National Croquet Center adding six courts, will host world championship in West Palm Beach
The National Croquet Center will soon add another six courts to its complex off Florida Mango Road in suburban West Palm Beach. It expects to have the new courts built in time to host the Association Croquet World Championship in October.
'The addition of these courts is vital to compete on the world stage as one of the qualities is the number of courts available for a world championship event,' the center said in its filing submitted to Palm Beach County planners, which county commissioners recently approved.
The two-week tournament is expected to attract croquet players from all over the world, according to Marie Sweetser, general manager of The Croquet Foundation of America, which operates the croquet complex.
More: Croquet grows in popularity as center marks 10th year
The National Croquet Center at Florida Mango Road and Summit Boulevard is home to the world's largest dedicated croquet facility. It features 12 lush, full-sized, championship lawns spanning 4 acres, with a 19,000-square-foot clubhouse designed in the Florida Keys style. Constructed in 2002, the center is "the best-kept secret in West Palm Beach," according to its website.
Once the six new courts are built, the center will have 18 championship-style courts. In addition to allowing the local facility to attract top-caliber tournaments, Sweetser said more people will be able to play when the club isn't hosting tournaments.
'We need these courts to accommodate all the people looking to play croquet,' she said.
Croquet is a lawn game with roots in European aristocracy. It can be played by players of all ages, regardless of gender. It is particularly appealing to seniors as a low-impact sport, but it demands dexterity, focus and strategic thinking. Like polo, it is a sport that gained popularity in 19th-century Great Britain.
More than 10,000 people play croquet at the center every year. Since opening in 2002, it has already hosted several world championships for various styles of play.
Croquet began its revitalization as a competitive sport in the late 1970s and has continued to grow in popularity throughout the United States and Canada since then. According to the National Croquet Center, croquet is now played competitively in more than 20 countries.
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The growth of the sport can be largely attributed to the efforts of international and national croquet organizations such as Croquet Canada and the U.S. Croquet Association. Since the early 1980s, the number of competitive players in North America has risen from 50 to more than 8,000.
The new croquet courts near West Palm Beach are not expected to be visible from nearby homes. County planners have required a landscape buffer to minimize the impacts.
Mike Diamond is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. He covers Palm Beach County government and issues concerning HOAs. You can reach him at mdiamond@pbpost.com. Help support local journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: National Croquet Center adding six courts, will host world championship
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The country faces its own political challenges in reaching the NATO goal, even with a potential 2035 deadline that allies may recommend at the summit. The United Kingdom and France, Europe's two nuclear states, have made steady increases in recent years but face issues behind the scenes. Britain's defense budget rose from 2.2 percent of GDP in 2023 to 2.3 percent in 2024, with a sharp increase in research and development spending. It also paid extra for major operations such as air defense in the Red Sea and aircraft carriers deployed to the Pacific. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has promised to take that figure to 2.6 percent by 2026 — thanks in part to folding in intelligence and slashing spending on foreign aid. But he's beset by severe budget issues and has not yet set out a path to his goal of hitting even 3 percent. Paris has steadily increased defense spending since President Emmanuel Macron came to power in 2017. But it only hit 2 percent last year. France is one of the European Union's most indebted countries, and public finances are dire. It's unclear how the government would find extra money to reach the 5 percent goal, especially as Macron has ruled out raising taxes. Germany and Sweden have both rewritten their debt rules as they reach 2 percent and aim higher. German governments saw the NATO target as non-binding for years, and only the advent of war in Europe — dubbed the Zeitenwende, or turning point, by former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz — prompted the country to change course. Berlin in 2024 reported 2.1 percent of GDP on defense spending, exceeding the alliance benchmark for the first time since 1990. But the increase doesn't boost combat strength and relies on some fancy accounting. A sizable chunk of the 2024 defense budget came from a special temporary spending fund. Sweden's defense spending surged following its 2024 accession to NATO from 1.5 percent to 2.2 percent of GDP last year. Stockholm is tweaking its debt rules to allow for up to about $30 million in defense loans by 2035. Then there's Turkey. While Ankara has missed the 2 percent mark in recent years, it has a well-developed arms industry and punches above its spending weight in weapons and the size of its military — the second-largest in NATO. Several strategically vital countries hang well below the 5 percent goal, particularly Canada, Spain and Italy. All three have made pledges to catch up. But politics, accounting tricks and historical habits are slowing progress. Canada spends just 1.37 percent of GDP on defense, with key equipment gaps across its forces. Prime Minister Mark Carney this month promised to hit 2 percent 'this fiscal year,' bringing forward a target initially set up for 2029. The lag has deep roots. Ottawa has long relied on U.S. defense guarantees while prioritizing social spending and climate goals. Carney is framing rearmament as a sovereignty issue in light of Trump's threats to annex Canada, but that would require a rapid ramp-up in procurement and industrial capacity. Spain remains NATO's lowest spender, aside from Iceland, which has no army. Madrid spent 1.3 percent of GDP on defense in 2024. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has rolled out an €11 billion military upgrade plan to reach 2 percent this year. It's the country's most ambitious defense posture in decades. But Sánchez is boxed in by his governing coalition. Left-wing allies remain opposed to higher military budgets, and previous attempts to raise spending triggered a backlash. He asked Rutte this month, in a letter obtained by POLITICO, for a carveout to the new spending target. 'It is the legitimate right of every government to decide whether or not they are willing to make those sacrifices,' he wrote, saying it would jeopardize the country's welfare system. Italy was only slightly higher at 1.5 percent last year. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the government will hit the 2 percent target this year, but officials suggest that may happen more through clever accounting. Rome wants civilian infrastructure, such as a planned bridge to Sicily, to count as a defense-adjacent goal. Defense spending remains a politically fraught topic as the country faces high debt levels and strong pressure to protect pensions and welfare. This text is a collaboration of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network. Paul McLeary reported from Washington, Chris Lunday reported from Berlin and Esther Webber reported from London. Jacopo Barigazzi in Brussels, Mike Blanchfield in Ottawa, Jack Detsch in Washington, WELT's Philipp Fritz in Warsaw, Max Griera in Brussels, WELT's Thorsten Jugholt in Berlin and Laura Kayali in Paris contributed to this report.
