World Croquet Federation
Hall of Fame
Jean Armstrong
Born: 1913
Inducted: 2008
Jean has made a substantial contribution to croquet over a very long period of time. One of her big strengths was in getting new players to begin playing and then continue to play the game. She was tenacious but players came under her spell and were determined to do well guided by her expert tuition.
Jean is a fount of knowledge of the game but, sadly, no longer plays or coaches. It is estimated that the 300 or so players coached up to 1984 must have swollen to more than double or triple that by now.
Sadly Jean has recently had a stroke and is wheelchair bound but is determined to walk again. She has already walked with the aid of a 4-wheeler walker to the end of her street and no doubt her determination will eventually see her walking unaided.
- Jean has an enviable record of success stories of the people she has coached. Altogether, twelve people who had their first game with her have gone on to be state players.
- She along with husband Tom wasted two years of their lives teaching people in colleges and CAE’s hoping to get some players that would be able to beat the Englishmen but, they felt they had wasted two years because only two first class players were recruited: Neil Spooner and Robert Bartholomaeus.
- Between 1969 and 1971 she was teaching five days a week in six colleges. Saturday matches were organised and the mothers liked this because the croquet court became a social meeting place.
- Competitions were arranged at the South Australian Croquet Association Headquarters with as many as 48 out on a Saturday morning.
- She started at Westminster school in 1969. Six of the boys became croquet players and joined Brighton Croquet Club. They played in the pennants and won the pennant for Brighton but there wasn’t a pennant for the school. At SACA headquarters hands went up in horror. You can’t have two pennants!! So Barrie Chambers bought them one. History was made – a pennant for the Club and a pennant for the School.
- Although she worked very hard in schools and colleges she found that it was not a great source of croquet players. It fitted in with the theory that the younger a player starts croquet, the earlier he or she leaves the game. Unfortunately it fitted the theory that school kids, when taught the game, don’t go on with it. Another was that the girls didn’t go on with it because of the restriction in clothing. For example one girl was got at because she went without a hat!
- Recruiting was another area where Jean had an amazing record and believed there were hundreds. It was believed that there were about 300 who became registered croquet players during that time.
- In Jean’s words she said, “I think the main thing is that once we’ve got ‘em we haven’t lost them!”
- Newly established Marion Croquet Club was one of her crowning glories regarding recruiting. The five lawns were first used in February, 1983. Within about nine months there was a membership of forty, almost thirty of them new to croquet. At its peak Marion had over 100 members. First it was a trickle, then a flood. It has proved that new players are the best recruiters. Her first strategy was to make the new players enthusiastic. She did this by playing golf croquet until they were hooked, and then devoted time to making them knowledgeable in the game.
- Another triumph of recruitment was in Rockhampton. The last time she went to Rockhampton she stayed there six weeks and recruited twelve financial paid-up members who had never thought of playing croquet. The Club President arranged for her to be interviewed on TV and this certainly helped. Four of the recruits were from the TV station.
- There was more success at Barmera which was started from nothing. The courts were laid, croquet gear was lent to them and soon there were twenty-seven players.
- For some years she liaised with what was then known as the National Fitness Council (now Recreation and Sport.) and participated in their Recreation for Housewives Scheme, mostly in the city but on one occasion a three day visit to Barmera. There a most enthusiastic group was coached on the oval and, when the irrigation programme drove them off, she persuaded the Hotel to lend a piece of ground where a two court complex was made available.
- Jean Armstrong is one of those rare individuals who can combine the development of excellence in sport combined with the encouragement of the ‘also rans'. She does not discriminate from a potential state/ international player to a person who has difficulty in walking. She just loves Croquet and her enthusiasm endures.