The peculiarly British sports of croquet and bowls are taking baby steps to return from the COVID-19 lockdown, away from the glare of publicity.
Both conjure up images of elderly people pitting their wits against each other on lush lawns, with social interaction a big factor.
The British government’s easing of restrictions put in place to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus paved the way for croquet and bowls to resume.
Photo: AFP
The Croquet Association welcomed the chance to start up again, marketing itself as an ideal sport in unusual times.
“Media reports on lockdown easing have focused on sports like golf, tennis and basketball, with the glaring omission of croquet, which is the perfect social-distancing sport,” the association said in a statement. “A croquet court is twice the size of a tennis court, so playing against a member of your household, or one other person from outside your household, is no problem at all.”
Croquet — which has two forms, golf croquet and association croquet — is seen as quintessentially English. Former British prime minister Winston Churchill replaced a tennis court at his Chartwell home with a croquet lawn.
However, the origin of the sport is disputed by Jonathan Isaacs, chairman of the Croquet Association council.
“All I can say is that in the Bayeux Tapestry there is an image of a person with a mallet, hoops and ball, so the indications are it came over with William the Conqueror” in 1066, he told reporters.
Isaacs said that the coronavirus shutdown had proved a headache, but he remained upbeat about the future of the sport.
“Fortunately, as a governing body we have pretty robust finances behind us and we had enough money in a contingency fund to be able to say: ‘Yeah, we can see a way through this’ and offer loans to clubs who have problems,” he said. “Clubs so far have not taken up any offers and appear to be coping reasonably well.”
Isaacs said that at his club, the Sussex County Croquet Club on England’s south coast, which hosted last year’s Golf Croquet World Championship, members rallied around to help the vulnerable.
“We set up a contact rota and phoned them up, but most quite frankly are desperate to get back on the lawn,” he said.
Isaacs said the main challenge was returning to tournament play, but added that one positive was that the game itself “by its definition is an exercise in social distancing.”
“Only one person is on the lawn at any one time. With golf croquet, although two players are on court at the same time the etiquette is the non-playing person stands well clear,” he said.
Legend has it that Elizabethan explorer Francis Drake delayed returning to his ship to confront the Spanish Armada in 1588 to finish a game of bowls.
His modern-day descendants on the greens have had to face a hidden enemy and even though they can now play again, it is not straightforward.
Many players are elderly and the over-70s have been advised to continue to self-isolate despite the partial relaxation of lockdown measures.
“At least half, if not two-thirds, of all bowling members are over 70,” said Rod McBeth, honorary secretary of Sussex County Bowls men’s section.
The county has 4,800 male and 2,700 female members.
McBeth, 75 next month, said it had been a trying time and patience has been wearing thin.
“I am doing jigsaw puzzles, but the inaction has driven me round the twist and if I was of that nature I would get depressed,” he said. “However, I have spoken to a lot of club members who are tearing their hair out.”
Despite his mounting frustration, McBeth will be steering clear of the green for now. Competitions have been deferred until next year and he is wary of the possible risks.
“There is no point in taking a chance for nothing,” he said. “A lot of people who are able to do so will not. They are not sure it is a safe thing to do.”
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
‘CATASTROPHE’: Despite losing several key forwards in the summer transfer window, Bayern were up 3-0 in the first half before Harry Kane scored a hat-trick in the second Harry Kane hit a hat-trick, Michael Olise a double and newcomer Luis Diaz also scored as Bayern Munich made a “statement” against RB Leipzig 6-0 at home in the Bundesliga season opener on Friday. Bayern’s big-money arrivals, all brought in from the Premier League across the past three seasons, were dominant as the Bavarians begun their title defense in style. Olise scored twice in the first half, either side of a Diaz strike. Not to be outdone, Kane scored three goals in the second half — with two assists coming from Diaz, to bring Bayern’s total to 6-0. Kane told the Bundesliga
Marc Marquez continued his winning streak as he cruised to victory in the Hungarian GP sprint by two seconds on Saturday night to pad his championship lead. It was a seventh straight Sprint victory for the Spaniard, who has also won the last six longer Sunday grand prix races on his factory Ducati. Fabio Di Giannantonio, an Italian with the VR46 Ducati satellite team was a distant second at Balaton Park, followed by his team-mate and compatriot Franco Morbidelli third. Marquez, a six-time world champion, started the race from pole position. “I felt someone really close on the first corner, from there I
Former European champions Celtic exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifiers after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty on Tuesday, following two goalless legs in the playoff tie. Kairat are to compete in the competition proper for the first time, while Norway’s Bodo/Glimt and Cyprus’s Pafos also secured debut appearances after coming through the playoffs. Celtic’s night ended in disappointment as they missed three penalties in the shoot-out, Daizen Maeda failing with the decisive spot-kick. The slugfest of a match went into extra-time with neither side finding the net and few overall chances, echoing the first
RSS