Hogan went on to be the inaugural WCF world champion in 1989; New Zealand men's champion four times, open champion three times and doubles champion 10 times; British Open champion twice (he is still an undefeated champion in the British Open singles) and doubles champion once (with Bob Jackson); and a New Zealand team member for the MacRobertson Shield five times, his last two appearances coming 27 years apart — a record for the time between Shield appearances by one player.
In his Hall of Fame profile rewrite, Hogan said Gisborne was a fertile seedbed for young people to take up and develop in the game of croquet. Playing croquet was fun. Young players were tutored and encouraged in the sport by Barry Memorial club members Rua and Phyllis Clarke, parents of Richard and Judith.
The club had a positive feel to it. Younger players felt welcome and accepted, and they flourished.
Judith Clarke won the New Zealand women's title at the age of 16; Ross Smith won the NZ Levels singles and, with Paul Stuart, the NZ Levels doubles; and Peter Adsett, having played croquet for just over two years, won the NZ men's singles, beating New Zealand croquet great John Prince on the way. Richard Clarke went on to play MacRobertson Shield croquet for New Zealand in 1982. Another local high achiever of that era was Cliff Anderson, who captained the New Zealand 1974 MacRobertson Shield team that included his son Allan, who started his croquet career as a Lytton High School student in Gisborne but who later moved to Manawatu. A photo of Allan Anderson is on the Lytton High Hall of Fame wall.
These days Joe Hogan, 64, a maintenance carpenter at Gisborne Hospital, coaches once a month at the Barry Memorial Club courts. He still plays, not to the extent he did in his title-winning heyday, but his activity on the court could increase in the next few months.
Much of Hogan's croquet in the 1980s was played during breaks in his study for the priesthood. He was 21 when he went to Holy Cross College, the seminary at Mosgiel, just out of Dunedin. He started two weeks after the rest of the class because he wanted to complete the required number of hours for his carpentry apprenticeship.
“I completed my apprenticeship hours in Gisborne on Friday, I arrived at Holy Cross College on Saturday, they had a day of silence on Sunday, and I was ready to leave on Monday,” said Hogan, who enjoys few things more than a good yarn.
At the age of 28, following years of study interrupted by a few months away from the seminary when he doubted his calling, he was ordained in the Church of St Mary, Star of the Sea, Gisborne, in February 1987.
After a year, he realised the life was not for him and he left the priesthood. He remained a committed Catholic, however. Among the occupations he has had in the past 34 years was a job with the Catholic Diocese of Hamilton as a family life “animator”, supporting marriage and family. He has also been involved in family-friendly movements such as the Fish & Chip Club and the Focolare Movement.
Not everyone in Hogan's supportive “village” played croquet. During his carpentry apprenticeship with Story and Lomas, they gave him time off for tournaments; during his years of study at the seminary, they gave him holiday work; and after he left the priesthood, they employed him again. Peter Lomas, Vern Owen, Paul Roberts and Terry Brooking were especially supportive.
And Phil Gaukrodger, who taught the block courses at Tairawhiti Polytechnic during Hogan's apprenticeship, endorsed him for the carpentry advanced trade tutor's job at the polytech. At the age of 40, Hogan had entered the education field, training for a year as a secondary school teacher and then working at Campion College, where he taught — among other things — religious education and technology.
He is married to Robyn and they have three adult children — Sam, Mary and Matthew.
The year eldest child Sam was born, 1994, Hogan gave up team events to be around for his family. Apart from a few wild-card entries, he stayed away from the croquet courts.
That changed in early 2015, when one of the New Zealand selectors rang him to ask if he would consider returning to the croquet circuit and, if he was still good enough, be available for selection.
Hogan took the selector's request to his family, and they said, “Give it a go”.
In August 2016 he received another call: he was in the six-member New Zealand team to defend the MacRobertson Shield at Palm Springs, California, the following year.
When the tournament came around in April 2017, it had been 27 years since Joe Hogan last played a MacRobertson Shield match. It was believed to be a record break from the tournament comprising international teams from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
Australia won the tournament, but Hogan had the satisfaction of being part of a record-setting doubles victory against the US. He and Dunedin radiation therapist Chris Shilling set a record for the longest doubles match in the “modern era” of MacRobertson Shield play — the period since 1993, when the US started taking part.
The doubles match stretched over three days of the tournament, with Shilling and Hogan eventually taking the third game to win it.
Their dogged resistance in that match set up the second record: New Zealand became the first team in the modern era to win a MacRobertson Shield best-of-21-matches test after being 7-4 down. They beat the US 11-10, Chris Shilling clinching the test in the last 15 minutes of the fifth day in the third game of his singles match.
Early that year, Hogan had been treated with high-dose radiation through the insertion of radioactive seeds in the prostate to treat the prostate cancer that had been diagnosed in October 2016. After the MacRobertson Shield tournament, the cancer specialist told him the test results were good. His PSA (prostate-specific antigen) reading was almost zero.
Hogan remains healthy and has been urged by people in the sport to keep playing. Just his being there rubs off on the younger brigade, apparently.
He was speaking to New Zealand team member Aaron Westerby several weeks ago, and asked him how he (Hogan) could help the game that had given him so much.
“He said, ‘Joe, play’,” Hogan said.
“Aaron remembers when I partnered him in the New Zealand doubles when he was a promising young player.
“I had partnered Bob Jackson to nine New Zealand doubles championships. Bob was a great player, retired in Auckland now, thank goodness. In singles play, he was my nemesis, my main rival. That’s why I ended up playing doubles with him . . . you keep your enemies close, and Bob was a very nice enemy.
“But then a mate, Roger Murfitt (a MacRobertson Shield doubles partner) asked me how that was contributing to the younger generation of croquet players. So 1990 was my last year partnering Bob, and the following year Aaron and I won the national doubles championship.”
Hogan says he will probably pull out his old mallet and brush up his competition play. He tried a new mallet for a while but has gone back to the tried and true. Phyllis Clarke got the original for him in 1973 from Arthur Bruning, of Christchurch. He has changed the shaft since then but the mallet head has stayed the same.
He’ll talk with Robyn about his plans, and would love to show her the courts at The Hurlingham Club near Putney Bridge, London, where he won the British Open in 1986 and ’89 and the world championship in 1989, and “did some signficant damage for New Zealand”.
The world championship finals are being held there in July next year, and the event is one mentioned by WCF secretary-general Debbie Lines as a possible venue for the presentation of the certificate marking Hogan’s induction into the Hall of Fame.
The idea of competing in the qualifying events for the world champs 34 years after winning the title also appeals. The last time Hogan competed in the world champs was in Wellington in 2018, when the title was won by New Zealand’s Paddy Chapman, the only other Kiwi to be world men’s singles champion.
Hogan may now be considered to be in the veteran stage of his sporting career, but the croquet world learned long ago never to write him off.
