Tournament Director and Tournament Referee
Mike Cohn
As Tournament Director, I welcome the teams, officials, and spectators. I have previously chaired Organising Committees for 2009 Women’s World Golf Croquet Championships and the 2017 World Golf Croquet Championships. I was Tournament director for the 2020 World Association Croquet Championships.
I became an Association Croquet Referee in 2007 and refereed at State and National level from soon thereafter. I have refereed at the 2011 Trans-Tasman AC Championships, 2012 World AC Championships, 2012 Women’s World AC Championships, 2018 World AC Championships, 2020 World AC Championships, and was Deputy Tournament Referee for the 2018 Trans-Tasman AC Championships. I also attended to the 2013 and 2016 World AC Championships. Since 2016, I have been the Australian National Coordinator Refereeing Association Croquet.
WCF Event Lead
Graeme Roberts
Graeme has been playing croquet for more than 50 years. He represented New Zealand in the MacRobertson Shield contest in Australia in 1982 and has been an international referee since 1990. This series in Melbourne will be the sixth time Graeme has been a referee in a MacRobertson Shield contest. He has also been a referee in five World AC Championships, one Women’s AC World Championship and five Trans-Tasman tests. These duties have taken him to Australia, the USA and France as well as New Zealand. As a player, Graeme has won the New Zealand Open Championship Doubles once (with Richard Clarke), the New Zealand Men’s Championship twice, and has been a semi-finalist in the New Zealand Open Championship Singles three times. Graeme retired from his role as a policy adviser on national security issues in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in 2018 after having held various positions within the Department over 36 years. Graeme was elected to the World Croquet Federation’s Management Committee in January 2022 and in that capacity is the WCF’s Event Lead for this MacRobertson Shield competition, the forthcoming Women’s AC World Championship in Christchurch and the Under 21 GC World Championship in Mount Maunganui.
Tournament Manager
Kevin Beard
Kevin has played over 2,600 ranking games of association croquet and completed over 500 triple peels since he began at the Brunswick Croquet Club in Melbourne 24 years ago.
Kevin has represented Australia in the MacRobertson Shield (England, 2010) and the Trans-Tasman. He has won the Australian Open Doubles with Stephen Mulliner and the (British) Open Doubles with Jeff Dawson. He has won the Scottish and Swiss Open Singles Championships, but his first Australian Open Singles title is still ahead of him.
In golf croquet, Kevin has represented Australia in the World Teams Championship and Trans-Tasman. He has won the Australian Open Singles three times, Men's once and Open Doubles once with John van der Touw.
On the home front, Kevin and his partner, Janet, have two daughters and two adorable grandchildren. He worked as a geneticist in the Australian dairy industry for most of his working life. He took early (semi) retirement in 2007 which allowed him to travel and play in many national championships and in 15 World Championships across both codes of croquet.
Kevin has experience managing croquet tournaments at club and state level including several Victorian Open Championships at the Victorian Croquet Centre.