Roger Mills

Roger Mills discovered croquet after retiring in 2011, and immediately became fanatical about Association Croquet, and then, a year or so later, even more fanatical about coaching. He served in several coaching roles for the Croquet Association (now Croquet England): as a member of the Coaching Committee, as an Examining Coach, and as Coaching Officer for the South West Croquet Federation. He holds Grade 3 AC and Grade 1 GC Coaching qualifications, and won the Croquet Association's Coach of The Year award in 2017. He became recognised for developing new coaching methods, and also for pioneering a new combined online and practical course to make training and qualification more accessible for new coaches.

Along the way, Roger helped create and manage the South West Croquet Academy at Budleigh, where he led innovative AC and Short Croquet coaching courses using his ‘Easy Way’ method of playing croquet.

During the 2020 pandemic lockdown, he decided to turn his extensive range of coaching course manuals into a series of books promoting new coaching techniques for the benefit of players and coaches. His first book, 'Getting Maximum Bang For Your Bisques' received widespread acclaim from leading players and coaches, and its revolutionary method of coaching the use of bisques in Association Croquet has been adopted by leading croquet clubs.

Taming The Triple, Roger's second book, was published in 2022. It is a completely new approach to how triple peels should be coached, and is designed to meet the needs of A and B Class players who have not yet acquired 'expert' shot skills. Providing a simple route to getting triple peels completed, it also launched the Magic Peeling Shot that takes all the guesswork out of making peels!

In 2023, Roger decided to do something about the 'gap' between the two books, and address the needs of players who had mastered using bisques and the basics of 4-ball breaks, but were not yet ready to take on the triple peel. The result was his third book, 'Bisques, Breaks and Beyond'. This book extends the scope of '... Maximum Bang ..' by adding a new section to take the player 'beyond bisques' and develop the skills need for playing error-free 4-ball breaks without bisques. With their 4-ball breaks honed, players would now be ready to tame the triple!

Roger, who plays croquet at Sidmouth and Budleigh Salterton Croquet Clubs, donates all royalties from his books to Croquet England.