Mark makes Irish Croquet History!

On Sunday 24th July, Irishman Mark McInerney (27) became Ireland's latest World Champion - winning the 2011 Best Invest Golf Croquet World Championship at The Hurlingham Club in London. Not only is Mark Ireland's first Croquet World Champion but he also became the first player not from Egypt to win the Golf Croquet World Championship which was first contested in 1996. Mark is a member of Carrickmines Croquet & Lawn Tennis Club where he and his brothers have played International Croquet for many years.
Mark, a wild card entry who had twice before reached the semi-finals, played brilliantly all week. In the course of winning the title, he had to beat the 2004, 2006 and 2008 champions. This was a truly magnificent feat in itself coming from a game down in both matches to win.

Mark was a popular finalist and received a warm round of applause as he walked onto lawn 4 in his green Ireland shirt ready to begin the match. His opponent in the final was Hisham Aboesbaa, who had made it past a quarter final against Reg Bamford, of South Africa, in two games to reach this stage. The first game went to Mark fairly comfortably (7-4) but the second game could have gone either way, with Mark coming back from a 4-6 deficit to win. Mark cleared his opponent from position in front of hoop 13 from over 20 yards away twice before running the hoop from the boundary for the game. Game three was to prove a little more tricky, Mark once again falling two hoops behind at one point. Thankfully he managed to turn it around and played some excellent
shots to win 7-5.

Along with the Trophy, Mark, was awarded a WCF Gold Medal and Hisham Aboesbaa (Egypt) a WCF silver medal. WCF bronze medals were received by the two other semi-finalists: Ahmed Nasr (Egypt) and Hamish McIntosh (New Zealand).