2022-23 Draft Tournament Calendar

Croquet New Zealand is excited to announce the draft 2022-23 CNZ Tournament Calendar. Following the confirmation of dates, Croquet New Zealand will now work with Associations to allocate hosts. The calendar will be updated periodically as hosts are confirmed. The draft calendar can be found, here. (UPDATE: The confirmed calendar can now be found, here)

Drawing on the July 2021 survey the new calendar better meets the needs of players and Associations, while aligning with the new High-Performance Plan coming into effect from the 2022-23 season.

The changes include the Island Championships now being held bi-annually on alternating years.

By moving the Island Championships to being held bi-annually, this will reduce the number of tournaments CNZ hold in any given season. This gives players the ability to play in regional and local events already on offer and increases the standard of these tournaments. It will also reduce what CNZ asks of Associations when it comes to hosting tournaments which should help ensure tournament hosts are found more readily for CNZ events and will not lead to volunteer burnout.
This was supported by 89% of Associations and over 65% of players which responded.

The initial Island Championships will be in 2022-23 with the AC in the South Island and the GC in the North Island.

The Invitation events are now directly tied to the High-Performance Plan and the player development pathway. A Women’s GC Invitation has been introduced matching the Women’s AC Invitation with both targeting the Women’s World Championships. There will be four invitations in both AC and GC and are detailed below. These changes ensure the top two Invitations remain prestigious events, while combining the third and fourth invitations will decrease the likelihood of these invitations having to be cancelled due to a lack of interest. There will no longer be handicap restrictions on Invitation events, rather the Selectors will have the ability to select players for each of the events.