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The International Polo Club Palm Beach International Challenge Weekend Croquet Event is Set for April 22 - 24, 2011

“Golf croquet”, so named because it is played using single strokes with no continuation shots for making wickets or hitting other balls, is the simplest of the three, six-wicket tournament games now played competitively around the world. These are not the casual backyard 9-wicket games usually thought of when hearing the word croquet. Golf Croquet is a hard-hitting, highly-strategic competitive sport with its own world ranking system.

This croquet tournament will include players from Canada (Brian Cumming), Egypt (Sherif Abdelwahab), England (Chris Patmore), and the US (Ben Rothman, David Bent & IPC Club member David McCoy). Ben Rothman is ranked #1 in the US, and the players from other nations are in the top echelon of players from their country of origin.

Play will begin at 9:00 AM on Friday, April 22, and continue all day, every day, with finals being played on Sunday morning beginning at 9:00 AM. Time permitting; there will be a demonstration match on Sunday at noon with commentary. High-response Egyptian croquet balls will be used.

The tournament organizer and Club host is David McCoy. The Tournament Director is John Osborn, croquet pro at Mar a Lago. The International Polo Club Palm Beach’s tennis pro, Paul Hope, is the overall athletic-event coordinator for the weekend. For further information, please contact David McCoy at 561-792-9268 or 646-342-3221 (cell), or [email protected]; or John Osborn at 561-762-5904.
Other international sports competitions being held at IPC Palm Beach starting on Saturday that weekend include polo, tennis, cricket, women’s field hockey, and rugby, The official opening Cocktail Party at 6 PM on Friday, April 22^nd. The weekend features participants from South Africa in many of the sports.

Brief bios of the croquet players are as follows:

USA:

Ben Rothman, 27, from Orinda, California is the #1 ranked North American player in Golf Croquet, American Rules, and Association (International Rules) Croquet. Ben spends his winters as the Croquet Professional at Mission Hills Country Club in Palm Springs, California and his summers travelling and playing croquet all over the continent and abroad. Ben is ranked #22 in the world in Golf Croquet, is a six-time National Champion (including the current Golf Croquet title) and has represented the United States of America in all eight of the selection events since 2008.

David Bent, 48, is the tennis and croquet pro at the St. Andrews Club in Delray Beach, Florida, where he lives with his wife and two children. He is arguably the best croquet player in Florida, finishing ”in the money” in all four prior prize money competitions at the International Polo Club, and as a finalist in 2010. Although his best experience with Golf Croquet has been as a two-time United States National Championship finalist in doubles, he aspires to more glory as a winner in singles, and is working on his strategic game. He’s known for a gutsy playing style, and when his distance hitting is on, he’s a formidable opponent in any version of croquet. His Golf Croquet World Ranking is currently 49th.

David McCoy, 72, is a retired business executive from Wellington, Florida. He is the volunteer General Manager of the National Croquet Center in West Palm Beach. He has been playing croquet for 7 years. He recently won the USCA Club Teams’ Tournament Golf Croquet Championship. He also won the USCA national doubles championship in Golf Croquet in 2009. David is the member-host for this competition.

CANADA:

Brian Cumming, 57, is a retired businessman. He won six USCA national titles and ten Canadian national titles (in International and America rules). He began playing croquet in 1991. He resides in the village of Elora in rural Ontario. He has three children attending university. Besides croquet he enjoys competitive curling in the winter months. His other hobbies include reading, history, politics and the occasional taste of red wine.

EGYPT:

Sherif Abdelwahab, 49, is an Egyptian American living in Warwick, Rhode Island and croquet pro at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Sherif has won the USCA National Golf Croquet championship and has played in six Golf Croquet World Championships. He was one of the six players from the US to take on the Egyptians in the first “Egypt vs. The Rest of the World” event in 2009. He is ranked 93rd in the world.

UNITED KINGDOM:

Chris Patmore, 42, from Widnes, near Liverpool in England has been resident in New York for the past two years. Since picking the game up at Oxford University where he gained a half-blue, he has competed around the world at Championship level in Association, American Rules and Golf Croquet. He was the first player ever to win British and Australian open doubles championships in Association croquet and was runner up in the Championship of Ireland three years in a row. Last year he won the North-east and Mid-Atlantic regional, Osborn Cup, Bristol open, Beach Club and Piping Rock invitational events. He is currently champion of the West Indies and a member of the USA Association team.

Watch amazing highlights from world golf croquet tournaments @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqWdQEOxw6I

Details on other events and tickets at http://internationalpoloclub.com/2011/04/02/first-annual-international-weekend/