A runaway success in Adelaide, but the Royal Croquet Club cracked in China

IT all started out so promisingly — Adelaide Fringe staple the Royal Croquet Club was setting up in China. The promised numbers were dazzling but it all went horribly wrong.

• Company behind Royal Croquet Club put into administration
• Royal Croquet Club’s future in doubt after Chinese expansion fails
• David Penberthy: Traditionalists and trendies must co-operate

IF there was a personification of the supposed rejuvenation of Adelaide night-life, with its attendant buzzwords such as “vibrancy” and “activation”, it was the three blokes who ran the Royal Croquet Club and other “pop-up’’ ventures.

The three — Tom Skipper, Stuart Duckworth and Sam Weckert — seemed to illustrate a new breed of Adelaide entrepreneur. Young, smart, not afraid to talk themselves up.

Not for them, old-style fuddy-duddy titles such as chief executive or managing director. Skipper’s business card carries the inscription “Head Honcho”.

Tom Skipper, Stuart Duckworth and Sam Weckert from the Royal Croquet Club.

The Royal Croquet Club became a central attraction of the Adelaide Fringe. First in Victoria Square, then this year at Pinky Flat. Hundreds of thousands of patrons filed through its doors over Mad March, taking in all manner of assorted Fringe entertainment.

In addition, they ran bars Little Miss Miami and Little Miss Mexico. There were other smaller ventures such as the Good Fortune markets and the Alpine Winter Village, which also proved popular.

But then came China.

The three are hardly the first to come unstuck chasing the seeming untold riches China has to offer, but that won’t be much consolation to creditors who will attend a meeting in the city on Tuesday to try to discover how much money they have lost.

Figures are hard to come by but it is believed the trio owe more than $1 million to a number of creditors, including beer outfit Coopers. Earlier this month, the Royal Croquet Club, plus associated companies The Social Creative and the Royale Adelaide Club, were placed in the hands of administrators Duncan Powell.

In a nondescript office building in Pirie St, creditors such as Debbie Mahar from M & D Fuels will file in today to hear if there is any chance they will again see their money.

Mahar is owed $14,000 for diesel used in generators and is not optimistic. She says since the delivery was made in March, she has received only one text message and one email as she chased payment.

“They were ducking things big time,’’ she said.

The Royal Adelaide Club at the 2016 Qingdao International Beer Festival in China. Picture: Facebook

It was last August when things started to fall apart. The big sell sounded good. The RCC was being rebadged and taken to China as the Royale Adelaide Club and would take part in the Qingdao Beer Festival. The numbers touted were enormous. As many as four million would attend. One million of them would visit the Royale Adelaide Club and enjoy the best of the state’s produce and beverages.

Premier Jay Weatherill was excited. And he backed up his excitement with a $600,000 sponsorship over two years.

“It is a chance for more than one million people to learn more about the ­tourism and studying opportunities we can provide,” the Premier claimed.

Likewise, Adelaide City Council Mayor Martin Haese was similarly captivated.

It is believed Skipper, Duckworth and Weckert owe more than $1 million to a number of creditors, including beer outfit Coopers. Picture: Facebook

There was only one problem: the figures provided by the Qingdao Government were wrong. And not by a little.

“We budgeted for about 7000 and realistically got about 700 a day. You could draw the conclusion that it was an absolute disaster,’’ Skipper told FiveAA last week. The venture was not helped by clashes with Chinese authorities regarding duties payable on imported goods.

Which was a change from last year when he told The Advertiser’s Off the Record column Royale Adelaide had managed to “break even’’ on the project after investing most of the $2.4 million staging cost. In reality it lost more than $1 million.

It has all left the State Government, the council and the three businessmen pointing fingers and apportioning blame.

The Government is sending an observer to Tuesday’s meeting, while in Parliament last week, Trade Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith said “the project owes us $600,000’’. Skipper said they only became involved in China at the urging of the council.

Tuesday’s meeting may give creditors a clearer idea of where it all went wrong.