5th WCF Golf Croquet Championships - Florida - Feb 2002

5th WCF World Golf Croquet Championships - Florida - Feb 2002

The allocation of places for the WCF World Golf Croquet Championships to be held at the USCA National Croquet Center, West Palm Beach, Florida from 10 to 17 February, 2002 is shown below.

The allocations have been made by taking into account the following criteria: 1. At least one player per member Association. 2. The total number of affiliated players in each member Association. 3. The support given by each member Association to previous World Golf Croquet Championships, with a bias towards the more recent. 4. Additional places for the host country.

The first eight players in the last WCF World Golf Croquet Championships (Salah Hassan, Yasser Esmat, Walid Salah, Khaled Younis and Marwa Moustafa, (Egypt), Sherif Abdelwahab and Mik Mehas (USA) and Stephen Mulliner (England) 8
USA 6
England 4
Egypt 3
Italy 3
Ireland 3
South Africa 3
Australia 2
New Zealand 2
The remaining full members (Canada, Scotland, Japan) 1 each 3
The 12 observer members (Belgium, France, Germany, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, the Netherlands, Palestine, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Wales) 1 each 12
Qualifiers 4
Wild cards 3
(Any places not taken up by countries will become additional wild cards.)
Total 56

You are invited to nominate players to fill your country's allocation. Nominations should be made to the WCF Secretary-General at 2 Crown Street, Bellerive, TAS 7018, AUSTRALIA, accompanied by the entry fee of 60 pounds sterling, $US90 or $Aus170. A draft in pounds sterling is preferred. Contact details for the nominees should be forwarded, preferably an email address. It is requested that at the same time as despatching nominations an email notification be sent to Tony Hall at tony1h#ozemail.com.au, Mik Mehas at golfcroquet#email.com and the USCA at USCA#msn.com . Nominations are requested as soon as possible but not later than 1 December 2001. Early notification as to whether you intend to make nominations, and how many, is requested. If you do not take up all your places it would be helpful to know quickly so that the spare places can be allocated.

Egypt and England are requested to advise the availability of their players who were in the first eight in the last championships. (Both USA players will be competing.)

All countries and individuals are requested to advise additional nominations who wish to be considered for wild card places.

A qualifying tournament will be held by the United States Croquet Association on dates to be notified (probably just before the championship) to determine the allocation of the four places for qualifiers. The format will be determined by the number of players that register, with as much play as possible over 2 days.

Accommodation at West Palm Beach is available eight minutes from the National Croquet Center at The Holiday Inn for $US89.95 plus tax for one or two persons, including breakfast. This is a good rate for the quality of the accommodations and amenities, the proximity to the Center, and for the shuttle to the Center in the morning (depending on availability), reserved the night before. To get the CROQUET RATE, people must contact the hotel DIRECTLY and use the code, "2USC". Contact the hotel directly by phone: (561) 659-3880; by email: hipba#worldnet.att.net; or see their website at www.holidayinnpba.com. Of course there are cheaper rates available in abundance, especially in outlying areas at discount motels such as Motel 6 - and players may be able to find spectacular "bargains" on the Web closer to the event, as we cannot predict what kind of economy there will be in South Florida in the hospitality industry in February. The "Super 8" has the best rates of a decent motel close to the Center. It's very near the Holiday Inn also. It's basically a clean box in the middle of a parking lot, not even a coffee shop. But if you have a car, it's fine.

Willhoit balls, as approved by the WCF, will be used. Practice will be permitted a minimum of two days before the start of the tournament. There will be a player briefing the evening before the start of play.

A continental breakfast, lunch, drinks and water will be available court side.

The National Croquet Center is scheduled to open by early January as the largest dedicated croquet facility in the world. Major publicity and celebrations are planned around the Golf Croquet World Championship and the International Croquet Festival that follows it, and the players will be honoured guests at some of these ceremonies and celebrations. Players who wish to participate in the eight-day International Croquet Festival should contact BobAlman#aol.com

Yours sincerely,

Tony Hall 
Colonel A. T. Hall, OBE, 
President 
World Croquet Federation