Another former association croquet world champion, Miranda Chapman from the Morrinsville club, retained the New Zealand women’s championship she won in Wellington last season by beating Baubre Murray of Wellington's Kelburn club 26-7, 26-11.
Chapman won the women’s world championship in 2015 when representing England. She has also represented Australia and New Zealand.
In the mixed doubles, Hogan and Hawke's Bay player Sonya Sedgwick took third place, pipped for second on points differential, having won three games from five.
Hogan showed he was approaching top form when he took third place in the New Zealand Open Championship singles in Christchurch late last month.
He won all five games in block play, which put him into the knockout rounds. He won his first game, against a top South Taranaki player, 2-1, and then a quarterfinal against an Australian player, 2-1.
In the semifinal he lost 2-0 to eventual open champion Logan McCorkindale, from South Canterbury. Hogan beat John Versey from Hawke's Bay in the playoff for third.
During his time away from regular top-flight croquet, Hogan restricted his play to a few wild-card entries. His return to the competitive arena was sparked by a phone call he received early in 2015, when one of the New Zealand selectors asked him to consider returning to the croquet circuit and being available for selection.
With his family's blessing he started a comeback that convinced the selectors he should be in the team to defend the MacRobertson Shield in the United States. The Shield is contested every three or four years by New Zealand, England/Great Britain, Australia and the United States.
Hogan set a record for the longest break between MacRobertson Shield appearamces — 27 years — when he took the court against the United States in Palm Springs, California, in late April 2017. Australia won that tournament; England won the 2022 series, held in Australia.
In 2022, Hogan was one of three selections for the World Croquet Federation Hall of Fame. The certificate of his induction was presented to him at the barbecue dinner on the eve of the Under-21 Golf Croquet World Singles Championships in Mt Maunganui in February last year.
Hogan said he was proud to be a member of the Barry Memorial Croquet Club and happy to be "back amongst it" at national level.
The past few weeks have featured other eye-catching performances by Barry Memorial Croquet Club members.
Rob Hayes and Lynn Davies were included in the Hawke's Bay regional four-person team competing in the Lower North Island Golf Croquet Teams Championships played in Palmerston North. The Championships were contested by Manawatū-Wanganui, South Taranaki, Wairarapa, Taranaki, Wellington and Hawke's Bay.
In the doubles, Hayes and his partner won three games from five, as did Davies. In the singles, Hayes won three from five and Davies won two from five. At the end of the two days' play, Hawke's Bay were awarded the title.
Over the same weekend, two former Barry club members, husband and wife Dave and Chris Newton — who now live and play in Matamata — were included in the Waikatō-King Country team who played in the Upper North Island Golf Croquet Teams Championships.
The Newtons had mixed results in both their singles and doubles games but were delighted to find at the end of play that their Waikato-King Country team had won the title for the first time.
Barry Memorial Croquet Club captain Ross Thomson said that for many years the club's players had been disadvantaged by having to play with standard croquet hoops at the club. Whenever they played in tournaments, especially at international level, it took them time to get used to the international standard Quadway hoops now used at many clubs. Thanks to funding through the New Zealand Community Trust (with contributions from Bollywood Stars and Bar 59) the club had been able to buy two sets of the Quadway hoops. Regular play and familiarity with the new hoops had contributed to recent successes.
Locally the club held a levels golf croquet tournament for players with handicaps of nine and over. Seven players contested the title by way of a round robin.
Barb Humphreys won her first three games — including one against her husband Will, 6-3 — and was looking good. But she was then beaten by Des Chaffey 7-6 and Ina Elzen 7-3, which put her back in the field. She still finished with four wins. Her husband Will, on the other hand, won all his games apart from the loss to his wife. Anna Wells suffered losses to both Humphreys but won her other four games. Elzen also had four wins.
Will Humphreys was the winner with five wins. A countback was necessary to decide on second place — Elzen, Barb Humphreys and Wells all had four wins.
Wells had the best differential so was placed second.
• The tournament was sponsored by Jenny Virtue at The Agency.
