[<<] [>>] by Kllim Seabright
24th August 2006 (CqE Official News)

Jeff Dawson

I am a member of Woking Croquet club, and have been playing croquet for some 25 years, currently playing off a handicap of -2. I am also a championship and examining referee, and run referee courses in Woking from time to time. I currently run the CA shop from home, and have succeeded in increasing its profits by about 50% since I took it over 4 years ago. This is a full-time occupation during the summer months. This business means I am in constant contact with players and enthusiasts of all types in the UK and abroad.

I have served on the council for 3 years, and am currently chairman of the marketing committee. I am also on the Admin committee, principally because I have helped to develop and currently maintain the database system used by the CA office. I am also on the publishing committee, with my main interest here being the ongoing development of the CA website, and the publishing of new books which might be sold through the shop.

My main interest is with Association croquet, although I have also played a small amount of Golf Croquet. I do not share the fears of some that Golf Croquet will swamp and drive out Association Croquet - rather I think it has helped in the establishment of many new clubs, and the survival of others. However, I do not think that there is necessarily a natural progression from one form of the game to the other, so I think it is important that we continue to be active in promoting both disciplines.

Patricia Duke-Cox

Patricia has been proposed by Dr IG Vincent and seconded by Mr Isaacs

I have been a CA member since its centenary year of 1997, and have served on the CA Council as the East Midlands elected representative since October 2000.

I am a tournament player of both Golf and Association croquet. I have taken the opportunity to play in Austria, Egypt and Germany.

On Council I have served on the following committees:

• Development, the last three years as its Chairman
• Golf
• Administration, serving as Chairman
• Publishing
• Coaching
• Management
• Major Grants, serving as Co-ordinator

I decided a year ago to relinquish the post representing the East Midlands, to enable fresh talent in from the region, but I would like to continue to serve on Council as an independent member.

I hope my work on Development in particular has been appreciated. With the implementation of new initiatives including the New Club fund and Major Grants I have enjoyed the opportunity to go out and visit clubs that have been newly formed, relocated or been recipients of grants.

On a personal level I am a founder member of a small club in Lincolnshire where I have been chairman and secretary. I have also acted as the East Midlands Federation secretary.

Professionally I am qualified as a librarian and feel a duty of care towards the CA Archives, soon to benefit from the Tremaine Arkley donation.

Your vote will enable me to continue working for the members of the CA and croquet in general.

Dr Tim King

Dr.King is proposed by Mr.W.H Arliss and seconded by Mrs P Duke-Cox

Dr King was a garden croquet player from a young age but only discovered the real depth of the sport when he joined Ashby Croquet Club in 2000, having returned from living abroad for eight years (The Netherlands and then Japan). Since then he has grown as a player (at club, Federation and national level) and administrator (committee member since 2001 and currently Vice-Chair of Ashby and a member of the CA Golf Croquet Committee since 2005). He enjoys both Association and Golf Croquet.

The highlight of his playing career to date was to represent England at the 2006 World Golf Croquet Championships in New Zealand but he has also enjoyed two national victories in Golf Croquet doubles and won both Association Croquet and Golf Croquet titles in Norway in 2005. Beyond playing, Tim has developed a reputation for photography and report writing of croquet tournaments.

Outside the sport of croquet, he has a Japanese wife and three young children, is Church Warden of St. Editha's Tamworth and is a professional engineer and Chartered Member of the British Computer Society, with responsibility for development of international standards.

He has a skill set that includes project management, facilitation and communication.

Tim believes in consulting widely and working to find approaches that build on the collected contributions of the diverse individuals who participate in croquet. Harmony is particularly important in an amateur, minority sport, which is more important than any one ego. He enjoys discovering and exploring the opinions of everyone from the very beginner to the top international.

While embracing appropriate innovation for appropriate benefits, Tim also believes in nurturing the unique culture and format of croquet to allow all ages, both sexes and any ability to compete on the same court and gain personal enjoyment.

Mr DW Trotman

Over the next few years I am sure Council will be involved in some major problems. Ones that come quickly to mind are, the revision of the CA structure to meet the requirements of the rapidly growing Golf Croquet Game, ways of reducing the age profile of the membership and how our sport can survive if the watering ban in the South of England becomes a semi-permanent feature of our summers.

Should I be re-elected, I believe that the knowledge and experience I have gained in CA matters over the 14 years I have served on Council will be of great assistance at future meetings. During those 14 years I have witnessed some major changes in both the administrative structure of the CA and expansion of the game at international level and also the development of Golf Croquet as a serious competitive game. I have also had the honour , during this time, of chairing both the Development Committee and the Tournament committee and at various other times I have also been a member of the following committees : Management; Finance and General Purposes; International; Golf Croquet and Publicity.

Mr RG Strover

Mr.Strover is proposed by Ms J Blake and seconded by Mr DS Old

I was born in 1941 and brought up In an Essex Rectory. The whole family played croquet on the lawn. My grandmother had played in the Essex and Suffolk tournaments before the First World War. I have some wonderful photos of her in long dress and feathered hat, mallet in hand. She has labelled one such photo "The nerve game, nothing much has changed.

I was educated at The Dragon School, Oxford and Marlborough, before starting articles as a Chartered Accountant in the city. After qualifying I was one of the early computer audit specialists and at 28 became a partner in the firm that through mergers is now Price Waterhouse Coopers. I later specialised in mergers and acquisitions. My clients were mainly multinationals and I visited most parts of the world. I was on the council of The Institute of Chartered Accountants, chairing the technical committee and serving on the Disciplinary Committee before retiring in 1995. I then did an Open University degree in psychology.

As an adult I have played various sports, hockey, tennis, squash, golf and sailing but only started playing croquet seriously in 2004. I learned the rules of golf croquet by refereeing at the World Championships at Compton that year. In September that year I played in my first open tournament, the Yorkshire Open at Ripon and managed to reach the semi-finals. After some limited success in 2005 I was lucky enough to be awarded a wild card to play in the World Golf Croquet Championships in New Zealand this year and came 21st. I have played in both the Italian and Egyptian Opens; as well as playing in Australia and Bermuda.

I am on the Committee of Colchester and Sudbury Croquet Clubs as well as various charity and church committees.

Mr BPE Fisk

I have been on Council for 3 years; and am currently chairman of coaching committe and also serve on handicap, tournament, publications, and management committee. I am a grade 2 coach, a referee, a CA handicapper and regularly play in and manage CA tournaments. I am a member of three croquet clubs, Littleton (near Winchester), Hamptworth (near Salisbury), and Cheltenham.

I serve on the Littleton committee as Club Coach and Handicapper. I am also the Handicapping Officer for the Southern Federation. I have been playing croquet regularly for about ten years in which time my handicap has steadily descended from 16 to 0.5. Outside of croquet I am employed as a software development manager by a large computer company. If re-elected I plan to stay on the same committees and continue to try to improve coaching.