The largest GC nations (EGY, ENG, USA, NZE, and AUS) each have a seat on the WCF GC Rules Committee.  The other Full Members of the WCF get to choose a 6th member of the GC RC.

After Garth Beresford (SAF) had to stand down, we recently called for nominations for this role.  Georg Dej from Canada was nominated, and no others were received.

Accordingly, I declare Georg Dej elected unopposed.  Congratulations Georg!

Martin French

Secretary-General

WCF webmaster

The WCF is seeking a webmaster, with the necessary skills and experience to maintain and onward-develop the WCF’s new Joomla-based website. 

As well as settling-in and refining the new website, there is scope to introduce a number of add-ins to provide additional functionality.  Examples include:

·                                Some communities capability, so that players may log-in and upload/ maintain their biographies and photos

·                                Some forms capability so people may nominate Hall of Fame candidates

·                                A survey/ feedback capability so players can give their feedback from championships and players can contribute their views on draft rule changes.

The new site is written using the Joomla Content Management System.  Knowledge and experience should include this or similar CMS tools, best practice security and privacy standards, and HTML standards including meta-data.  The role includes liaising, on behalf of the WCF Management Committee, with the service provider.

The position attracts a small honorarium – amount to be discussed.

A more detailed job description may be seen at:

http://www.wcfcroquet.org/WebMasterJD.pdf

Martin French

Secretary-General

For some time, the MC has been working on a complete re-write of the Sports Regs, the Event Regs and our other major documents.  This is largely complete but it will still take a few months to complete the final revisions and approvals stage.

In the meantime, we have produced an additional appendix that covers the order of play within Blocks (to ensure greater fairness) and have updated two of the other appendices to correct problems that have arisen or been pointed-out in player feedback.  Rather than wait until the completely re-written Sports Regs are available later this year, we have decided to add these improved appendices to the existing Sports Regs so that they can be used at Adelaide in the forthcoming AC World Championship.  This new version - v7.3 - is intended to be a final interim version before the re-written regulations are published later this year.  They are now on-line at

http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Regulations/WCFSportsRegulations.pdf

All the changes from v7.2 are shown by RED text in v7.3, and summarised on page 1 of v7.3, so it is easy to see what has changed.  Thanks.

Martin French

Secretary-General

I have put up a very simple web page for the GC WTC this November/ December at:

http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Tournaments/gcwtc2012.html.

South Africa has already got a web site running with information on the event, venues, accommodation etc. for the First Division which they are hosting - see:

http://www.gcwtcroquet.co.za/

Details for the Second Division in Cairo will follow later, as soon as we have finalised them.

Martin French

Secretary-General

16 entries were received by the closing date yesterday for the first ever GC WTC.

The 1st Division will play in Jo'burg from 26th November to 2nd December 2012, and will feature teams from Egypt, England, New Zealand, USA, South Africa, Ireland, Australia, and Sweden. 

The 2nd Division will play in Cairo, starting on 9th December with teams from Wales, Germany, Scotland, Norway, Czech Republic, Belgium, Spain, Latvia.

More details of both divisions will emerge over the coming months.  The GC World Team Rankings have also been updated and are the basis on which teams have been placed in the two divisions - see

http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Rankings/teamranking.php .

Martin French

Secretary-General.

Last year, the WCF completed a review of how the AC world rankings were calculated, and changed to the new Dynamic Grade (DG) system.  We have today kicked off a similar six month study of the GC world ranking system.  Its scope includes:

1. assessing the existing CGS system

2. how should an ideal system handle rapid improvers and sporadic players?

3. considering whether DG might also be suitable for GC

4. looking at issues such as lag, class factors, and how new players enter the system

5. making it easier for countries to enter their own data.

James Hopgood has kindly agreed to lead this study, ably assisted by Paul Billings, Stephen Mulliner, Chris Clarke, Louis Nel and Ian Burridge.  We have suggested a 6 month timebox for the study, with the outcome a recommendation that can be put to WCF Council.

In parallel, we're going to run a smaller study looking at how the AC and GC ranking data should be presented to and accessed by players the world over.  The goal is to find a consistent and user-friendly approach - more details shortly.

