Great Britain - Team Profile

Robert Fulford, Captain

Robert is currently ranked number 1 in the world. He has won the World Championship 5 times. Robert started playing in 1985 and made his MacRobertson Shield debut in 1990. He has been part of the last five winning teams.

Robert has been in Victoria recently in 2003/4, contesting a fantastic final of the Victorian Open with Trevor Bassett which he won narrowly 3-2.

40 yr old Mark Avery has been playing croquet at the highest level since his teens, winning in the English Northern Championship back in 1982. Mark's greatest achievement at singles was winning the British Open in 1987. He came close to outdoing this in 1989, losing narrowly to Joe Hogan in the 1st WCF World Championship at Hurlingham, England.

He played for the Great Britain MacRobertson Shield winning teams of 1986, 1990 and 2003. In addition he has also regularly played in the annual Solomon Trophy match for Great Britain against the USA.

Keith Aiton

At the tender age of 48 Keith is thrilled to be playing in his first MacRobertson Shield. Apart from winning a couple of British Men's Championships in the 1980s Keith's first major win was in the 2005 President's Cup. Keith has been the coach of three victorious Great Britain teams in the 1990s. In "real life" Keith is an NLP Practitioner and is a partner in a firm providing executive coaching and training, specialising in communication skills.

Chris Clarke

Chris (35) has been a member of the last 4 winning Great Britain MacRobertson Shield teams and is currently ranked number 4 in the world. He has won the World Champs, British Opens, Sonoma, Presidents Cup (5 times) and British Mens, but is most happy with his doubles record. He has won the British Open Doubles 11 times, reaching the final with all 3 of his partners on the first attempt. With Robert Fulford he is also New Zealand Open Doubles Champion and is NZ South Island Doubles Champion with his fiancee Jenny Williams. Chris moved to NZ a year ago and is enjoying the relaxed paced of life, playing golf and bridge. Chris works as a sports trader.

Jonathan Kirby

Jonathan Kirby started playing croquet whilst he was a student in Cambridge in 1999. He was fortunate to learn the basics there from Aaron Westerby, then a New Zealand international player who is in the New Zealand team for this MacRobertson Shield. He greatly enjoys team events, and has captained Scotland in the Home Internationals and against Canada. He has played for Great Britain against the USA and Ireland, and this is his first MacRobertson Shield.

David Maugham, a 37 year old finance systems officer for the National Health Service was introduced to croquet by his father in 1981 and started playing competitively in 1985. He has won various singles honours including last year's British Open Championship, the British President's Cup on 4 occasions, the Sonoma-Cutrer World Championship 3 times, the Australian Open, the US Open and 17 British Regional Championships.

David has also been on the last 4 MacRobertson Shield winning Great Britain sides, and considers his best match to be the one in which he completed a TP to win the deciding game of the final match of the test.