[<<] [>>] by Phil Cordingley
19th March 2006 (CqE Official News)

Please note that these details have not yet been approved by the visiting teams so should be considered as draft for information

The MacRobertson Shield will take place at the Rich River Croquet Club (part of the Rich River Golf Club Resort at Moama/Echuca), and at Shepparton Croquet Club. The facilities at each venue are:

Rich River

4 croquet lawns

1 bowling green lawn

1 lawn now being upgrade; the lawn is at the rear of the Croquet Club House, at the moment it is considerably better than the 1993 lawns and work will continue to upgrade it further.

Shepparton Croquet Club

3 croquet lawns

Accommodation

The Rich River Resort facilities are heavily booked at weekends and it is not possible to provide, at the Resort, accommodation for the full duration of the event. The Australian contingent will not be staying there.

However the Moama/Echuca area has a large number of rooms available across a spectrum of prices.

Ann Crow, Croquet Australia's Events Manager, is prepared to assist with accommodation arrangements. Ann lives in Echuca and is a member of the Rich River Croquet Club. Ann's email address is:

crowcroq#bigpond.com

Venue Facilities

The Rich River Resort will provide similar facilities to those provided in 1993. We expect to provide a buffet style lunch. We will conduct the formal dinner and the presentation/farewell function at the Resort.

Meal arrangements will be finalised shortly, however, players' partners/children and officials of visiting National Croquet Associations will be able to enjoy a buffet-style lunch meal at the location.

Transport between Venues

For those players travelling to Shepparton to play we would look to provide transport to and from Shepparton. It is expected that doubles will be played at Shepparton on two days of each test match.

Administrative Team

Tournament Officials are:

Travel Arrangements

Melbourne is the closest entry port. Travel from Melbourne to Echuca is either by road (bus or car) or rail.

Australian Open/Practise Matches

The Australian Open Singles and Doubles Championships will be conducted in Sydney from 4 to 12 November. The format for the Open is blocks of 8, with 32 proceeding to the best of three knock-out. The WCF Seeding Committee draw is used. The Doubles is blocks of 8 with a single life knockout. If any players would like to play in these events please let me know, before the 15 September 2006.

Tournament Format

The two venues provide a 9 lawn complex. We propose to conduct the event using a similar format to Florida and as follows: