Attention Clubs: Golf Croquet World Championship host required by June 7th!

[<<] [>>] by Ian Vincent
21st May 2003 (CqE Official News)

Due to the withdrawal of the scheduled hosts, the WCF have asked the Croquet Association to consider hosting the 6th Golf Croquet World Championship during 2004.

A Championship Committee has been formed and is looking for a suitable venue(s) before a formal offer is made to the WCF. As the major calendar dates for 2004 are already fixed, the committee felt that the event should be run in combination with the Golf Croquet Open Championship, which is scheduled for 24/27 June 2004, but that the period should be extended to a total of 8 days, 20/27 June, to provide sufficient time given the larger entry.

The event will require, as a minimum, nine lawns of championship standard. Offers from adjacent clubs providing the nine lawns in total will be considered, however distances between the two venues should be relatively small to minimise travel time and costs. The availability of more lawns would be advantageous, either as contingency in the event of bad weather or to accommodate a doubles event.

A major factor that will be taken into account by the committee is the availability of nearby croquet clubs from whom volunteers can be obtained to assist in the running of the championship by providing the referees, scorers and ball boys expected at top level golf croquet events.

The venue must be able to provide a suitable catering service on-site for the whole event, tariff rates to be agreed with the organising committee. Offers based on the normal CA payments for lawn and ball hire for the period of the tournament will be acceptable but the club(s) should be prepared to include without further charge at least five lawns for practice during the two days prior to the tournament and any necessary facilities required during the present season for training new referees and support staff. The host club(s) will also be expected to accommodate all the necessary advertising banners, flags etc that major sponsorship may entail. As a special safety requirement for Golf Croquet, clubs will be required to demonstrate the effectiveness of their ball stops and improve them if necessary.

Although the CA will seek major national sponsorship, the host club(s) will be expected to actively seek local sponsorship, both to generate income for themselves and so that we can improve the facilities provided for players and officials.

Practical organisation of the event will be undertaken by committee(s) whose membership will be largely drawn from members of the host clubs(s), together with some people with specialist expertise appointed by the CA, working under remits and budgets set by the overall organising committee, on which the host club(s) will also be represented. Organisation will be expected to start immediately following confirmation of the acceptance of an offer to host the event.

Due to the late start on this project, clubs willing to host the event are asked to submit a statement of their interest to me by Sat 7 June at the latest. In view of the timescale, this need not be a formal document, but should give a broad indication of the facilities they can offer and describe how they would tackle the special requirements listed above. Reference should be made to the local availability of major hotels which could offer discount packages for players, attractions that could be used for evening entertainment for players and officials and the ease of travel from international airports.

The statement should be sent either by post to me at 29, Thoresby Road, Beeston, Nottingham NG9 3EN or by email to ian.vincent#nottingham.ac.uk. For clarification of any points please email or phone me on 0115 925 3664 during the evening.

Ian Vincent
Chairman,
CA Management Committee