Croquet Competition Entry 2025
Club Competitions
The club organizes three competitions for our members; AC singles, GC singles and GC doubles. These are all played using ‘bisques’ (AC) or the ‘Advantage system’ (GC) to take account of differences in handicap. Entries for all competitions are made on an individual basis and pairings for the GC doubles trophy will be determined by the organizer to balance the handicaps (i.e. a high handicap player will be paired with a low handicap partner). Matches are played throughout the summer on a knockout basis. There is a fee of £5 per person per event for these tournaments.
You can find details of the draws on our Club Competitions on this link
Matches should be arranged in good time as the Finals need to be played before Members Day – for 2025, this is in August.
For the Winslow Cup – Association Croquet Handicap Singles.
For Golf Croquet Singles – GC Handicap singles.
For Golf Croquet Doubles – GC Handicap doubles.
Club Ladder. Caversham Climbers.
For the first time this year we are organising Club Ladders for both AC and GC Players. This is open to all members of any standard but is being run as an official club competition the results of which are to be entered on each player’s official handicap card.
You can play against anyone else on the ladder but can’t simply jump from the bottom to the top with one well-judged match-up.
So, progression will be as follows:
- If the higher player (on the ladder) wins the game then they will continue to move up one position.
- If the lower player wins, then it depends on how close they were on the ladder.
- If they were within 5 positions then they still jump to just above their opponent.
- If they started more than 5 positions below their opponent then they just move up two positions
Southern Croquet Federation Events
The Federation supports a variety of leagues and knockout tournaments to encourage competition between affiliated clubs. Matches are played in the summer months
There are two GC and two AC leagues relevant to smaller clubs such as Caversham. The Single Court League, restricted to clubs with one court, offers a good introduction to competitive team play for GC. The matches are played using the ‘Advantage system’ to take handicaps into account and give each player a fair chance of victory. For each match a team of 2 players will be chosen with each member playing a doubles game and two singles. Matches are played either at home or away on an annual rotating basis. Caversham have entered 2 teams into this league. There is another GC Advantage League that includes the larger clubs where more experienced players should take part. Here, Caversham enters one team with 4 players chosen for each match and each member plays against each opponent, so 4 games of singles each.
The AC league is also based on a team of 4 and uses ‘bisques’ to adjust for handicap. Caversham has one team in this league. Players are seeded according to their handicap and each player plays one 26 point game.
Games in the AC Short Croquet league are quicker than for standard AC so it is possible for each member of the 4 person team to play games against each opponent (hence 16 games in total).
There is no fee for members for participation in these leagues. (Costs are met by the club as part of our affiliation fee).
All England National Events
Countrywide AC and GC Handicap cups are organized by Croquet England. Local qualifying heats are held to identify a club nominee to enter regional heats and then the finals competition. The fee for these competitions is £8 per person per event (2023 rates, 2024 rates to be advised).
The All England Club also organizes an AC One Ball Cup to raise funds for charity. One ball is played, as the name suggests, with one ball for each player instead of two. This has the effect of minimizing breaks and makes for a much shorter game, allowing heats to be completed in one day. The fee for this competition is £10 per person.
Competition Rules.
AC Handicap Singles (Winslow Cup) rules
- The Winslow Cup is a single life knock-out competition.
- Matches are played using normal handicap rules. Results to go on handicap cards.
- Matches are as defined on the draw sheet available in the clubhouse and distributed electronically.
- Either player can arrange the match.
- Matches are booked on Teamup using the Club events and competitions category and can be made up to 14 days in advance.
- Matches before the semi-final will be shortened 14 point handicap games (see below) played on a full lawn over a maximum of 1 hour 50 minutes.
- Semi-final and final matches, matches are 26 point handicap games played over 3 hours or 3¼ hours if double banked.
- If neither player has pegged out both their balls in the time allotted for the game, the game is won by the player who has scored the greater number of points.
- After the game, the winner’s name and score is written onto the sheet posted in the clubhouse and emailed to the organiser.
14 point croquet v 26 point croquet
- 26 point croquet requires the winning side to make each of their balls score 12 hoop points and a peg point, a total of 26 points, before the other side.
- 14 point croquet is a shortened game which consists of a single circuit of the 6 hoop points plus the peg point for each ball.
- All the rules of association croquet apply to both versions.
Handicap play
- Note that in all forms of handicap play, the striker may not peg out the striker’s ball unless the partner ball is a Rover or an adversary’s ball has been pegged out.
- Because 14 point croquet is a shortened game, a reduced number of bisques apply. See Schedule 1: Schedule of Bisques, reproduced in part below.
| 26pt | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 14pt | ½ | 1 | 1½ | 2 | 2½ | 3 | 4 | 4½ | 5 | 5½ | 6 | 6½ |
Bisques Calculator (14-pt AC game with a base of 5)
This system is used to allow both players to have bisques for games between high handicap players (which is virtually all of us)
Your individual number of bisques will be the same for most games, and is calculated as your full bisque count for a 14-pt game, minus the base of 5.
When you play a player with a handicap below 9, then you will get extra bisques and they will get none – this should only apply when playing against Mike Kay (as shown here)
| Player | HC | Bisques | |
| Against Most Players | Against Mike Kay | ||
| Jasmine | 24 | 8 | 11 |
| John Wakeford | 22 | 7 | 9.5 |
| Will | 20 | 6 | 8.5 |
| Neil | 16 | 3.5 | 6.5 |
| Charles | 14 | 2.5 | 5.5 |
| Gareth | 12 | 1.5 | 4.5 |
| Bob | 11 | 1 | 4 |
| Brian | 9 | 0 | 2.5 |
| Mike Kay | 4 | 0 | – |
GC Handicap competitions rules
- The GC Handicap Singles and the GC Handicap Doubles Competitions are single-life knock-out competitions.
- Matches are to be played on the full lawn.
- Matches consist of a single 13 point game except the final which will be the best of three 13 point games.
Arranging matches
- Matches to be played are defined on the draw sheet available in the clubhouse and distributed electronically.
- Either player may contact their opponent to arrange the match.
- Matches can be booked up to 14 days in advance on Teamup using the Club events and competitions label.
- After the game, the winner’s name and score is written onto the sheet posted in the clubhouse and emailed to the organiser.
- Results are to be written into handicap cards.
All GC Competitions are to be played using the new Advantage Rules Handicap System and not the Extra Strokes System as in the past. Use the link to view the latest update from the Croquet Association on the Advantage System for use in Handicap play.
Timed games
- If agreed in advance by both players, a game may be timed to a maximum of 50 minutes.
- When time is called, an extension period of a further eight turns is played.
- A timed game is won by the player who has scored the greater number of points when the extension period is completed.
- If the scores are level, the game is continued until a point is scored.