Mick Hartley

Yes, these are exciting times:

On the surface, this year’s Women’s Golf Croquet Championship on the Sussex coast seemed the least likely setting for a scandal. As befitting the game’s image as the most genteel of English summer activities, Dame Mary Berry – herself a keen player – was guest of honour at the opening ceremony, where she received a cake decorated as a croquet lawn. And yet behind the scenes, a fierce row was simmering over the fact that the most prestigious female prize in the sport was won by a biological male.

It is the first known case anywhere of a women’s global title being awarded to somebody born male. Australia’s Jamie Gumbrell, who was competing as a male as recently as 2019, is recognised by the World Croquet Federation (WCF) as having been “assigned male at birth”. But when the sport returned from its pandemic-enforced shutdown, the 23-year-old from Canberra began identifying as female and in August became the women’s world champion at the first attempt.

Telegraph Sport has spoken to several of Gumbrell’s fellow competitors, all of whom are furious about the unquestioning gender policy that enabled the Australian to self-identify into the female category and beat England’s Rachel Gee, the 2011 champion, in this year’s final. Sue Lightbody, a member of the England team at the worlds, said women had no idea they would be playing against a biological male until they arrived at the tournament in Southwick, near Brighton.

“There was a huge amount of disquiet,” Lightbody said. “But nobody was prepared to say or do anything. I was quite sick about the situation. We thought it would go against us, that we wouldn’t be picked for another team. Everything was hush-hush, everyone was worried about being called transphobic. People told me not to get involved, saying, ‘Don’t do anything, you’ll make yourself very unpopular’. But this just shouldn’t happen. It fundamentally isn’t fair.”

Quite right: best not to say or do anything that might get you into trouble. Keep those heads down, mumble congratulations to the man who cheated and won, and keep your anger to yourself.