Youngsters, too, go through the hoops

Press, 15 January 1986, Page 56

Youngsters, too, go through the hoops

By

PETER COMER

A visit to the New Zealand croquet championships being played in Christchurch this week should dispel the hardy myth that croquet is a game for elderly matrons. The organisers, still a little self-conscious about the sport’s image, are proud that there are more men than women at this year’s championships, and that a number of players are in their teens.

“In the 25 years that I have been playing there has been a dramatic change in croquet’s age group,” said the five-times Macßobertson Shield international test series representative, John Prince, at the United green in Hagley Park yesterday. At 40, Prince is the oldest player at the last few test series between New Zealand, Britain, and Australia. The Wellington bank officer took up croquet “by accident” at the age of 14, which was extraordinarily

young to be playing the game 25 years ago. “I wandered into a club not far from where I lived in Lower Hutt and a lady asked me if I would like to have a hit,” said Prince. Three years later, at 17, he was the youngest croquet player to represent New Zealand.

Prince’s five selections for the Macßobertson Shield international team is a world record shared with an Englishman, John Solomon, and an Australian, the late J. C. Windsor.

He admits to having got sick of the game at times over 25 years — with at least as many playing days ahead of him —• “but someone always says: ‘Come on, have another go’.” A roquet, sextuple and triple peels, a corner cannon and a rover hoop is still gibberish to most New Zealanders, but Prince says that a healthy number of young people are taking up croquet.

He believes that it has similar appeal to golf or snooker. “It is not fast, admittedly, but it requires the ability to concentrate and to play strokes under pressure. The margin for error can be so minute.” Once mainly confined to Britain, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, and scattered corners of the globe to which the English took their odd games, croquet is now making big strides in the United States, and, of all places, Japan. Prince’s success recipe for the beginner at croquet is the same as that for many other sports: “practice, practice, and more practice.” The six-person New Zealand team to contest the next international series in Britain in June will be named at the end of the championships. Prince is again a leading contender for it. Results, Page 3.