Club Guide to Croquet England

Other club resources include Downloads and Forms, Advice for Clubs, Club Affiliation to Croquet England. Please contact the office for anything else.

What is Croquet England? Croquet England is Croquet's national governing body, which promotes and regulates the sport, mostly through voluntary effort. Players and clubs support the organisation through their subscriptions. The management and control of Croquet England is vested in the Board of Trustees.

The office and Shop Croquet England maintains an office in Cheltenham. The Shop has a wide range of croquet equipment and accessories for sale and shares the office's building and opening hours.

Promotional Materials and Leaflets The office supplies clubs with glossy promotion materials, which include short guides to Association and Golf Croquet, a promotional leaflet called 'Have you Tried Croquet?', and A4 posters. The marketing team run National Croquet Day (NCD)/Week (NCW).

Joining Croquet England Players can join Croquet England as individual Associates and information about joining is given on the website, along with the benefits of doing so.

Insurance Croquet England's Affiliated Clubs are automatically entitled to insurance as part of the membership package. The insurance is provided by SportsCover, through Croquet England's brokers, Endsleigh. These links provide summaries of the cover provided to clubs and coaches respectively. The full cover is as stated in the Public Liability, Employer's Liability, & Professional Indemnity and Directors & Officers policy documents. It is an expectation of insurers that risk assessments are in place. Clubs are responsible for their own equipment and buildings insurance. Croquet England has negotiated competitive rates with Endsleigh: details for these should be obtained from Endsleigh on 0333 2341657.

Grants and Loans A large part of Croquet England's budget goes towards giving clubs support to enhance their facilities, either as a grant or a loan. Clubs must be Affiliates of Croquet England and raise the major part of the cost themselves. Clubs interested in applying for a grant should contact their Federation Development Officer who will advise them. The Bursary Scheme supports aspiring international players to go to the right tournaments, etc.

Sponsorship Clubs are responsible for obtaining sponsorship of club events and tournaments, however, if Croquet England obtains sponsorship for Croquet England tournaments, then the club holding the Croquet England Tournament receives increased Lawn hire fees. If the club holding the Croquet England Tournament obtains sponsorship for it, then the club retains two-thirds of the sponsorship and Croquet England one-third.

Club Awards Croquet England makes awards biennially (in three categories: Townsend, Apps Heley, and Millennium) to clubs that have made exceptional progress in providing a good playing environment.

Croquet England Diplomas Affiliated Clubs can nominate members who have given outstanding service for Croquet England Diplomas, which have nothing to do with croquet prowess and everything to do with the help given to other members.

Most Improved Players Awards Clubs and Federations can propose their rapid-improvers for a Most Improved Player Award.

Merit Awards Club members may gain Merit Awards for tournament achievements.

Handicapping - the AHS Croquet England also provides an Automatic Handicapping System (AHS), which requires players entering tournaments, Federation and club events to maintain handicap cards. This applies separately for Association Croquet Handicapping and Golf Croquet Handicapping. Even if players only take part in club events, they will find it useful to have a handicap so that they can play competitively with other club members. Clubs are sent a supply of handicap cards for their members each year.