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Okay, we've got to take a little time out this morning to talk about a bold move on the croquet media scene. This weekend I was checking out digital editions of back issues for Croquet Network on the Yudu site. When I did a search for croquet, I detected a beautiful new croquet magazine delivered through my same host at no charge to readers. And in fact, it was immediately clear that this new magazine was superior in content and design to Croquet Network. But wait, it's not new. It was the venerable old Croquet Gazette produced by the Croquet Association. Further research indicates that the Croquet Association has made the Gazette a marketing initiative and has hired Bamboo House Publishing to redesign, sell ads and produce their association magazine -- a fantastic move. The redesign is beautiful and I'm certainly flattered that they chose the same digital edition host (even if it is a coincidence). If anyone in the U.K. is listening, I would also suggest you distribute through MagCloud to offer North American and U.K. fans a chance to purchase in print. It might open up a little revenue stream and I know that I certainly prefer print to digital editions.
Croquet Gazette - June 2011 Digital Edition
Croquet Gazette - April 2011 Digital Edition
In other Croquet Association news, the line-ups for the CA Eights are now available--
http://www.croquet.org.uk/?p=/news/newsdb.asp&NewsID=3905
With the culmination of the BestInvest GC World Championships last week, the croquet news cycle finally took a slight pause. No worries though, the Championships of Ireland are well under way at Carrickmines and the Ireland vs USA Carter Challenge is also on deck (August 10-13). The croquet beat goes on.
Speaking of the big news cycle, Croquet Network certainly enjoyed the busy July. Already having broken previous traffic records in May and again in June, July went into the stratosphere. Check out the following traffic chart. Last August represented a major peak (MacRob 2010), but that seems insignificant now. Thank you readers!
Croquet Network unique visitor and page view traffic
Back on the U.S. circuit, High Country CC took this past weekend's NC Club Championship held in Linville, North Carolina. Final standings and a photo of HCCC with the Penwell Trophy are available on the CroquetNC.org site--
http://croquetnc.org/news/290/2011-nc-club-teams-final-results
The latest check-in on the 2011 USCA Grand Prix has Danny Huneycutt still leading, but the race has tightened a bit as Chris Patmore has moved into second place. One surprise is that "Handicap -3" has cracked the top 10 with 12,000 points. Full standings are available on the USCA website. Top 20--
Rank/Name/Hcap/Singles PTS/Doubles PTS/Total
01 Danny Huneycutt -3.5 17360 9516 26876
02 Chris Patmore -2.5 16080 4750 20830
03 Ben Rothman -3.5 14588 4243 18831
04 Brian Cumming -2.5 9110 5400 14510
05 Johnny Mitchell Jr. -2 10776 2640 13416
06 Derek Wassink -2.5 7180 5210 12390
07 Peter Just -2 7850 4470 12320
08 Handicap -3 -3 6600 5400 12000
09 Richard Brackett -2 6066 5378 11444
10 Bob Chilton -0.5 4064 6930 10994
11 Jackie Jones -0.5 6630 3200 9830
12 Ron Huxtable 0.5 3636 4908 8544
13 Stuart Lawrence -1 6280 2250 8530
14 Richard Wilhoite -0.5 3660 4752 8412
15 Doug Grimsley -3 5350 2850 8200
16 Ted Knopf -1.5 7500 510 8010
17 Richard G. Curtis -1.5 6550 1400 7950
18 Jim Bast 2 3350 4200 7550
19 Kenneth (Tim) Bitting -1 4220 2900 7120
20 Mike Taylor 0.5 4096 2928 7024