THE Portland Croquet Club hosted its annual Association Tournament over the course of this week, with players from across the state and beyond descending on the Botanic Gardens for four days of action.

The club had initially also intended to use the Henty Park tennis courts to accommodate additional players, but ultimately elected not to do so.

Club president Jan Gray said the turnout this year hadn’t been an all-time high for the club, but ultimately, they were glad to be able to host an event once again.

“It probably comes back to COVID if I’m honest, I know we can’t keep using it as an excuse but there’s been a bit of it around and I think sports like this have taken a while to get back up and running,” Gray said.

“We got lucky with the rain as well, the downpour we had over the weekend didn’t affect the surface too much.

“The people who take care of the grounds have done a fantastic job of keeping them looking good, it is a lot of work to maintain a lawn in this condition.

“We’ve had people coming across from Warrnambool, Port Fairy and even as far as Sale and Adelaide to play.

“The thing with croquet is once you reach the top echelon you need to be willing to travel pretty far to get a game, it takes a while to work your way up the ranks and get to this level.

“That’s probably factored into the drop in numbers a little bit as well, people need to travel a long way to play, and it’s just reduced the desire to do it I suppose.

“The numbers have thinned out a bit but the good thing about croquet is if you’re passionate about it you can play for a long time, I (came up against) a 90-year-old during this tournament and (was) pushed really hard.”