South Taranaki golf croquet player wins national Don Reyland Stars competition

Park Croquet Club Hawera member Ricardo Pintor won the Croquet New Zealand Don Reyland Stars Handicaps in Dunedin over Taranaki Anniversary weekend. Photo / Alyssa Smith

A South Taranaki golf croquet player has won a prestigious tournament.

Park Croquet Club Hāwera member Ricardo Pintor competed at the three-day Croquet New Zealand Don Reyland Stars Handicaps in Dunedin over Taranaki Anniversary weekend, representing Croquet South Taranaki.

The Don Reyland Stars Tournament is a golf croquet handicap singles tournament. The playing format was golf croquet, a simpler and faster version of the traditional croquet game.

Playing on a new set of greens in a new place was the drawcard, says Ricardo.

“It was pretty cool to play croquet in a new place and equally as cool to represent Croquet South Taranaki.”

While it was his first time playing in the South Island, it wasn’t his first time winning the competition.

“I first won the event in Morrinsville two years ago. I think having that experience of playing in the competition helped me this time around. I managed to get the ball to the right places but the games were close. It could have gone either way.”

Ricardo won 11 of his 13 games, competing against players from North Taranaki, Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay, Wellington, Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, South Canterbury, Otago and Southland.

“The North Taranaki player was Catherine Martin. I played against her in Morrinsville and we’re quite good friends. The golf croquet world is quite small actually, the player from Bay of Plenty was the grandmother of some kids I taught in Hāwera.”

Ricardo says as well as facing other players it was also a case of battling the elements.

“It was quite windy on the second day and several players struggled with that. Taranaki is notorious for wind so having that experience of playing in not-ideal conditions helped a lot.”

He says throughout the whole competition, he was neck and neck with Southland player Max Philpott.

“That game, well most of my games actually, went to the 13th hoop. You know if it gets to that point it’s pretty close. I won against Max by a point so the title could have gone either way.”