What Will Happen to Croquet in the Next Fifty Years?
Having considered something of the last 50 years, what of the next 50? It is a brave man who will stick his neck out with predictions for the future but I suppose it is something I am expected to do. Of course we must all hope, and have every confidence, that croquet will continue, at the very worst, at its present level of popularity; but there is no reason why we should not expect there to be an increase in the number of clubs and a corresponding increase in the number of tournaments available for us all to play in. In 1960 there were only four registered clubs north of Manchester; today there are 18. There have always been some, like Brian Lloyd Pratt, who deplored our efforts for so many years to broaden the scope and interest of croquet and to make it available to a wider audience. Brian was vociferous in his opinion that it should remain an ‘elitist’ game and not one that should be played by the ‘hoi polloi’. But I suppose everyone now realises that it is unlikely ever to become
