Hogan spreads the joy at Hall of Fame function

PRESENTATION 'SELFIE': From left, Joe Hogan, sister Marie, wife Robyn (in front) and son Matthew. Picture supplied

CROQUET

IN the age of the “selfie”, former world croquet champion Joe Hogan was not about to buck the rules of best practice.

So when his wife Robyn, son Matthew and sister Marie Hogan gathered to support him at the presentation of the certificate of his induction into the World Croquet Federation Hall of Fame, Joe Hogan took the obligatory group self-portrait.

The presentation was made by two-time world singles champion Chris Clarke, who has the distinction of having won nine world titles and never having lost a major international test match.

Clarke — an Englishman who played for England and New Zealand, and now lives in Christchurch with his wife Jenny (a New Zealand representative) — told the gathering it was good to play the best. When he was emerging as a young croquet player, Joe Hogan was the best.

He was pleased to be drawn against him at the inaugural World Croquet Federation singles championship in England in 1989. Hogan beat the young Clarke on his way to becoming the first WCF world singles champion, and then beat him again as he and Bob Jackson won the British Open doubles.

But now they’re the best of mates, and it was Clarke who nominated Hogan for the WCF Hall of Fame.

They’d even visited Disneyland together, when they were in California for the 2017 MacRobertson Shield.

Clarke said he retained the typical English reserve in social situations; not so, Hogan. Within minutes he had struck up conversations with those ahead of and behind them in the Disneyland queues.

The presentation was made at the barbecue dinner on the eve of the Under-21 Golf Croquet World Singles Championships in Mount Maunganui.

Clarke advised the young competitors to have a talk with Hogan — it wouldn’t be hard — and take in everything he said.

Hogan, in turn, had a special message for the young players of the countries represented. He told the Spanish he liked their football, the Americans their hospitality, and the British the memories of some of the best croquet he’d played.