A Brief History of Croquet at West Point Grey

Well, croquet at West Point Grey  really didn't start with Billy the Kid but it did start in early 1989 when a letter arrived at the West Point Grey Lawn Bowling Club (WPGLBC) asking that the Vancouver Croquet Club (VCC) use one of the lawns for 6-wicket croquet. This generated considerable debate at subsequent meetings of club directors as to its advisability; much of the discussion having to do with damage to the lawn from wickets (hoops), players’ shoes, and misdirected swings of croquet mallets. One prominent member of the club threatened to resign if croquet was allowed, which he eventually did when the directors voted to approve the application. Perhaps the rather hefty first year user fee of $5000 was a factor in their decision. That letter of application was signed by Brian Wasylyk, who along with Bob Imhoff and Linda Ferris, were the founders of croquet at the WPGLBC. The three founders had only recently taken up 6-wicket croquet after playing 9-wicket croquet down the hill on the grass at Jericho Beach across from the hostel. They had also just completed a training course and some competitive play at the United States Croquet Association training centre in West Palm Beach, Florida where they learned more about American Rules 6-wicket croquet.

This was the game that was being played when I arrived late in the summer of 1998 and first met some of the other initial club members; Ben Houston, Ruth Nichol, Mary Banham and Hettie Bond. Ruth, Mary and Hettie had come from Brock House where croquet was played on the grass surrounding the clubhouse. Over the years, Brock House was to be a source of many VCC players. Arriving in earlier years were Freddy Foster, Vasant Kalyanpur, Hal Linberg, Angie Kaye and others and in later years, Margaret Hyslop, Marie Pryce and Barbara Wallace. Marie helped immensely in administration and teaching programs during her membership. She also served as club president for several years. In addition, when I first arrived I also met John Adams, Chris Percival-Smith, Pablo Coffee, Walker Fanning, Steve Dimond and others whose names have now slipped my mind. I remember Chris in particular because he was the club’s best player and because of the time he spent helping others to improve their play. John Adams spent countless hours playing singles with me in the beginning. Some of us are still playing today, nearly 25 years later.

In the initial 1989 season the re-minted VCC set about to establish itself on the international croquet scene by holding the first of many “Vancouver Open” tournaments at WPG. The players came mainly from BC, Washington and Oregon but occasionally there were players from farther afield. Because it was the main croquet game played in North America at the time, initially these tournaments were American Rules (AR) 6-wicket croquet but over the years they changed to Association Croquet (AC) tournaments which was the game most widely played outside of North America. The transition to AC started with some members, who were sick and tired of the “deadness board”, playing AC outside of scheduled play, often under the lights on the West Lawn into early morning hours. The transition was also due to the arrival of Derrick Robinson who had played AC in Ireland and later in Quebec but it was also part of the same trend that was occurring in clubs in the American West where they increasingly embraced AC over AR. In 2006 I played my first AC with Derrick and rarely ever played AR thereafter. The year 2012 was the first of several years the Pacific Cup AC tournament was held at WPG, further attesting to the increasing popularity of AC.

Golf Croquet, which is now the most popular croquet game in the world, began to be played at WPG at about the same time. It was Pablo’s favourite game. He and Ben played it endlessly, eventually pulling other members into their fold. Today, at WPG we rarely ever play AR and even AC is played regularly by only a few players. Of course, we still play Golf Croquet but the current rage here, and in all of BC, is Snake-in-the-Grass Croquet, or Snake for short. Snake is a variant of Golf Croquet invented by Pierre Dunn by making some small but important changes to Golf Croquet rules. Pierre and I played an early version of Snake at WPG before he moved to Victoria where the game has blossomed and lawn bowling clubs have increasingly added croquet to their programs. Since this writing will go into the new WPGLBC 50-year 2021 time capsule it seems appropriate to make at least one prediction for future members and guests to chuckle about when the capsule is opened in the year 2071. My prediction is: from its WPG origin, Snake Croquet will spread to be played worldwide and there will be a world championship competition as there currently is for Association Croquet and Golf Croquet. But, if it happens at all, it probably will happen well before 2071.

I have written about the transition in croquet games played at WPG over the years and named some of the people who played them but before I close I must mention the transition in the VCC itself. In 2017, with membership having fallen to only 6, it was unanimous that we make an even stronger effort than we had in earlier years to amalgamate with the WPGLBC and in 2018 under the helpful leadership of President Charles Hou it was done. This was a somber end to an organization responsible for bringing 6-wicket croquet to Vancouver but it was our belief that it was for the best. VCC membership had been declining steadily since 2011 and we thought that being able to offer an all-inclusive package for the same fee that included both croquet and lawn bowling along with other benefits, including insurance coverage, would increase the number of croquet players. Since amalgamation, there has been a sharp revival in our numbers to currently stand at 22 players*(8 are also bowlers), so seemingly it has worked. However, we will keep our fingers crossed that it is not just an effect arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. Although the VCC no longer exists as a separate croquet club playing at WPG, the memory of it lives on in this brief history and in both private and public records elsewhere.

Russell Uhler 

August, 2021