The croquet club at Oxford University was established in 1867 and was latterly known as the Oxford University Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club. In 2003, the club cleaved from the tennis club and became the Oxford University Croquet Club, OUCC.
Today the Oxford University Croquet Club has voted, unopposed, to change its name to the Oxford University Association Croquet Club at its AGM.
This change was prompted for the following reasons:
- Firstly there are seven organisations in the University using 'OUCC' as their title... croquet, canoe, cricket, chess, cave, cycling and cortex (some computing neural network organisation). To achieve a unique branding, OUACC distinguishes the University Croquet Club from the batch of similarly named societies.
- The Club has exclusively played 'real' croquet since its inception in 1867. As there is now the need to qualify which form of croquet is played, the title is timely and appropriate.
- The change in title also complements our sibling's designation … the Cambridge University Association Croquet Club :)
- We have such a short term we cannot focus on more than one discipline of croquet.
The Oxford University Club has been highly successful in producing world-class Association Croquet players over the past 30 years - i.e. 10% of the 2013 Association World Championship entry (8/80) and 7.5% of the 2016 entry (6/80) came through the Oxford Croquet Club. Its alumni have fed into the English CA clubs, as well as those in the USA and New Zealand.
Club coach Dr. Ian Plummer said, "Given that the undergraduates' summer term is only 8-weeks long there is insufficient time to divert students to other pastimes. We have been highly successful in engaging intelligent young people into the intellectually complex and satisfying sport of Association Croquet - our record proves this."