Updated:10/10/2021 00:41h
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Croquet is a sport on the rise in Spain and the level of its players on the world scene is responsible for confirming it. Six years ago, in 2015, in our country there were around 250 federated players, however, today the figure exceeds 1,800. It is booming, more and more people want to practice it and therefore many golf clubs are adding croquet fields to their facilities. As a consequence of this flourishing, national talent has grown and is already close, one step away, from the best world powers such as England, Ireland, Egypt, New Zealand or the United States.
This step, this step that separates Spain from the elite, is the World Championship by Countries (tier 2, ‘second division’), to be held in the province of Cádiz from October 11 to 16 between the Real Club de Golf Vista Hermosa (El Puerto de Santamaría), Real Novo Sancti Petri Golf Club and the Sherry Golf & Croquet (Jerez de la Frontera). Certainly, within the host team there is illusion, since, with the permission of Gales, is the main candidate to win the title.
As in England 2016, where Spain lost the final to Australia, the team will be made up of Jose Riva (captain and number one in the national ranking), the brothers José, Andrés and Manuel Alvarez-Sala; Rafael Romero and Basilio Iglesias. “We are doing well, we are the top six in the Spanish ranking, we have trained a lot and, personally, I think we have a good team,” he told ABC Andrés Álvarez-Sala, current champion of Spain.
In this intercontinental event, whose winner automatically rises up the category, the Spanish team will face Canada, Switzerland and Norway in group A to try to reach the semifinal (the first two are classified since only eight teams divided into two groups participate). “To be able to go up and compete against the croquet powers in four years would be a good recognition of the good work that is being done in Spain”, says Álvarez-Sala in the preview of the tournament.
That the World Championship is held in Cádiz is not a surprise, since this sport is experiencing moments of prosperity and expansion in the south of the peninsula. One of the pioneering golf clubs in the art of croquet in Andalusia is the Ballena coast (Rota), a fundamental actor in the development of this practice in the province of Cadiz.
Both the semifinals and the final (October 15 and 16) can be followed through the official website of the tournament, where you can check the results, schedules and outstanding news of the international event at any time.
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