Mrs. Ethelberta Quince, 103, has lived in Helen, Georgia, since 1948. She has occupied the same house — a 1923 Craftsman bungalow at 1417 Edelweiss Strasse, painted white with green trim, three bedrooms, one bath — since 1951. She was married to the late Mr. Alvin Quince (1913- 1987), a postal inspector, for 39 years. She has two surviving children, four surviving grandchildren, and, per her own accounting, "thirteen or fourteen" surviving great-grandchildren "depending on what we count on my sister's side." She has not, by her own record, played a tournament-sanctioned match of association croquet since the Georgia State Croquet Association regional quarterfinal at East Lake, Atlanta, in October 1977.

In a letter dated April 15, 2026, typed on an IBM Selectric III she has owned since 1978 and hand-delivered to the Consul General's office at the Consulate General of New Zealand in Washington, D.C., via her great-grandson Lance, who was already in D.C. for an unrelated dental conference, Mrs. Quince formally invited Mr. Gilbert Hendrickson, 101, of Tauranga, New Zealand — confirmed Guinness World Records "world's oldest active croquet player" as of March 11, 2026 — to compete in a best-of-three singles match in mid-July 2026 at the Unicoi State Park Lodge lawn, Helen, Georgia.

Mrs. Quince's letter reads, in full:

"Sir,

Per the March confirmation, you are believed to be the oldest active croquet player in the world. I am 103, born September 14, 1922, in Macon, Georgia, of sound mind and approximate body, and I have kept the mallets oiled. I would be pleased to receive you at Unicoi, mid-July, for a best-of-three.

I do not intend to travel.

Yours, Mrs. Ethelberta Quince"

The response

Mr. Hendrickson, reached by telephone Saturday morning, New Zealand time (late Friday night Helen time), at Tauranga's Mountainside Retirement Village, said he had received the letter via courier the previous Wednesday. He had, he said, "read it twice."

"I accept," Mr. Hendrickson said. "With regret that one of us will likely lose."

Mr. Hendrickson, per the Tauranga-area paper in which his March Guinness ratification was covered, has been an active member of the Masters Tauranga Croquet Club since 1961. He competes in the club's weekly Tuesday-afternoon round-robin. He plays, per his physician's recommendation, standing, without the use of a cane.

Mrs. Quince, per her children's report, plays sitting, from a 1960s metal lawn chair with a green plastic woven seat, rising only to execute roquet and stroke shots. Her hoops, she said, "come to me."

The lawn

Unicoi State Park Lodge Facilities Manager Tabitha Krause was contacted Wednesday afternoon to confirm the Lodge's willingness to host the match. Ms. Krause, having reviewed Mrs. Quince's request, said the Lodge could make the South Lawn available, at no charge to either competitor, for the full day of the match and the two preceding days for warm-up and ceremonial arrivals.

Asked whether the South Lawn would be specifically mowed to competition standards for the match, Ms. Krause said: "That is a decision Mrs. Quince has already made." Mrs. Quince, per her April 15 letter to the Lodge (a separate document, which this publication has also reviewed), has requested that the South Lawn be "cut to six weeks of natural growth, not trimmed in any way, so that the contest reflects the actual surface a person is likely to encounter."

The South Lawn has not been mowed since March 3. By mid-July, per Ms. Krause's estimate, the lawn will be "somewhere between seven and nine inches in some places." The standard tournament croquet lawn is between 1/8 and 3/16 of an inch.

Mr. Hendrickson, asked whether he had any objection to the lawn specification, said: "I have played on worse. I played my second match in 1962 on a surface that was, in retrospect, a pasture."

The competition format

Per Mrs. Quince's terms, the match will be played under Association Croquet rules, 1986 revision, with all six hoops set to specification and the use of two Jaques of London Champion mallet sets — one set provided by Mrs. Quince (her 1959 Atlanta set, extant), one set to be newly manufactured and gifted to Mr. Hendrickson by Jaques of London, which has, per the firm's public communications office, "volunteered this service as a matter of historical significance."

The match will be officiated, per Mrs. Quince's request, by her second cousin Dewey Quince, 78, of Sautee, who has never played croquet in his life but whom Mrs. Quince describes as "impartial and awake."

The match is scheduled tentatively for Saturday, July 18, 2026, beginning at 3:00 p.m., Helen local time. Arrangements for Mr. Hendrickson's travel, accommodation at the Lodge, and Lodge-provided cucumber sandwiches (quartered, crusts removed) are underway.