Croquet is a sport that involves hitting wooden, plastic, or composite balls with a mallet through hoops embedded in a grass playing court.
Gary James Player is a South African retired professional golfer who is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time. During his career, Player won nine major championships on the regular tour and nine major championships on the Champions Tour. At the age of 29, Player won the 1965 U.S. Open and became the only non-American to win all four majors in a career, known as the career Grand Slam. At the time, he was the youngest player to do this, though Jack Nicklaus (26) and Tiger Woods (24) subsequently broke this record. Player became only the third golfer in history to win the Career Grand Slam, following Ben Hogan and Gene Sarazen, and only Nicklaus and Woods have performed the feat since. He won over 160 professional tournaments on six continents over seven decades and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
Robert Ian Fulford is a leading English croquet player who has dominated the sport since the turn of the 1990s.
Isao Aoki is a Japanese professional golfer. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2004.
Chris Clarke is an English croquet player who has been ranked among the world's top players since the late 1980s. He now represents New Zealand. Chris has won two World Championships in Association Croquet, in 1995 and again in 2008, six AC World Team Champs and one GC World Team Champs. 2008 was perhaps Chris's finest year, overtaking previous world champions Robert Fulford and Reg Bamford to regain the position of world number one player, which he held for in excess of 16 months. He also reached the semi-finals of the WCF Golf Croquet World Championships in March 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa and led the English team to the finals of the 2009 European team championships.
Renée Schuurman Haygarth was a South African tennis player who won five Grand Slam women's doubles titles and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title.
The World Croquet Federation (WCF) is the world governing body for croquet. Its primary objective is to make the various codes of the game "well-known, well-understood, well-respected and well-supported sports in countries throughout the world". To that end, it encourages, promotes and develops Golf Croquet and Association Croquet internationally at all levels. The WCF sanctions various croquet tournaments for both individuals and national teams, held worldwide, maintains world rankings for individuals and nations, and governs changes to the laws of Association Croquet and the rules of Golf Croquet.
The Croquet Association, which was formed as the United All England Croquet Association in 1897, is the national governing body for the sport of croquet in England. Until 1974 the association was responsible for croquet in the whole of the United Kingdom. The Scottish Croquet Association, formed in 1974, now has responsibility for croquet in Scotland. At the 2013 AGM the association formally relinquished control of the game in the other parts of the United Kingdom.
Branden John Grace is a professional golfer from South Africa who currently plays for LIV Golf. He formerly played on the European Tour, the PGA Tour, and the Sunshine Tour. In 2012, he became the first player in the history of the European Tour to win his first four European Tour titles in the same year.
Ben Rothman is, as of May 2012, the number one ranked Association croquet player in North America. After focusing his life towards the game in 2007, he has become a formidable force and a player to beat in serious competition around the world. Rothman has won many high-profile croquet tournaments and competed in such major competitions as many USCA National Championships, the WCF World Championships, the MacRobertson Shield, and the Solomon Trophy.
John Solomon was a croquet player from England.
Dorothy Dyne Steel, commonly referred to as D. D. Steel, was an English croquet player.
Humphrey Osmond Hicks was a croquet player from England.
Edmond Patrick Charles Cotter was a croquet player from Ireland. Cotter was one of the most successful croquet players in the 1950s and 1960s winning the President's Cup six times, the Open Championship three times and the Men's Championship four times. He also won the Open Doubles Championship on ten occasions on each occasion being partnered by John Solomon.
Keith Francis Wylie was a croquet player from England.
Nigel Aspinall is a croquet player from England. Aspinall was one of the most successful croquet players in the 1970s and 1980s, winning the President's Cup eleven times, the Open Championship eight times and the Men's Championship twice . Aspinall represented Great Britain in four MacRobertson Shield tournaments, winning on two occasions.
Royal Sydney Golf Club is golf club in Rose Bay, New South Wales, Australia, a suburb of Sydney.
Stephen Mulliner is an English international croquet player, who has won championships in both major disciplines, Association Croquet (AC) and Golf Croquet (GC). He won the British AC Open Championship in 1988, 1990, and 2000; the British GC Open Championship in 2000, 2001, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016 and 2020; the European GC Championship in 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2019; and the World AC Championship in 2016.
Bernard George Neal was a professor of structural engineering at Imperial College London and the winner of the All England croquet championship on 38 occasions.
Edward Lake Williams was a British tennis player active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was a finalist in the men's doubles at the 1884 Wimbledon Championships partnering Ernest Wool Lewis where they lost to William Renshaw and Ernest Renshaw. In singles he was quarter finalist at the Northern Championships, and semi-finalist at the Princes Club Championships in 1883. From 1881 until 1908 he contested 13 career finals and won 6 titles in singles.
