N.Z. Croquet Team Selected

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31704, 13 June 1968, Page 9

N.Z. Croquet Team Selected

A triangular series of international croquet matches will be played in Australia early in February, 1969, for the Macßobertson International Shield.

The competing nations will be England, holder of the trophy, Australia, and New Zealand.

The tests will be played in Adelaide and Melbourne, and State games in Perth, Hobart, Sydney and Brisbane. The New Zealand Croquet Councils selection panel has chosen the following players to represent New Zealand:—

J. Prince (Lower Hutt); D. W. Curtis (Hastings): Mrs B. A. Jarden (Lower Hutt); G. D. Rowling (Nelson); A. G. F. Ross (Hastings); Mrs L. M. Hight (Morrinsville); J. McNab (Christchurch); P. Rudolph (Nelson).

Prince was the undefeated champion in the New Zealand opens in 1967 and 1968, doubles champion (partnered by Mrs B. A. Jarden) and men's champion for three consecutive years. He is an outstanding player, the one on whom New Zealand’s hopes of victory in the forthcoming tests are centred. Prince first entered the limelight in 1963, when, as a member of the North Island representative team which played against England and Australia, be acquitted himself so well that he was chosen to play for New Zealand in the last two tests against England and the last one against Australia. At Napier, Price won both singles and doubles matches, being the only two games won for New Zealand against England, At New Plymouth, he contributed to New Zealand’s 6-3 victory by winning both singles and doubles games. In the final test at Hamilton, Prince played against J. Solomon, England's champion, and won the best of three rubbers in two straight games, in one of which Solomon failed to score.

at this time, was aged 16, the youngest player to represent any country at croquet Curtis, a member of the English team which successfully defended the Macßobertson Shield in 1963, remained in New Zealand at the end of the tour, and has qualified for New Zealand by residence. He was runner-up in the 1967 open championship. Mrs Jarden won her first

New Zealand women’s championship in 1958, an honour which she has attained six times. She is the present holder, with Prince, of the doubles championship, a title which they have held for two seasons.

Mrs Jarden was a member of the New Zealand team in 1963, playing in all six matches with some success. In 1966, she won the open championship, defeating her doubles partner, Rowling, in a three-game final. Rowling won his first New Zealand honour in 1955, when he took the men’s title, which he retained in 1956, and added to it the open championship. These successes entitled him to selection in the New Zealand team that toured England that season. He had another good year in 1965, winning both open and men’s championships. Ross’s name first appeared in the New Zealand honours list in 1915, but he still merits selection in an international team in 1968. He has been open champion 11 times, men’s champion six times, and with a variety of partners has won the doubles seven times. In 1954, Ross, on a visit to England, won the British open championship. Ross played in his first Macßobertson tournament in 1930, when he captained the New Zealand team in Melbourne. In 1950, he was again captain when England played in New Zealand and also led the team that travelled to England in 1956.

For the 1963 triangular tests in New Zealand Ross was again in the team, and his inclusion in this present selection is surely a triumph for this veteran exponent Mrs Hight is the present woman champion. She has been steadily progressing towards the top flight since she captured the North Island representative team in 1963.

A newcomer to international croquet McNab has made rapid progress since he won the junior handicap singles in 1964. Since then he has become the open champion of Canterbury, has won the South Island open, and now holds the Heenan Plate, the New Zealand open secondary event

Rudolph is an enterprising player, quite capable of holding his own in an international team. He was a South Island representative in 1963, South Island open champion in 1961, and winner of the English Silver Medal in 1965.