Eight Players Advance to ACWC

The USCA Facebook group is reporting that the following list of players have advanced from the WCF Association World Championship Qualifier to play in the main event:

Sherif Abdelwahab - USA
Mark Avery - England
Eugene Chang - England
Ian Harshman - USA
Simon Jenkins - USA
Leo McBride - Canada
Dan Pailas - USA
Ted Salter - Australia

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Young Players Ready For ACWC Exhibition

Younger players are setting a new tone for elite level Association Croquet with a special exhibition game open to visitors and press at noon on Friday, April 15, 2016, at the National Croquet Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.  

Some, like 17-year-old football player Matthew Essick from North Carolina, grew up in croquet families.   Others, including the two teenagers from New Zealand, learned croquet at secondary schools in a program sponsored and run by the country's national croquet organization. They are in West Palm Beach to compete at the WCF World Assocation Croquet Championship next week and will go up against a field of 80 players from 13 different countries.
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Morning Coffee: Fletcher Out for ACWC

The 2016 WCF World Association Qualifier started yesterday at the National Croquet Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, but the big news is the potential withdraw of reigning World Champion Robert Fletcher from Austalia from the main event. This was reported on the Nottingham Croquet List, but no other information has been made available. A check of Fletcher's block on croquetscores.com does show his name removed and an additional qualifier spot.
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Beginner's Guide to Croquet Variations

The sport of croquet is wonderfully accommodating in that it has variations intended to span casual social play all the way up to an ultra-elite level of play. And from another perspective, there are variations that work on normal household lawns (mowed short please) and then versions intended for true croquet courts that utilize grass similar to golf greens, but ideally able to achieve faster lawns speeds (and flatness).
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Morning Coffee: WCF World AC Block Draw

The WCF has published the Association Croquet World Championship draw with eight blocks set for the field of 80 players. Seven qualifiers are yet to be named. The number ones include Robert Fletcher, Reg Bamford, David Maugham, Paddy Chapman, Stephen Mulliner, Samir Patel, Jeff Dawson and Ian Dumergue. From the US,
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Wassink Officially Takes Lead in USCA Grand Prix

In last month's look at the USCA Grand Prix Top 25, we gave Stephen Morgan the headline, but officially there was a tie with Derek Wassink at 6,000 points. This month Wassink has established a slight gap with a 200 point lead based on his total of 7,540. Randy Cardo is now chasing Wassink with 7,340 for second place, while Morgan is in third with 7,120.
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Morning Coffee: US Player Poll Results

Congratulations to Sherif Abdelwahab and Ben Rothman for each receiving nine votes to win the 2015 US Croquet Player of the Year Poll. Croquet Network has had pretty good success with online polls and while we had more votes for this year's poll versus the 2014 poll, it was clear that the poll carried the wrong title. Our result would better be characterized as the "Most Popular Player Poll."
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Lightning Round: Andrea Pravettoni

#1 - Why is the Italian Federation wanting to move down to observer status in the WCF membership levels?
We asked to move down to “Observer” status because in 2015 we haven’t reached the number of affiliated players required to be an “Associate Member”, and we are not likely to reach that number in 2016 either.

#2 - How many members does the Italian Federation have and what is the requirement for Associate status?
The Italian Federation had about 15 members in 2015, while the threshold required by WCF Statute 102.1.2.1 is 20 Affiliated Players to obtain the Associate status.

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