playerprofile Robert Fletcher
Age: 17 yrs, 9 months
Ranking: Australia #1, World #4
Home base: My parents farm, Dundonnell, Western Victoria. Tree hours West of Melbourne.
Home club: Lismore Croquet Club (Vic)
Grip: Standard/Traditional
Mallet: Hobbs; 12 in. head, weight 2lb 12, handle 39 in.
Years playing croquet: 7 years.
Favorite croquet venue: Victorian Croquet Centre. Because all the lawns are in one place and you don’t have to drive from club to club. Plus a great atmosphere with everyone at the same venue. Te lawns are also good in that depending on what time of the year the lawns can go from very easy to quite challenging, making it a different experience each tournament.
Favorite tournament: I probably don’t have a favourite tournament in particular, but more a favourite style/type of tournament, that I’ve played in. Which would be National Opens i.e. Aus Open, NZ Open, and British Open.
How did you get into the game: Te local Croquet/Bowls Coach (Eric O’Donnell) offered my brothers and I free lessons at bowls or croquet, and we went to croquet first and haven’t stopped.
Croquet highlights/tourney wins: Winning my first National Open (Aus Mens, in March just gone) would have to be one of my highlights, particularly seeing as I had been in four Open finals previous to that, with three going to the fiſth game. Another highlight was being part of the winning Australian Trans Tasman Team 2011, in which we were the first Australian team to win it in 20 years.
When did you know you could play: Probably two years aſter I took it up.
The future of the sport: Most likely more aggressive break play at a top level i.e. more people doing SXPs, most won’t be able to use it as a winning tactic, but it will probably push those who can to do more.
Pop culture favorites (TV, movies, books and/or music): TV: Te Mentalist Series and Monk Series, Movie: Zulu (1964), Books: history, nothing in particular, Music: Classical Baroque.
Quick croquet tip: Practice, despite being boring sometimes, makes a big difference in the long run.
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croquetnetwork.com | may-june 2011
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