2024 Canadian National Golf Croquet Championship

The 2024 Canadian Golf Croquet Championships were held in Toronto July 12-14. North Toronto Croquet Club hosted all the Championship Flight games and the First Flight finals. The Lawrence Park Lawn Bowling & Croquet Club hosted the First Flight for block play and all playoff games. North Toronto Croquet is a USCA member club.

The field of 24 competitors had British, American and, of course, Canadian representation. Canadian competitors included Gopala Gowda from Victoria, British Columbia, and Malcolm Cromarty from Dorchester, Ontario, competing in his first Canadian tournament at age 87!

Adam Barr was the organizer and tournament director. This is only Barr’s third year playing croquet. His wife Naomi did an incredible job looking after all the delicious food (the Sunday Middle Eastern feast was a real highlight). Gregg Hannah took the lead for coordinating and refereeing the Lawrence Park games. John Miles coordinated the off-court activities at North Toronto. Many others volunteered and their assistance went a long way in making this tournament a fantastic success.

First Flight block play saw Susan Creasey go undefeated in block A, and Ned Sperry undefeated in block B. In the finals, Ned Sperry faced Bill Simmons, and Sperry won the best-of-three game final, 7-5, 7-5. The Plate was won by Graydon Bell. (Malcom Cromarty came took fifth.)

In Championship Flight, Alain Giraud and Amr Hamdy both went undefeated in their block play but did not make it to the finals (Giraud recently moved from the United Kingdom and is a member of North Toronto). The finals had five-time Canadian Champion John Richardson playing Adam Barr in the best-of-five game final. Barr got off to a very slow start losing the first game 7-0. He then came back winning the next two games 7-3 and 7-6. Richardson was not giving up and took game four, 7-5, setting up the fifth and deciding game. Barr prevailed 7-5 and became the new Canadian Champion. They both had a few shots that they probably wished they could retake, but they both made many magnificent shots; Richardson made a double jump shot from about 25 feet from the hoop.

—Phil Parsons