James Hopgood

(Scotland)

Born: 1974

James first discovered Croquet in the summer of 1994 while studying at the University of Cambridge. The biannual games he played contained the usual garden-Croquet attributes: drink, lots of it, Crown-green five Plummer lawns with very long grass, thin wire hoops, beautiful scenery in the Fellow’s garden, horror at hearing the rubbish Chauffeur punters preached to tourists as they punted by on the River Cam, a complete lack of any tactical knowledge, or rules for that matter, no bisques, very long and heated debates regarding whether rushing a ball off the lawn was end of turn or not, and playing turns in order of number of University Degrees. Not unlike the discussions on the Nottingham board then?

Upon moving to Edinburgh, Scotland, in the summer of 2004, James spotted, while buying a "rump chip steak" in a local chip shop, an advert for a beginner’s course at the Meadows Croquet Club. Assuming this would be similar to Croquet experience from down South, James visited hoping for more… only to discover flat lawns, tight hoops, bisques, good coaching, a decent local pub, and a thoroughly more interesting game than he thought imaginable.

James entered the Scottish handicap tournament circuit in September 2004, advanced play from June 2006, and since 2007 has discovered the delights of travelling around the British tournament circuit.

James is a Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh in the School of Engineering. His research area is in Statistical Signal Processing, with a primary interest in audio and image enhancement using numerical Bayesian methods such as Markov-chain and sequential Monte Carlo techniques.

AC Playing Record