An international match was played in Edinburgh last weekend in Balgreen.
The fixture came about because Irish captain Jane Morrison – who lives in Edinburgh – invited an Irish team (of which she was captain) to come and play a Scottish team. This fixture between the Scottish Croquet Association and the Croquet Association of Ireland was a calculated move on Ms Morrison’s part – she would very much like more women to become involved in golf croquet both in Edinburgh and in Scotland.
She herself has a world ranking and will play in New Zealand next January.
We met Jane on Saturday and spoke to her about the background of the fixture:
There are eight players in each team and the plan was to play four doubles matches and four singles on each of the two days. Croquet is one of the very first sports which was allowed after the pandemic as it is played outside and offers each player a lot of space on the croquet lawn. At Balgreen Croquet and Bowling Club they have four separate lawns allowing several matches to be played at once.
By the end of the weekend Ireland was declared the winner with 57 games to Scotland’s 19, although the Scottish Women’s Team had some good victories among the results. The full results are published here.
Kathy Brown was the newly appointed captain and she said she is looking forward to the return match at Rushbrooke in Co Cork in 2023.
Sadly the Irish team was just too too strong for the inexperienced Scottish squad but they all had a very enjoyable weekend and are looking forward to next year. The intention is that following a successful inaugural event, the fixture will now be played each year.
A trophy was presented to the Croquet Association of Ireland Team by Roger Binks, Chairman of the Scottish Croquet Association.
Balgreen is only one of three croquet clubs in Edinburgh with others at The Meadows and Lauriston Castle.
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
