Melbourne is a very long way to travel to play croquet but combining the trip with visits to Hong Kong, Sydney and Tokyo made the journey worthwhile. The event was played at the smart new Victorian Croquet Centre at Cairnlea, about half an hour’s drive from the city centre. Twelve good lawns and a purpose built, spacious clubhouse with kitchen, manager’s office, changing rooms with showers and lockers, internet access and a well stocked bar made it ideal for hosting a large event.

I was really looking forward to my first visit to Egypt having heard all the stories about their golf croquet brilliance etc from Evan Al-Mighty, aka "Lucky Lucky Evan".

To acclimatise myself to the sunny weather (about 31 degrees in early October), I spent the first week at a remote, paradise-like resort on the Sinai Peninsula, kitesurfing in the warm water of the Red Sea. The 3 hour drive there from Cairo at night-time was hair-raising to say the least.

The 2009 rankings list has been updated. There'll probably be no further updates for 2009.
2009 Final rankings

Great weather, good lawns thanks to Simon and firm hoops thanks to Ed greeted the 8 players battling for this years' Silver Medals.

On 29th-30th August the CAI held a coacking weekend in Carrickmines.
This was very successful and enjoyable in equal measure.

Association Croquet Open Handicap Singles Weekend on September 26th and 27th 2009.

The format consists of 3 distinct competitions -
1: A competition for those who play on Saturday.
2: A competition for those who play on the Sunday.
3.

A wet and blustery day turned into a fine day of both weather and croquet. There were a number of round robin matches left in both division one and two before the finals were to take place.

See 2009 Handicaps in sidebar.

The Championship of Ireland ( The Duff Matthews Trophy)
Winner – Stephen Mulliner
Runner up – Chris Patmore (The Leslie Webb Salver)
Championship Doubles (Anne Healy trophies)
Winners – A Johnston & C Broderick
Runners up – E Cunningham & P FitzGerald
Handicap Doubles (The Stonebrook Cups)
Winners – Ed Cunningham & Jack Clingan
Runners up – Simon Williams & Richard Lamb
Handicap Singles (The Founder’s Cup)
Winner – Dave McGrath
Runner up – Danny Johnston
Green Cup
Winner - Malcolm O'Connell

We're working towards a great day on Saturday.