The event will be played at the National Croquet Centre (NCC) and at the PGA. The NCC has 12 lawns and the PGA has 3 lawns. For those of you who have not played at these venues before, they both have excellent grass quality.The groundsman has indicated that NCC is expected to play at around 12+ Plummers. PGA will be slower, probably around 9-10 Plummers.
Superhoops and Dawson balls will be used at both venues. WCF hoops regs indicate that the hoops will be set to the largest ball on each lawn and the gap will be 1/32”. This may be reduced to 1/64” if playing conditions are considered very easy.
The draw for blocks will take place on April 2nd and I will post the blocks on croquetscores.com that evening. Please note that I will use croquetscores.com Commentary page to post details of late starts and venues during the event for those unable to view them on the main noticeboard at NCC. At present, we have 75 entrants in the main event and 5 places available at the Qualifier.

Event Format/Schedule
Play will start at 09.00 each day.
Sat 16th to Mon 18th
8 blocks of 10 players. 6 blocks at NCC, 2 blocks at PGA each day.
At the end of Monday, the top 4 players from each block qualify for the main knockout, the bottom 6 are eligible to play in the Plate. Ties on numbers of wins for 4th place will be decided by play-offs at NCC on Tuesday. It is my intention to attempt to avoid the use of time limits in the main event.

Tuesday
Block play-offs at NCC single banked.
Plate begins 9am. Plate games will be single games with 3hr time limits, double banked. Both PGA and NCC will be used for Plate games. The format for the Plate is a flexible swiss from Tuesday to Friday followed by a knockout in the weekend. To be eligible to make the Plate Knockout, you must play a minimum of 7 games, and be available to play on Friday afternoon. At the end of play on Friday, the top 16 players will qualify for the Plate Knockout. Ties on percentage wins for 16th place will be broken using average strength of opponent.
The Plate knockout will be single game until the final. The last 16, QF and SF will be played on Saturday at NCC with a best of 3 final at NCC on Sunday.
The Draw for the main knockout will take place at NCC about 45 minutes after the last play-off game has finished. It will follow the WCF Regs and be based on World Ranking at the end of block play and including the play-offs if possible.

Wednesday
A decision will be made as to whether to play best of 3 or 5 and whether to single/double bank the last 32 on Tuesday, based upon playing conditions/speed of play.

Plate players: The Plate will continue, but fewer lawns will be available.

Thursday
Main K.O. last 16, best of 5 single banked.
The Bowl starts. The Bowl is an event for the 16 losers of the main event knockout first round. It will be played as a full knockout, best of 3. This means that even if you lose, you will have 4 matches over the next 4 days at NCC.
Plate continues at PGA and NCC.

Friday
Q-Fs of main event, best of 5 single banked.
Bowl continues at NCC.
Shield starts at NCC. The Shield is an event for the 8 losers of the main event knockout second round. It will be played as a full knockout, best of 3, meaning that even if you lose, you will play 3 matches over the next 3 days at NCC.
Plate continues at PGA and NCC.

Draw for Plate K.O. to take place at NCC on Friday after play.

Saturday
SFs of main event, best of 5 single banked.
Bowl continues at NCC.
Shield continues at NCC.
Plate Knockout starts at NCC.

Sunday
Final of main event best, of 5 single banked at NCC.
Bowl continues at NCC.
Shield continues at NCC.
Plate Final single banked best of 3 at NCC.