All games will be played at the United Croquet Club in Hagley Park. Some singles matches will be double banked. Play will commence at 8.30 am daily with a five minute hit up before. Due to low entries Sunday will be a leisure day or a reserve day if required by weather or to complete the main event knockout.
DOUBLES We have 8 pairs and will start with 2 blocks of 4 with no time limits on Saturday. Two pairs will qualify from each block for the knockout. The knockout will commence on Sunday. The semi-finals on Sunday and finals on Monday will be best-of-3 and are likely to have time limits of 4/7/10, as will the third and fourth playoff. The Plate event will be a knockout but with a single game semi-final and a best-of-3 final with likely time limits of 4/7/10. The semi-final and the start of the best-of-3s will be on Sunday with the best-of-3s finishing on Monday
SINGLES We have 16 entries and will start with 2 blocks of 8 playing 3 games on Tuesday and Wednesday and 1 game on Thursday with no time limits. The draw for the knockout will be conducted at United using the Player Choice method. The top 4 players from each block will qualify for the knockout. with ties on wins being broken by net hoops.
The main event knockout. will start on Thursday with best-of 3 matches and time limits initially of 4/7/10. Third and fourth will be decided similarly while the bowl will be a double round robin of single games with ties broken on net hoops. The main KO final will be best-pf-5 with time limits of 4/7/10/13/15.
The Plate event will start on Thursday with a single block of 8 players. They will play a round robin of single games with 3 hour time limits and ties broken on net hoops. On Thursday 2 rounds will be played, with 3 on Friday and 2 on Saturday.
DRAW The draw for both singles and doubles will be listed on croquetscores.com using the rankings as of 19 January 2021. Details regarding order of play, along with this welcome email, will be posted in the commentary section of the NZ Open page on croquetscores.com. Please check this section for updates.

DOUBLE BANKING Due to lawn and time constraints, there will be many double-banked timed games in the singles event. If you believe you are likely to have to wait more than a minute for your double bankers, you may stop your clock – please remember to restart it!!

PRACTICE Lawns will be available for practice from 1 to 4 pm on the day before each event starts. All players are entitled to 5 minutes practice prior to their first game of the day. During this time, hoops may be run, but only with strokes that would send the ball no further than 7 yards if the hoop was run cleanly. If byes are required players who have had byes first round and are due to play someone who has played a game may have 15 minutes practice. Players who have had a bye but have already played may have 5 minutes practice.
BALLS All balls at United are in matched sets. Please keep the balls on their original lawns.
CATERING AND SOCIAL There will be a clubhouse fee of $5 per day for all players. Please pay this to the Manager on the first day you are present. Morning and afternoon tea will be included in this.
Lunches from Subway will be available to those that order before 10.30 am.
If there is sufficient interest BBQ sausages + onions will be available on Monday and Friday at 5pm – price $2 each.
Cold soft drinks will be available from inside the fridge in the equipment shed – cost $2 each. Please can you reply to this email indicating whether or not you are likely to purchase lunches and/or sausages/onions.