2025 Students Championship

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Players in the 2025 Students

On the 26^th/27^th of July, the Oxford University Association Croquet Club (OUACC) proudly hosted the annual Student Croquet Championships - a prestigious tournament where the skill levels range from 'why are you holding that big hammer upside down' to 'I've spent every waking minute of the last 12 months prepping for this tournament'.

This year, students travelled across the UK and Europe to participate, with entrants from four universities: the usual suspects - Cambridge, Oxford, and Manchester - and an international wildcard from Bocconi University in Milan. Unfortunately, we missed out on the usual presence of the mighty Aston Wade and Teddy W-Sitwell (former OUACC President).

The weekend's play kicked off bright and early - painfully early, some might say - with a doubles match between Oxford and Manchester at 8am on Saturday. Despite most players being over a month into their (not so healthy) summer holiday sleeping routines, they took to the lawns with fire in their eyes, proving once again that association croquet is as much a battle of wits and strategy as it is a test of who can stay awake for 3 hours straight. By 2pm, sleep-induced delirium was reaching record levels, but the warriors were fed and the enthusiasm to get the singles underway was intoxicating.

Midway through the first round of singles, Cambridge's duo Jack and James (J&J) had a sudden realisation: they had no accommodation for the evening. Fortunately, their friend Jamie had been tasked with finding somewhere to stay, but the task proved more difficult than anticipated. In response, the trio, J&J&J, developed a detailed well-thought-out plan to simply sleep next to the lawns in the park, minimising the next morning's travel time and maximising that evening's much needed shut eye. However, after a spontaneous agreement that the evening would consist of a night out in Oxford, this grand plan lost its appeal as it would require J&J&J to drunkenly climb a 15-foot bayonet-topped fence under the light of nothing but the moon and a distant streetlamp. Instead, they booked a late-night bus to some off-grid Airbnb.

After a heroic day of play, all 8 students retired to a local pub, The Royal Oak, to rehydrate. With losers of the day's games unapologetically declaring the winners are morally obliged to buy them a pint, it was not long before shouts of a pub crawl were being heard across the table. With J&J&J determined to sample Oxford's nightlife, the evening culminated in a 3am return home and alarms set for four hours later.

As Sunday morning rolled around, 8 bleary eyed zombies once again returned to the lawns for the doubles final, the singles final and the plate final. With each match as riveting as the last, Oxford University was lucky enough to come home with both the doubles and singles trophies.

We were also fortunate enough to have international croquet legend, Harry Fisher, present the trophies to the winners after an excellent speech about the history of the tournament and the significance of the trophies.

All in all, the tournament was a great success, and it was wonderful to see so many young players travelling from around the world to play some Association Croquet.

Singles winner: Charlie Sharpe, University of Oxford

Doubles winners: Charlie Sharpe & Teodoro D'Agostino, University of Oxford