World champs at the Gardens

COMING TO TOWN: The World Golf Croquet Championships are being held across the Bay of Plenty, including the Rotorua Croquet Club. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

While plenty of buzz is starting to build around the ICC Cricket World Cup in New Zealand - supporters of another sporting code are gearing up for their very own world championships in the Bay of Plenty.

The World Golf Croquet Championships start next weekend and are being held at four clubs in the Bay of Plenty, including the Rotorua Croquet Club.

President Dorothy Dyson said, to her understanding, it was the biggest event Rotorua Croquet Club had hosted since it was established 108 years ago.

"This will be the biggest one - the most noteworthy one," she said.

The Rotorua club is based at the Government Gardens and boasts a brilliant setting for the world champs.

The Whakatane, Katikati and Mount Maunganui croquet clubs will also be hosting matches during the championships, with the Mount being the headquarters for the event.

A total of 80 players from 11 countries will compete for the world title, including about 15 Kiwis.

Dyson explained golf croquet was different to association croquet - which is the other main discipline of the game.

"It is interesting because association croquet is the purist form of the game and golf croquet has come in during the past few years, about 10 years ago I think, and has been very popular," she said.

"Golf croquet is a lot quicker and it is not as technical ... it is a little bit like test cricket versus one-day cricket."

She said they had five lawns at the club and they would all be used during the world champs.

She said all 80 players would get a chance to play in Rotorua during round robin play and those games would run from next Saturday to the following Friday. The finals will then be in Mount Maunganui.

Dyson said they would be putting up a temporary fence around their lawns next week for the world champs.

She said some of the players coming to the event, especially the Egyptians, could hit the ball a long way and they needed to put up the fence for safety.

There will be an opening ceremony, with a parade of flags, at Croquet Mount Maunganui at 5pm on Friday.