Robert Fulford (croquet player)

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Alternate use: see Robert Fulford for the Canadian writer.

Robert Fulford (born 1969) is a leading English croquet player who has dominated the sport since the turn of the 1990s.

[edit] Life and career

Born in Colchester, England, he started to play croquet at his local school at the age of 15. Fulford has a light attitude towards the game, often travelling from cheap hotel to the next because he only makes about £8000 a year from the sport. One tournament yielded him a lawnmower. He supplements his sporting career by working for a stone merchants in Thurrock in Essex. Robert has become a CPA [certified practising accountant] and it is not clear what effect, if any, this will have upon his sporting pursuits.

Physically Robert Fulford is a pudgy, rotund man who fits no typical athletic stereotype.

Robert also coaches croquet, particularly in Australia and the Chattooga Club in North Carolina. Robert has made some excellent croquet videos with Australian croquet expert Kevin Brereton in which Robert teaches both basic and advanced break tactics. He has won the world championship 5 times:

1990 at Hurlingham Club, England
1992 in Newport, USA
1994 at Carden Park, Cheshire, England
1997 at Moorabinda Croquet Club, Bunbury, Western Australia
2002 in Wellington, New Zealand

Fulford has also won the President’s Cup in 1989, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002 and 2006.

What makes Robert Fulford a world champion ahead of so many other talented competitors? One, it is his awesome array of shots: accurate cut rushes [the hardest shot to play in croquet] and incredible accuracy in roqueting and hitting the lifts. Two, it is his tactical planning. His tactic of peeling an opponent's ball through hoop 1 makes a triple peel as hard as possible for the opponent. His sextuple peels are also more frequent than those of any other player. Robert Fulford uses an Irish grip [rather like a golf grip] and employs "casting" [swinging mallet over the ball] about three times before each shot. He has extremely strong wrists which makes the Irish grip work for him without it causing the R.S.I that the grip is sometimes blamed for. In fact, Robert admits that he has quite a wrist-dominated technique which contrdicts most coaching manuals that advise minimal wrist involvement. At his best Robert plays faultless croquet. At his worst he plays extremely well too.