Chris Clarke (croquet player)

Chris Clarke (born 1971 in Lancashire) is an English croquet player who has been ranked among the world's top players since the late 1980s. He now represents New Zealand. Chris has won two World Championships in Association Croquet, in 1995 and again in 2008, six AC World Team Champs and one GC World Team Champs. 2008 was perhaps Chris's finest year, overtaking previous world champions Robert Fulford and Reg Bamford to regain the position of world number one player, which he held for in excess of 16 months. He also reached the semi-finals of the WCF Golf Croquet World Championships in March 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa and led the English team to the finals of the 2009 European team championships.

Clarke now lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. On 30 January 2008 he was married to Jenny Clarke (née Williams), who plays for New Zealand. The pair were therefore due to be on opposing sides when Great Britain played New Zealand in the 2010 MacRobertson Shield, before Clarke withdrew with a back injury.

In October 2012, Clarke returned to competitive association croquet singles, having won multiple Open doubles titles in the meantime as well as GC singles events where he rose to world number 2. In November 2012, he completed the requisite ten matches needed to return to the world rankings, which he did in first place. Clarke switched to represent New Zealand following his controversial non-selection for England's golf croquet squad, and was a member of their victorious 2014 MacRobertson Shield team, playing at number 1 where he was the player in the event with the most wins.

In 2016, Clarke played his last International event involving singles when he captained NZ to win the GC World Championship, once again being the player with the most wins. This victory made Clarke the first player to win three of the four WCF Open World Titles. He finished his career having won 9 World titles and never having lost a major International Test Match.