Martin French

Secretary-General

The Portuguese Croquet Federation has today been welcomed into the WCF as a new Observer Member.  Founded in June 2010, the PCF is based at a Country Club in the Algarve - see

 http://www.portugalcroquetfederation.com/

We wish them well in their development of the sport in Portugal.

Martin French

Secretary-General

In the early days of the WCF, a “WCF Friends” programme ran, through which many people around the world subscribed and helped put the WCF on a firm financial footing.  Our President, Amir Ramsis, is keen to recognise their contribution and has arranged with the Ripon Spa Hotel in England to stage a special tournament for WCF Friends.

I would appreciate Members’ help in advertising this event to WCF Friends within each country.  The list of WCF Friends is at

 http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Home/wcffriends.php.

The tournament will run from Friday 29^th June until Sunday 1^st July, using the 3 lawns at Ripon Spa Hotel http://www.riponspa.com/croquet.php.  The event will be managed by Evelyn Martin.  The price for three nights full board accommodation at the hotel and croquet entry fee is £319.  There are 16 places available, on a first come, first served basis.  Please contact the Secretary-General to reserve a place.

Martin French

Secretary-General

I'm sorry to learn that Bill Berne passed away after a short illness on 22nd January 2012.

Bill was Treasurer of the WCF from 1994 to 1997, and President from 1997 to 1999.

Our best wishes to his family and many friends.

Martin French

Secretary-General

Recently, Council approved new versions of the Admin Regs, the Finance Regs and the Equipment Regs.  These are now all available on-line at:

http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Regulations/regulationhome.php

Martin French

Secertary-General

The full results table for the November 2011 Women's GCWC has now been obtained from the CNZ site and is now available on the "Results and Media" tab here:

http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Tournaments/WWGC2011.html

Apologies for it taking a while to locate a full copy.

Martin French

Secretary-General

A few years ago, the CA made some very useful 8,000 frames per second close-up videos of various croquet and single-ball strokes.  The aim was to understand better what happens in e.g. tight angled hoop shots, or potential double-taps.  The WCF was asked to host these some time ago, but the 2.7Gb of videos made them very, very slow to use.

I am very grateful to Duncan Hector, who has kindly now compressed all these videos and editted them together, so that the overall film of the testing is interleaved with the specific slo-mo shots of each stroke. The result is a 15 minute film on YouTube. There is also an accompanying Word report which explains each outcome and judges them as faults or clean. 

Go to our video page:

http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Organisation/video.html,

...click on the Coaching tab, then see "Refereeing" to find the film and the report.

Martin French

Secretary-General

I am pleased to announce that the first Women's ACWC will be held from 21st to 28th October 2012, at the Victorian Croquet Centre (VCC) at Cairnlea, a suburb of Melbourne in Australia.

Registration and practice will take place on 20th October and a Qualifying Event will be held, if necessary, on 18th & 19th October. 

First details of the inaugural GC World Team Championship (WTC) are announced today.  The event will be open to teams of 4, in two divisions.  The 1st Division will compete in Jo'burg, South Africa, from 26th November until 2nd December 2012.  The 2nd Division will be held in Cairo starting on 9th December 2012.  Details of the format and duration of the 2nd Division will be announced once the number of teams competing is known.  WCF Members have been asked to submit an entry for the GC WTC by 29th February 2012.

Also today, we have published the outcome of our calls for bids to hold future events.  It will take some months of discussions to turn all the new expressions of interest into firm bids, so the details are somewhat provisional at this stage.  I have added a new link on our home page http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Tournaments/WCF10YearSchedule_Dec11.pdf to the initial plan which we will update as bids are finalised.  I hope we'll be able to publish this in a more interactive form once our new website is ready.

Martin French

Secretary-General

The ballot on the 11th Edition Statutes, which incorporate the changes necessary for the 2 year trial of the new email-based Council decision process, has been approved by 16 votes FOR and none AGAINST.  Accordingly, the trial will commence on 1st January 2012.

The results of this - and several other recent ballots including the Presidential election - are shown in the Scrutineers Report at http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Organisation/WCFElection2011.pdf

Martin French

Secretary-General

The team rankings have been updated as at the start of December.   The Top 4 are shown on our home page, while the full rankings lists are shown here http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Rankings/teamranking.php

In Golf Croquet, New Zealand and Australia have swapped places in the top 4 though remain very close.  Ireland has risen from 8^th to 6^th, no doubt due to their fine showing in July’s GCWC.  Wales and the Czech Republic have both gained 4 places to 10^th and 11^th respectively.

