Plenty of games but Eileen can’t play
Eileen Judd would like to play a bit more croquet, but this summer, instead of getting out her own mallet, she has been refereeing some of the world’s best players.
Judd, from Stratford, refereed games over several days at the recent world association croquet championships held in Wellington, featuring 80 top croquet players from 11 countries, and days later refereed at the Yvonne Yates Invitation team tournament in Ha¯wera, with New Zealand’s top golf croquet players.
She’s one of 11 people in New Zealand qualified to do so.
Refereeing the games meant being very knowledgeable about the game.
‘‘You’ve got to be quite up with the rules because sometimes they might do something that isn’t in the rules and you’ve got to interpret it, it can be quite complicated.’’
Judd is manager of the Taranaki Croquet Association, a role that sees her organising and running tournaments for the Stratford, Ha¯wera and Ha¯wera Park Clubs over the summer, and is president of the Stratford Croquet Club and also its coach, referee and manager. ‘‘I don’t play much at all now because I’m organising all the tournaments. I get the odd game but very few since I became manager of the Taranaki Association.’’
Her favourite game was association croquet, which required strategy as well as skill.
It was likely her role would stay busy because although the numbers of association croquet players were declining, golf croquet, a much simpler version of the game, was very popular and attracting new players to clubs around the country.
At home, she and partner Len Hotter, who is also a croquet enthusiast, have their own croquet lawn, but it has gone unmown this summer. This is partly due to Eileen’s commitments, and also because the Stratford Club’s greens, which were recently upgraded, were playing so well, she said.
DID YOU KNOW?
In Golf Croquet, your turn is a single shot, and then your opponent gets a turn. In other forms of croquet, you can earn extra shots by getting through a hoop or by hitting other balls with your own ball, and so play an extended turn in which you may score several hoops (a break). (http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/ fmi/croquet-faq.html)