Election of Croquet England Trustees: the new arrangements, with website links

[<<] [>>] by Gabrielle Higgins
27th April (CqE Official News)

Croquet England came into being in March 2023, and took over the business of the Croquet Association at the start of January 2024. The first trustees of Croquet England were the people who had been elected to serve on the Croquet Association's Council. As reported at both Croquet England's General Meetings in 2024, the Board of Trustees agreed that they would all serve as trustees until the AGM in 2025, at which point two would be chosen by ballot to serve until the AGM in 2026 and the rest would stand down, to be replaced by four newly elected trustees.

The Electoral Commission, appointed by the Board, was tasked with determining the arrangements for the elections, and have done admirable work on a challenging issue. Their full report and the new election rules have now been published, and these are the key points for subscribers:

The Constituencies

Six regional constituencies will each elect one trustee. The trustees can appoint up to five additional trustees to ensure that the Board as a whole will have an appropriate diversity of background and experience. This structure ensures that the elected trustees form a majority of the Board.
The six regional constituencies will be different from Federations. Federations will continue to organise and support croquet in their regions, but will no longer have the formal role to play in electing trustees which has proven problematic.
The six constituencies will be the Central Counties and Wales, the Eastern Counties, the Northern Counties, the South West Counties, the Weald Counties, and the Western Home Counties. Each has approximately 1500 to 1600 club members who either are subscribers of Croquet England or are entitled to be subscribers.
The constituencies have been constructed by reference to the historic counties (as is done for the Inter-County Championships), rather than current civil administrative areas which are subject to change.
The historic counties in each constituency are:
- The Central Counties and Wales: Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire, plus Wales.
- The Eastern Counties: Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Suffolk, plus Inner London comprising the clubs of Dulwich, Sydenham and Croquet East.
- The Northern Counties: Cheshire, Cumberland, Derbyshire, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire.
- The South West Counties: Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and the Channel Islands.
- The Weald Counties: Hampshire including the Isle of Wight, Kent and Sussex.
- The Western Home Counties: Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Surrey.

Standing for election

To be eligible to stand for election as a trustee, you must be a voting member of Croquet England, must live in the constituency you are standing for, and must be proposed and seconded by members registered to vote in your constituency. To find out which historic county your home is in, use the 'Convert a Post Code' function at Gazetteer of British Place Names.

Voting

Only registered voting members of Croquet England can vote. Any subscriber over the age of 16 can become a member at any time by completing a simple form at Voting Membership of Croquet England. There is no cost, but there is a requirement to complete a declaration (because Croquet England is a charity) to the effect that you will exercise your right to vote in a way that you believe is most likely to further the purposes of Croquet England.
Existing voting members of Croquet England who have a primary club have been allocated to a provisional constituency based on the location of their primary club. Once allocated, this can be changed at any time at Review Croquet England Voting Constituency. There are no restrictions on which constituency you can choose; choose the one you identify with most.
Existing voting members of Croquet England who do not have a primary club have not been allocated to a provisional constituency and will need to choose one at Review Croquet England Voting Constituency to be able to vote when the time comes.
New voting members of Croquet England will be asked to choose a constituency when they become a voting member.

The 2025 elections

The two trustees who were chosen by ballot to serve until October 2026 are Samir Patel (Western Home Counties) and Robin Tasker (Northern Counties). There will be elections in the other four constituencies later this year, conducted by single transferable vote.
Two of the newly elected trustees will serve until October 2027 and two until October 2028, to be decided by either agreement or drawing lots. In future, all trustees will serve for three year terms. They can serve up to three consecutive terms.
As Returning Officer, I will be calling for nominations in early June. There will be at least 8 weeks for nominations to be made, and then at least 3 weeks for voting before the results are announced no later than 12 September. The procedure will be made available on the website and emailed to voting members.

Gabrielle Higgins

Secretary, Croquet England

This article appeared in the April 2025 Croquet Gazette, and is reproduced here with links to the webpages mentioned.