Croquet has been played in Britain for over 300 years and is one of the few sports that actually requires you to think and plan ahead rather than just hitting balls around. The origin of Croquet dates back to the reign of Charles II, when it was played under the name of Pall Mall. It was re-discovered by the Victorians as a pastime for ladies and gentlemen, since when it has evolved into a popular competitive sport played in many countries all around the world. It has two main versions; Association Croquet is the classic game, largely unchanged since Edwardian times, and Golf Croquet, which is a more recent development. Many people start with Golf Croquet, which has simpler rules and a faster pace, but then learn the greater subtleties and skills of Association Croquet. Taunton Deane Croquet Club started in 1985 with a single lawn with a severe slope. In 1991 we moved to a new venue off Greenway Road with 2½ lawns and played there from 1993 to 2004. In 2002, however, we learned that we would have to move again soon and this time, with the aid of considerable funding from Sport England, the Croquet Association, Taunton Deane Borough Council and our own members, we installed 3 full-sized lawns adjacent to the Taunton Vale Sports Club on Gipsy Lane off Greenway Road. We have been playing there since 2005. Our competition record includes wins in the Intermediate League in 2005, 2007 and 2010 and in the Federation League in 1994 and 2013. In 2014 our Advanced Team won the 3rd Division of the Parkstone Trophy and, after a play-off were promoted to the 2nd Division. We followed this in 2015 by winning the 2nd Division and only lost the play-off for promotion to the 1st Division by 2 games to 3. 2016 wasn't so good but in 2017 we won the 2nd Division of the Parkstone again, but again lost the play-off for promotion 2-3. In that year we also won the B-League trophy for the first time and were finalists in the Golf Croquet Level Play league. 2018 was the best year in the club's history with three trophies in the SWF Leagues. We won the AC Intermediate and the GC Level Play leagues and also won the 2nd Division of the Advanced League. This meant that we were promoted to the first division for the next season. In 2019 we also won three trophies but they were all in the Short Croquet tournaments. One of our teams won their division in the Spring and both did in the Autumn. President: John de Winton Chairman: Sue Baker Secretary: Beverley Tapper Treasurer: Margaret Huckett Committee: Dave Jones Martin Wicks Mary Bradshaw Maureen Rowe Mike Balch Stephen Custance-Baker