Morning Coffee: Christchurch, Wood Mallets, Hilton Head and WCF Under-21 GC Championship

In case you missed it earlier today, Christchurch, New Zealand was hit by a severe earthquake. Comments from Chris Clarke were included in an earlier post on Croquet Network (re-posted from the Nottingham list).

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CQnet StoreRegular croquet news seems trivial, but here is the Morning Coffee rundown. We're on a Tuesday schedule this week due to President's Day in the U.S. In an odd coincidence, this post is pretty much built over a week and there happened to be many croquet news items from New Zealand.

The WCF has now launched a dedicated Under-21 GC World Championship section of the main WCF website --
http://www.wcfcroquet.org/Tournaments/u21gcwc2011.html

Profile on New Zealand mallet manufacturer George Wood --
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/small-business/4682654/Award-winning-firm-relishes-the-knocks

Croquet Mount Maunganui club teamed up with two other organizations to open an $8.9 million facility in Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. The overall club has now grown from 2,000 members to over 4,000. It would be interesting to know more about this model --
http://www.bayofplentytimes.co.nz/local/news/mount-greens-complex-opens/3940436/

Hilton Head South Carolina Sun City Croquet Club profiled --

"I was curious. I said to myself, 'Croquet has been around for hundreds of years so there must be something good about it for it to last that long.'"

http://www.islandpacket.com/2011/02/21/1556073/wicked-fun-sun-city-croquet-club.html

Recent results from the New Zealand croquet scene --
Richard Kimberly wins CA Gold Cup
Jim Wardle wins Mrs RA Copper Tray

Back in the United States, Murray Pollock won the Green Gables Winter Tournament. Full tournament results --
/croquet-network-forum/post/1412067#post1412067

A little more ice action from the Denver Croquet Club --
http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_17407427