In Association Croquet, the top places are unchanged – though the gaps between the top 4 are closing up significantly.  Wales and Ireland have swapped places at places 6 and 5 respectively.  Austria has shot up to 9^th from 15^th, because it now has 6 players in the ranking system (and all countries with 6 or more players are ranked above those with fewer than 6).  South Africa has dropped out the team rankings as they don’t currently have enough players with a recent AC history in the ranking system.

We hope to have news on the 2012 GC World Team Championships shortly, which is what reminded me to do this update!

Martin French

Secretary-General

Rachel Rowe of England today won the 4th WCF Women's Golf Croquet World Championship at the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.

In a tight match she defeated Jenny Clarke of New Zealand by 3 games to 2 (7-3, 5-7, 5-7, 7-6, 7-5).

The strong international field saw 4 different nationalities reach the semi-finals, with Rosie Graham (Australia) and Marwa Moustafa (Egypt) as the other semi-finalists.

Congratulations to Rachel on her fine win, and the WCF's thanks to Croquet New Zealand, the clubs of the Bay of Plenty and the local organisers for staging a very successful event.

Martin French

Secretary-General

Following requests from the organising committee, the MC has considered and approved the following detailed changes from the original arrangements:

1. Instead of a single Flexible Swiss used as consolation event, the following formats will be used:

·      For the Plate event the organising committee will use single matches played in two or four sections followed by semi-finals and final.  This will be an optional event for the 24 players who do not qualify for the Knock Out.  The actual format used and block sizes drawn will depend upon the number of players who choose to enter the Plate.

·      For the 16 players who lose in the 1st round of the KO there will be another consolation event, the exact format of which will depend on the numbers entering.

·      For the 8 players knocked out of the 2nd round, any who wish to play further games will be obliged as best meets the need.

·      For the 4 players knocked out in the 3rd round there will be no further organised play.

2. The main KO will be Best of 5 from the Semi-Finals and Final.

3. Block position play-offs may be single games.

4. The KO draw will be simplified by not incorporating adjustments to give “same country separation” and “same block separation” – these updates were in consultations with WCF Members earlier in 2011 but have not yet been formally incorporated into the latest versions of the regulations.

We apologise for late notification of these changes.

Martin French

Secretary-General

The Admin Regs have been completely rewritten, and now contain all the detail the MC agreed in the past year on how it now operates.

Version 4 comes into effect immediately and is at:

http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Regulations/WCFAdminRegulationsv4.pdf

Comments are always welcome.  We will put this new version to Council for formal ratification early in 2012.

Martin French

Secretary-General

While we all hope to avoid using time limits whenever possible, the WCF Sports Regulations cover what to do when they are unavoidable.  A flaw in the logic was discovered which could have led to later games in a Best of 3 or 5 GC match having a time limit of less than 30 minutes in some circumstances.  Regulation 16.2.3.2 has been amended to correct this error. 

A new "dot release" of the Sports Regs that includes this correction, version 7.2, is available now at

http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Regulations/WCFSportsRegulationsv7_2.pdf

Martin French

Secretary-General

Nominations have now closed and voting papers have been sent out to Members for the Presidential elections.  The two candidates are Amir Ramsis Naguib and Stephen Mulliner - both existing MC members and well-known to the croquet community around the world.  Full Members must vote by 24th November.

Details of the voting process and candidates manifestos can be found by going to:

http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Organisation/managementcommittee.htm then clicking on "WCF Committee Elections" tab.

For the Management Committee itself, there were 4 candidates for 4 vacancies, so the following are all duly appointed for a new term from 1st January 2012: Keith Aiton, Gordon Smith, Michael Orgill and Chris Wakeham.  Their manifestos can also be found at the above link.

Congratulations to Mike and Chris who join the MC for the first time.

Martin French

Secretary-General

We are very sorry to report the passing of Ahmed Hamroush today, at the age of 88.  Mr Hamroush was the President of the Egyptian Croquet Federation for over 25 years and also served as a member of the WCF Management Committee between 1999 and 2003.

Mr. Hamroush gave great service to his country and to Egyptian and World croquet.  He will be missed.

