Yesterday the 16th of June 2026 was an incredible day not just for the Driffield Lawn tennis and croquet Club, but also for me as an individual. Our small club in Driffield was the starting point for the Croquet England’s Tour-de-Yorkshire. Part of the research by Croquet England’s [CqE], new C.E.O. Andy Dalby-Welch and the communications officer and editor of the online croquet gazette Alison Maugham. Both of whom have represented England in sports. Andy a former blind England cricketer and Alison who is the current UK ladies golf croquet [GC] champion as well as representing England in International croquet competition.
So why did they choose Driffield as their starting point, simply because since September 2024 CqE have been supporting me as an individual develop playing croquet from a wheelchair. CqE found and moved a BowlsRoyce wheelchair from Peterborough to the Driffield club. My experiments with various manual wheelchairs having proved they were not suitable for the sport.
So to set the scene, at the club yesterday afternoon were some members of the U3A who play on Mondays 2pm till 4pm. Also the regular members who gather for a club session on Tuesdays 2pm till 4pm.
After Alison and Andy had met with the U3A members who were playing GC, which is Alison’s speciality, they joined my wife Lesley and myself for a light lunch before meeting the club members, some photographs and the main purpose of the Tour-de-Yorkshire to find out at grass roots what was needed from CqE in terms of support and how to encourage the sport to grow. Alison also demonstrated some tutoring aids to help in the variation of the sport we tend to play association croquet or AC as its commonly known.
It was after this as Lesley and I took on Alison and Andy for a game of GC that my travails in a wheelchair were placed in a true perspective for me. I’ve always been inspired by Lesley and always will be as she learnt to walk again following her injuries and partial paralysis. I shall also be inspired in the future by Andy. To watch a blind person playing croquet being supported by Alison giving him coded instructions to line the mallet up with his feet, and then directions by rattling the cricket ball that was used in his international matches, and finally advice on strength of shot to play [a scale of 1 to 10]. To be honest was quite humbling something I didn’t think was possible. Clearly Alison was awesome and we lost 4 – 2 but it was truly great.
After another cup of tea and more cake for Andy we presented them with two mugs with the club logo printed on them, and were delighted when Alison found out the club desire to become more open to a junior section, she presented us with 4 junior mallets which work perfectly with the club’s 9 ounce weight balls.
