ANDY Barbero is reaching for the peaks of Australian croquet on the back of an all-conquering month of competition.

The 55-year-old Wangaratta Croquet Club member has had a stunning run of results, with wins in the Victorian Open Doubles; Australia Day Victorian Tournament and a recent win in the President’s Eights third division, against some of the best players in the country.

Barbero said it’s been a surreal feeling to have strung together the best results of his croquet career in such a short space of time.

“It was totally unexpected, especially to win in the President’s Eights,” he said.

“I’ve done ok in the past but I’ve never been quite good enough, I don’t know if it’s been form, but I have been more consistent.”

For the past 18 months, Barbero has been making regular trips to Melbourne and all over the state to take part in state-level competition against some of the best in the state and country.

The Englishman's sudden ascension in the sport had come after COVID-19, with lawn bowls being the original sporting passion of the 55-year-old when he moved to Beechworth, playing 10 years in A grade.

Due to various COVID restrictions and regulations faced over the two year period, clubrooms at bowls clubs like many across the world were struggling to stay open.

However, Barbero noticed more lenient restrictions were in place at the Ryan Avenue Croquet Club when he moved to Wangaratta, allowing casual play to take place.

“Like most people I was going a bit stir-crazy so I thought I would come and have a crack at croquet as a nice social thing,” Barbero said.

“The members have been absolutely beautiful, I’m probably a little bit more vibrant, jumpy and louder than most but they’ve been so supportive.

“My bowls mates have been asking when I’m coming back to bowls, I still love it, but I’m not coming back, I’ve become super passionate for croquet.”

Since picking up the sport, it didn’t take long for some of the club regulars like secretary Terry Wilson and Victorian representative Shane Downie to recognise Barbero’s natural talents.

The pair encouraged the former bowler to take his croquet to the next step, by travelling to Melbourne and Croquet Victoria to take place in competition.

Barbero said Downie, Wilson and the whole club have been an inspiring influence in his next level pursuit.

“I get lots of little texts, messages and phone calls just wishing me good luck, even in Melbourne with what I call the better players, they just constantly teach and show,” he said.

“The first time I went down there I remember sitting down and watching the best of the best in Victoria and I was a newbie who was just there to have a look and see whether I can play the game.

“One of the organisers came up to me and asked me what my goals were, and I said to ‘beat that lot’.

“I’ve got a few of them marked off now, but there’s still a fair few to go.”

Even though the stakes on the court may be higher, Barbero has found a way to maintain his enthusiastic and laid back approach to the sport, making plenty of friends along the way.

Barbero said he has surprised himself with how he has taken up to croquet in a short period of time.

“When you’re in your 50s, you don’t really expect to become half-decent at a new sport, mostly you’ve got to start playing it when you’re a kid and keep learning, so it’s a bit of a shock to be up there,” he said.

“They often say croquet is a nasty game played by beautiful people, you really do have to be mean to your opponent in the playing sense to win.

“It’s hugely tactical when you’re playing, sometimes I'll beat someone with better skills than me just because of my thinking.

“I love any strategic thing, when I was a young bloke I used to love all of the survival things we did because we had to think about how we could get through things.

"As most of my friends know, if there’s one way of doing things, I’ll try and do it another way.”

Barbero has recently been selected with the Victorian training squad, as he looks to be a part of their team for the Australian Open in May, and strive for a place in the Bronze Championships in September as one of the eight best players in Australia.

“Ideally I’d love to play for Victoria, and I’d love to win the Victorian Open Singles, not that it’s any better than the doubles, but I think it’s something we all strive to do,” Barbero said.

“There are the famous players in Australian croquet, Robert Fletcher, Malcolm Fletcher, Gary Phipps; I think I’d just like to beat them once; that would be the most awesome thing.”

Perhaps the croquet star’s biggest motivational goal is to combine his newfound passion of the sport with his long-term love of fostering and development of youth, as an out of school care worker with the NDIS for some time.

Barbero said he wants to develop a local team of under 18s players with either the Wangaratta Croquet Club or the new Merriwa Park based club to try and break barriers and stereotypes of croquet locally as a “coffee and biscuits” sport.

“A lot of people look at croquet as an old person’s sport, but it’s not when you get to that better level; I’m not that typical croquet player people envisage,” he said.

"We did something with Galen last year and they came along a bit flat at the start, but I took six of them to one side and they were just cheering every shot they were getting and they realised it could be a lot of fun.

“I’d love to get a young group together, get a little pennant team, play locally, take on the other clubs and just watch them grow and learn.”