Martin French

Secretary-General

Due to some problems at recent WCF events, we have improved the explanation of how to resolve ties, by making a "dot release" of the Sports Regulations.  New text for clauses 1.6.3ff in Appendix C can be seen in the new version 7.1 of the Sports Regs available from http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Regulations/WCFSportsRegulationsv7_1.doc.

This new version should be used forthwith.

Martin French

Secretary-General

All WCF Members should have received today the 11th Edition of the Statutes.  A recent Members' consultation on Draft D raised a number of small corrections which have been applied to Draft F - the subject of the vote.

Full Members must return their postal vote to the S-G by Sunday 11th December 2011.

Martin French

Secretary-General

The WCF Ranking Review Committee has identified that the on-line DG World Ranking system for Association Croquet has inadvertently used an incorrect parameter in the code.  In the DG formula (see p3 of http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Council_2011/RankingSystemChange.pdf) of

    M = 16 + (19.2 * PDT * PDT)/(1 + (PDT * PDT))

.... the minimum Modulator parameter 16 had inadvertently been given the value of the initial Modulator parameter (24).

This error has made the published values for DG rather more volatile than intended.  Several people who were thought over the past few days to have briefly reached "World Number 1" in recent years, turn out not to have done so (yet), once the correct parameter is used.  We are very sorry for any disappointment this may have caused.  The corrected version will be introduced immediately.

We would like to apologise for this error.

Martin French                      Jonathan Kirby
Secretary-General               Ranking Review Committee Chairman

Three members of the WCF Management Committee (MC) retire by rotation this December and an election will be held for those positions. Also required is an election for the role of President. 

Nominations are invited from Member associations for these posts by 22nd October 2011.

Following the recent terrible murder of WCF President Charles Jones QSM JP when on holiday in Thailand, the WCF has appointed Amir Ramsis of Egypt as the WCF Acting President.

Amir is Vice-President of the Egyptian Croquet Federation and has served on the WCF Management Committee since 2003.

The election for a new WCF President, along with other posts on the Management Committee, will take place during November/ December with the successful candidates taking up their posts on 1^st January 2012.

The Management Committee thank Amir for stepping in to act as President and fully support him in this role.

Martin French

Secretary-General

From the World Croquet Federation Management Committee:

Charles was elected to the WCF Presidency in December 2009 and, until his recent and tragic passing, it was generally assumed that he would have been encouraged to seek re-election for a second four year term in December 2013.  He was an active President, both in his travels to croquet playing countries all over the world and in his participation in and guidance of WCF Management Committee meetings.  He was a strong supporter of the weekly internet telephone committee conferences that were established in November 2010.  His forthright, honest and often colourful contributions to these discussions and to the vigorous e-mail traffic generated by his Management Committee colleagues played a significant part in energising the work of the committee.  He deserves much of the credit for the significant improvement in the relationship between the Management Committee and the larger WCF member countries over the last year.

Charles was excellent company and all of us who were privileged to work with him regarded him as a good friend.  It was always a pleasure to meet him at croquet events and he could be relied upon to be an interesting and effective communicator, whether in private conversation or when addressing a larger gathering.  His speeches at the 2010 MacRobertson Shield opening function and at the recent Golf Croquet World Championship were typical, conveying an effective message while full of interesting anecdotes and ensuring that all those who deserved thanks were appropriately recognised and honoured.   He was always willing to shoulder managerial and administrative burdens and it is typical of the man that he volunteered to manage the Plate event at the recent Golf Worlds.  It was not a trivial task but he discharged it with his customary efficiency.

Charles will be very greatly missed and the world of croquet is significantly poorer for his loss.

WCF MC

I am very sorry to say that Charles Jones, the WCF President, has been murdered while on holiday in Thailand.

It seems robbers broke into his apartment and he was killed when he refused to open the apartment safe.

Our condolances to his family and many croquet playing friends around the world who will be shocked by this terrible event.

Martin French

Secretary-General

The Egyptian Croquet Federation would like to advise WCF Members:

The Cairo International open for Golf Croquet is open for registration. The event will start from 1 October till 6 October, and will be played under WCF rules and with Dawson 2000 balls.

Mass Travel Ltd will arrange for hotel reservations and transfers in and out plus any land services players may need.

