[<<] [>>] by Samir Patel
2nd December 2020 (International)

The WCF has today inducted five new members to the World Croquet Hall of Fame. This includes one former and one current CA member. The full nominations for Chris, Jenny, and the other three new members of the WCF Hall of Fame can be found on the WCF Website: https://worldcroquet.org/five-new-members-of-the-hall-of-fame/

Chris Hudson

Chris Hudson came to croquet by happy accident. He had bought a house near Crewe which had a croquet lawn/bowling green, so he joined the CA so that he could play in tournaments. He soon joined Bowdon Croquet Club and shortly thereafter served as club secretary and subsequently chairman of the committee. Membership of CA Council followed soon afterwards, during which time he stimulated many initiatives, including the National Croquet Classic for garden players and the National Competition for Schools.

Chris was heavily involved in the foundation of the WCF, and was elected the first Secretary-General in July 1989. In 1996, Chris met General Ahmed Hamroush, the President of the Egyptian Croquet Federation, a meeting which led to Egypt joining the World Croquet Federation, and the world was introduced to a whole new way to play GC. Chris retired from the WCF in 2001. During his 12 years of service, he had seen its international membership grow from 12 countries to 22 and assisted with the organisation of eight AC World Championships and four GC World Championships.

Chris was a quiet and self-effacing man. He just got on with things without any self-publicity and the full extent of his contribution to the development of croquet will probably never be realised.

Jenny Clarke

Jenny Clarke began playing croquet whilst studying for her PhD in the UK at Oxford University in the 1990s, becoming a regular player on the UK tournament circuit. Jenny plays both AC and GC and won the Women's AC World Championship in 2012. The GC title has always eluded her but she has two silver and three bronze medals in this event. Jenny has won various open and women's domestic titles both in NZ and the UK but her stand-out titles at this level are her three Australian Open Singles titles in 2010, 2018 and 2019.

Whilst it is her playing success which is particularly noteworthy, Jenny, who is a lecturer in Sport Science at Canterbury University, is also an accomplished coach.

In addition to the many titles she has won, Jenny has regularly been the number 1 ranked female player at both AC and GC throughout the past 15 years and has also achieved the highest AC grade of any woman since the rankings began.