Nigel Matthews (Bowdon) and David Cornes (Crake Valley) have both accepted invitations to join the 2023/24 GC International Development Squad. With a maximum of 8 players selected each year it is a credit to the Federation that the North West’s improving talent has, at last, been recognised. Both players are relatively new to the game and will join up with the squad for its first session at Wrest Park in April.

The selection criteria for the Development Squad is players must have the POTENTIAL to progress to Elite Status and play at International Level. 

David has been playing competitively since 2018 and is well known on the GC circuit; winning tournaments in East Dorset, Budleigh Salterton as well as locally at Bury, Pendle and Crake. In September 2022 he was runner-up (losing 6-7, 7-6, 6-7) in the A level National Finals at Wrest Park. David’s GC handicap is -1, his AC handicap has improved to 8 after playing more of this format since 2022.  

Nigel first picked up a mallet in 2019 playing AC and was in the Bowdon Short Lawn Team that won the national knockout later that year. His current AC handicap is 0. Nigel’s GC career started in September 2021 when he was asked to make the numbers up in Bowdon’s National interclub finals team. Since this “baptism of fire”, Nigel (GC handicap 0) has developed a strong playing record in the NW League and Internal Competitions.

Both players aim to advance both their GC and AC skills and welcome this amazing opportunity. They are looking forward to attending the squad weekends and playing in tournaments during the coming season.

A nice email to receive from someone making use of our site:

“I would just like to say a quick word of thanks! I’ve been able to get some great use out of your Federation’s Croquet resource links list as a youth services librarian while I’ve been running a fun project on the game of croquet for a small group of students over the last few weeks before the holiday break – thanks so much for sharing with us!  croquetnw.co.uk/croquet-favourite-links/

I hope you don’t mind, one of our youngest, Amelia has also asked me if I could share a piece that she and her mother found together on A Beginner’s Guide to Learning to Play Croquet, which includes a great breakdown on the history and origins of the game, equipment, rules, scoring, etc. I’ve included it below if you’d like to review!

We noticed you don’t have this one listed, but Amelia was actually the one to bring up that this could be something you might like to include for other students and families who may also have an interest in learning how to play, like our group!

If you find you are able to include her suggestion, would you please let me know? We’re meeting tomorrow for the first time since the holiday break, and I would absolutely love to surprise Amelia and the group if you’re able to do so – I’m hoping to keep spirits up in light of the last few year’s challenges and I think it would make her proud to see she was able to pay it forward and maybe even show her mother her contribution if it ends up being included!

Thanks again for all your help here

Chloe Pedersen

https://www.playgroundequipment.com/a-beginners-guide-to-learning-to-play-croquet/“

We have added the link you found Amelia, thank you for getting it to us