Entrants so far include:

Len Canavan; David Openshaw; Stephen Mulliner; Sherif Abdelwahab;  Evan Newell

...plus the Egyptian Ladies Team of 8 players who will play in New Zealand in November in the WCF Women's GC World Championship.  Add to that:

Ahmed Nasr                   World champion twice;

Hisham Abou osbaa     Over 50s world champion and second place in the last world championship;

Moustafa Nezar           Under 21 world champion.

A total of 24 players will be divided into 4 groups.  Play will start at 1pm and continue under floodlights.  There will be referees for each match plus scorer and ball boys always.

If you wish to enter, contact Amir on amirramsis@link.net

Martin French

Secretary-General

I am delighted to announce that the 2011 inductees to the WCF Hall of Fame are:

Congratulations to Mark McInerney from Ireland who yesterday became the first player not from Egypt to win the Golf Croquet World Championship.

Mark, a wild card entry who has twice before reached the semi-finals, played brilliantly all week.  In the course of winning the title, he had to beat the 2004, 2006 and 2008 champions.

Mark beat Hisham Aboesbaa (EGY) in the final - Hisham wins a WCF silver medal.  WCF bronze medals were received by the two other semi-finalists: Ahmed Nasr (EGY) and Hamish McIntosh (NZ).

Ben Rothman (USA) won the Plate event.

Congratulations to Mark, Hisham, Ahmed, Hamish and Ben.

The WCF would like to thank the Hurlingham Club and Surbiton Croquet Club for staging such an excellent event, and John Spiers and Tim King for arranging and managing this complex event so well.  Finally, congratulations to the 64 competitors from 18 countries who took part.

Martin French

Secretary-General

In case you are looking for the link to the two event sites with the results for the Under21s or the GCWC, here they are:

Under 21s:  http://www.gcworlds2011.org/u21

GC World Championship: http://www.gcworlds2011.org/results

Martin French

Secretary-General

The responses from Members to the consultation on format options for the Golf Croquet World Team Championship are now available on-line at http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Organisation/wcfconsultations.htm

Martin French

Secretary-General

All the papers for the July 17th Council Meeting, to be held at Surbiton Croquet Club in South West London, are available on-line now at http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Council_2011/CouncilPapers.php

Martin French

Secretary-General

1. WCF Council Meeting - Sunday 17th July

Please let the S-G know by 17th June at the latest the names of your delegates or representatives (including any possible substitutes) who will be attending the Council meeting this July.  (Statute 110.2 requires a Member to advise 30 days in advance the name(s) of those empowered to vote on their behalf.)

The meeting starts at 1pm and there will be a lunch provided at 12noon.  Please let the S-G know by 17th June who will be having lunch and any dietary preferences/ restrictions.

 2. Entries and wild cards for Women's GCWC - November 2011

The closing date for entries for Members' allocated places is 30th June.  Wild card nominations must also be sent by 30th June.

 3. Nominations for WCF Hall of Fame

Nominations for this year's inductees into the Hall of Fame also close on 30th June.  Go to http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Halloffame/index.php to nominate someone.

Martin French

Secretary-General

Due to high demand, the WCF Management Committee has agreed with the GCWC Event Organising Committee to expand the Qualifier from a capacity of 16 to 32 entrants.  It will take place on Friday 15th and Saturday 16th July 2011.  To gain the extra capacity, the existing planned event at Roehampton has been supplemented with a parallel event at Surbiton.  The top two qualifiers at each venue will advance to the GCWC itself, which will start on Monday 18th July at Hurlingham and Surbiton.
 
Please note that we have identified that two different closing dates for this Qualifier have been published in the earlier communications from the WCF, CA and the event web site.  I now give notice that the official closing date for this event will be 6th May 2011.
 
After 6th May, any late withdrawals from the GCWC will be filled by increasing the number of players from the Qualifier who advance to the GCWC.

Martin French

Secretary-General

All 8 of the invited wildcards had accepted their places by Thursday 14th April 2011, so we can now declare the 14th April 2011 as the Wild Card Closing Date (as given in the Sports Regulations Appendix A).

The significance of passing this milestone is only that it affects how any later withdrawals are filled.

