Wow, working on the magazine has kept me away from the website more than I would like. A lot of news to catch up on:
The Archie Burchfield article on the Garden & Gun website tipped off by the USCA website last week was fantastic. Really seemed to maybe blur a bit between legend and reality, but that makes it even more interesting. It gave me a slightly different take on Jack Osborn:
"Archie got his number and called him up in New York City. 'Understand you boys play some croquet,' he said to Osborn and then invited him to bring his two best players to Kentucky for a match. Uncharmed, Osborn was neither slow nor particularly polite in telling Archie that he and his rube buddies could never hope to compete with the high strategy and skill levels of USCA players. Then he hung up."
I guess I was familiar with Osborn wanting cultivate that elite status, but I always took it as he thought that was the best way to grow the sport. If I buy into the portrayal in this article, it seems to be more of a firm belief. The description of the final between Archie and Mark Burchfield versus Osborn and Archie Peck is worth the read. A final note -- that's an interesting website name. I don't necessarily associate those two things with each other.
The Burchfield article sent me to the SI Vault to search for croquet stories. The SI Vault is a cool section of the Sports Illustrated website where you can check out full back issues of the magazine. I found two articles on croquet:
Here's the article SI did on the Burchfields vs Osborn/Peck final and here is the link to how it appeared in the magazine (go the end of the magazine and page back to 128).
And here's a 1995 article on Jacques Fournier as an eighth grader. The article is on page 12 and they even added a real live photo.
Being from Kansas, I want to discredit this portrayal of Kansas croquet with "no laying in." The stereotype that has handcuffed the sport. For the record, I've never played a game of croquet without a boundary.
Going for the century mark? Croquet two times a week might be the key:
The widow and mother-of-five drives herself to the shops, to church and to croquet two mornings a week.
Two things in this standard backyard croquet story standout to me. The first is they mention that croquet is much cheaper than golf and only requires a "twelve-pack of PBR" to play. I find that to be an odd coincidence in that I awarded a twelve-pack of PBR for my first backyard tourney. Not long after our little backyard club, became known as the PBR Tour. This quote also caught my attention:
“A lot of people think it's an old British man's sport, but many young people can play because it is really competitive.”
I was thinking that's a weird stereotype. However, I thought a little more and remembered that I had one grandfather that came straight over from Wales and my dad's side was British too. Another recent discovery is that I've landed in my early forties. So there you are -- I'm really an old British man and I play croquet. Stereotype = true.