Mid Canterbury’s Logan McCorkindale (left) and Dennis Bulloch, who he beat to claim the South Island Golf Croquet Championship singles title recently.When Logan McCorkindale was nine and looking for a sport to play, his mum suggested croquet after seeing an advertisement in the paper for a have-a-go day.

He went along to Ashburton’s Waireka Croquet Club and never looked back, and now – almost 10 years later – he is eyeing up his first ever trip out of New Zealand next year, to the world under-21 croquet championships in England.

McCorkindale, 18, is one of a group of young Mid Cantabrians who had performed with distinction on the national stage in recent years, and this year he has decided to really chance his arm.

With his schooling now finished and a gap year planned for 2019, croquet has become McCorkindale’s number one focus, spending a good two hours a day training, although the recent run of bad weather meant he hadn’t frequented Waireka as much as he would have liked.

The summer season has been pretty good to McCorkindale so far though.

Of the four national or South Island tournaments he’s competed in he’s made the finals in three, and won two.

Most recently he competed at the South Island golf croquet championships in early November and took it out, beating one of the country’s top players to win it.

McCorkindale was currently ranked 35th in the national golf croquet rankings and he beat Dennis Bulloch, who was 10th on the list.

This South Islands were just a part of his build-up to the New Zealand Golf Croquet Championships which will be held from January 18-25 in Nelson, and the New Zealand Open in Mt Maunganui which is held just before the nationals.

But McCorkindale has a bigger picture in mind too, with selection for the national team for the under-21 worlds in England in July next year a big part of that, and the open world championships which follow that.

He is already a member of the national under-21 squad, but knew he had a lot more hard work to do to get there, and he is determined to do it.

His early season form so far this year had been pretty good.

He placed first in the secondary schools’ doubles championship with his partner Josie Tallents, and in the doubles for national under 21s Tallents and McCorkindale were second in the four-day tournament.

Fellow Waireka members Christopher Spittal and Kaleb Small won the doubles at the national under 21s, while another – Edmund Fordyce – won the singles.

Fordyce, Spittal, Small and another Mid Cantabrian, Jacob Smith, were also in the national under-21 squad.

The next big thing on the calendar for many local players, including McCorkindale, was the South Island Association Croquet Championships.

So, with his Year 13 exams done and dusted, once the rain finally clears and summer kicks in, his training would hit top gear.

“I practise for about two hours every day, mainly because this year is my last year of school and I’ve sort of got the time before I figure out what I’m going to do,” McCorkindale said.

After two ranking tournaments he’d got his national ranking up to 35 and wanted to keep improving on that.

At the moment, the top golf croquet player in New Zealand was a 19-year-old, with Fordyce ranked third.

In recent years more and more young people had taken up the sport in New Zealand, and Mid Canterbury had proven to be a top breeding ground for young croquet talent.

McCorkindale was keen to try and encourage other young people to try the sport, which he described as surprisingly challenging.

“It takes a lot of hand eye coordination and a tactical mind to play croquet, the sort of challenge that many young people would enjoy”.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 1 December 2018