My apologies for not posting for so long. Things got very busy in early Winter and then by January, I was completely preoccupied with a project to move my home croquet club from a public park to a nearby golf course. This was all-consuming - for a month, a group of 5 of us even built, painted and fitted out the new pavilion. Our website gives you an idea: http://www.ipswichcroquetclub.com/id4.html
Back to the WCF. Well as you know by now, Amir Ramsis became our new President, the Council approved the new Statutes which means decision-making is now by email rather than a slow postal vote process between occasional meetings, and Garth Beresford became the 6th Member of the GC Rules Committee. Unfortunately, Garth has now had to stand aside for health reasons, so we're going to have to re-run an election for that position.
The new decision-making process seems, so far, to be running fairly well. I got a few complaints about the volume of emails when I circulated 3 or 4 new threads in a week - these had all been stored up since before 1st January. It's now settled down to about 3 a month which should be manageable. Decided so far: to move the administration of the MacRoberston Shield to the WCF, a number of new versions of our regulations were ratified (Admin, Finance and Equipment) and Portugal was admitted as a new Member. There was also shown to be insufficient demand to run an U21 AC World Championship.
Then James Hawkins more or less finished our new web site, after a number of unplanned delays. As it's more of a toolkit to let a number of us maintain different areas in a new framework, than a totally finished, polished product, we thought we should really have an proper assessment first to ensure it was a sound basis to cut across to, before we invested the large amount of time required to do that. Sadly, the person who first offered to undertake the assessment was then struck with a number of family bereavements, so we are currently planning an assessment by the end of April by a former colleague of mine and internet expert. One day, I hope to have to have nothing to say about our website, because it just works and has nothing wrong with it. One day soon, I very much hope!
In a week's time, the AC World Championship starts in Adelaide. I wish all 80 entrants well and hope they have a good time and the event runs smoothly. I'd also like to recognise the huge amount of work which has gone in over many, many months to make this event happen. These big events require so much organisation to make them run smoothly, and that doesn't happen by accident. I'd like to particularly thank Greg Diprose, the Tournament Director, Wendy King and Rose News (Tournament Manager and Plate Manager respectively) and Liz Fleming the Tournament Referee - plus Stephen Meatheringham, the WCF Event Lead who has acted as the "point man" between the WCF Management Committee and the Host and the Organising Committee for over a year. Twelve months ago, Stephen visited all the venues and took speed measurments of the lawns, then discussed targets for what speed they should be aiming at for the Worlds, and how they might reach them. With a large event spread over several venues, I am particularly impressed by the effort that has gone into making the lawns as similar as could be achieved, and the latest reports from the venues show care still being lavished on this. My thanks to all involved.
Best wishes to everyone in Adelaide - or on their way to Adelaide.
Martin French
Secretary-General