Martin French

Secretary-General

I was interviewed by Bob Alman for Croquet World Online recently, which gave me an opportunity to explain what we are trying to do in the WCF and Management Committee at the moment.  It also gave a chance to describe the thinking behind the two large consultations on 10 Year Schedule and Improving Decision-Making. 

You can see the full interview at

http://www.croquetworld.com/News/french.asp

I'm always happy to receive comments.

Martin French

Secretary-General

The wild cards for the July 2011 Golf Croquet World Championship in London, England, have been announced:

Howard Cheyne, ENG
Marcus Evans, ENG
Ian Lines, ENG
Simon Carter, ENG
Mark McInerney, IRE
John van der Touw, AUS
Mike Jenner, AUS
Nelson Morrow, NZE

Choosing 8 from the 38 nominations has been very difficult, particularly because after the highest 5 in the World Rankings had been selected, the next half dozen nominations all had very similar rankings.  I'm sorry that some people will inevitably be disappointed. 

Martin French

Secretary-General

The World Team Rakings have been updated with the latest GC and AC ranking data.

The WCF home page shows the top 4 teams, with a link to the full team rankings at http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Rankings/teamranking.php

Martin French

Secretary-General

I am very pleased to announce that James Hawkins has accepted the role of WCF webmaster, and over the coming months will be completely re-vamping our website.  Continue to let me know of any problems with the existing site.  Thanks.

Martin French

Secretary-General

There are now a set of web pages with information about the July 2011 Under 21 Golf Croquet World Championship, under the "2011 Championships" tab on the WCF home page.

Martin French

Secretary-General

I am pleased to announce that the WCF has accepted an offer from the Croquet Association to hold the Under 21 Golf Croquet World Championship at the Hunstanton Croquet Club in England, the week before the WCF Golf Croquet World Championship in London.  Play will be over 4 days, from Tuesday 12th to Friday 15th July.

The entry fee for this event is £0 and the field will be limited to 24 players. Members are invited to nominate players in order of merit to play in the event by 11^th March 2011, at which point an allocation of places will be made.  The WCF will select the 24 entrants from the nominations, following the principles established in the Sports Regulations as far as this is practical for a 24 player event.

Hunstanton is on the Norfolk Coast, about 2 hours north of London and accessible by train and bus - the club has 5 good lawns, and being a seaside town, there is a good range of accommodation available locally.  It is a small enough town to be able to walk easily between the croquet club, the beach, restaurants, shops and much of the accommodation.

Martin French

Secretary-General

The WCF is seeking a webmaster, with the necessary skills and experience to specify, design, build and maintain a new website.  The existing site shows the range and complexity of the information the WCF needs to publish, and has served us well – but it is about time to revisit the design and structure to produce an updated site.

The current site is written in PHP, updated using DreamWeaver (or similar).  Knowledge and experience should include these or similar web tools, content management systems, best practice security and privacy standards, and HTML standards including meta-data.  The role includes liaising, on behalf of the WCF Management Committee, with the service provider.

The position attracts an honorarium of 250GBP per annum plus a one-off 500GBP for the successful launch of the replacement site.

More details can be found at http://www.wcfcroquet.org/WCF%20Webmaster.pdf

Martin French

Secretary-General

The World Team Rankings have now been updated on the website - thanks to Chris Clarke for providing the data.  See http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Rankings/teamranking.php for the full rankings, and an extract covering the top 4 teams in AC and GC is shown on the home page.

Martin French

Secretary-General

The WCF Golf Croquet Rules Committee has discussed several possible new Official Rulings to add to those already issued, and has agreed new rulings for Rule 9.  All current Official Rulings can be found in our Game Rules area:

http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Rules/WCF_Golf_Croquet_Rules_2007.htm

Martin French

Secretary-General

Nominations have opened for 2011 candidates for the WCF Hall of Fame.

See http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Halloffame/hoff.htm for existing people inducted into the Croquet Hall of Fame, along with the form for making new nominations.  Unsuccessful candidates from 2010 are carried forward, so don't need to be nominated again.

Nominations close on 30th June.

Martin French

Secretary-General

I am pleased to report that the WCF website has been fully restored after the problems caused by the attack on our service provider a week ago.  I'd like to thank Brian Storey for the many hours he has put into making the News facility work again.

If you find any odd corners of the website that don't work properly, please let me know.

Martin French

Secretary-General