon the National Governing Bodies of all sports by UK legislation, Sport England, the NSPCC, and other national organisations to significantly improve safeguarding standards

If your club has an existing child safe-guarding policy then you should review it, taking into account the new CA policy. In particular, you may need to change the contact details of the CA’s National Safeguarding Officer since Jean Hargreaves has now retired from the role. If your club already has a safeguarding (welfare) officer then please send details to Ron Carter as soon as possible.

Ron Carter is available to give advice and to answer questions as they arise. Contact details as listed on the CA Members’ Directory:

Tel: 07973 239319 (email: dr.roncarter@gmail.com)

See the Summary of the Child Safeguarding Policy HERE

Next CA Webinar – Croquet Lawn Care and Maintenance – Sat 30 Jan 9.30

Croquet Association Webinars are a series for CA Members, CA Member Clubs and Federations, to learn and discuss particular topics around croquet administration. We aim to run this on the last Saturday morning of each month.

Recordings of past webinars are available via the Webinars page (member login required).

Have a suggestion for a topic? Wish to present? Email cainfo#croquet.org.uk

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Next Webinar

Saturday 30th January 2021 – Croquet Lawn Care and Maintenance (Duncan Hector and George Noble)

Join us in hearing from Duncan Hector and George Noble – two of the leading experts on croquet lawn care in England.

Potential topics (details tbc):

• General lawn care advice
• Equipment
• Construction of new lawns
• Greenkeepers’ calendar
• Winter play
• Recent advances

Duncan Hector, of Great Dunham Croquet Club, is a lawn care professional advising on more than 90 croquet lawns around the UK. He has worked with the Sports Turf Research Institute on sports turf nutrition, and control of turf diseases and pests, and established two high quality lawns from scratch at Letchworth Croquet Club.

George Noble, Chairman of Surbiton Croquet Club for many years, converted Surbiton’s 7 lawns over the years from rough, sloping, former tennis courts to some of the best in the country. A leading light in instilling a volunteering ethos and always willing to roll up his sleeves, he willingly shares his knowledge via the CA’s Lawn Advisory Group.

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

Please sign up on Eventbrite by 5pm (BST) on Thursday 28th January 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 29th January.

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Past Webinars

Date	Title
31st October 2020	Meet the new CA Executive Board
26th September 2020	Marketing your Club
29th August 2020	A conversation on Diversity and Inclusion in Croquet
25th July 2020	Managing A Croquet Roll-Up/Competition (COVID-19 Edition)
27th June 2020	Recruiting Young Players Over Lockdown
30th May 2020	Court Booking Systems

Want to view a previous webinar? Visit the Webinars page (member login required)