Morning Coffee: Chilton, MacRob Exhibition and More

As the new year settles in, I can certainly acknowledge that over the past few weeks Croquet Network has been all like "me, me, me," with posts on the Best of 2016, Top Supporters and our recent announcement of our 2017 Media Kit. We'll chalk that up to a little bit of annual housekeeping and specifically in the case of the media kit -- a strong desire to expand the editorial output of the website. A mission which obviously accelerates as the budget increases.

Looking forward though, we are now ready to get back to on-site tournament coverage and the usual features on the sport of croquet. With that in mind, I always enjoy the annual re-start of the Morning Coffee winter spring series. Like a lot of good cable or Netflix series, this weekly roundup of world croquet news now focuses on a short run from January into the spring. At some point, we all need to get off the keyboard and get onto a court.

Enough with the long intro, we're back in action for 2017 and here's your weekly rundown ...

2017 MALLET POLL: Get ready for Croquet Network's most popular annual series. The 2017 Mallet Poll will launch for public votes, this Friday, January 20, 2017 and run through the end of the month. And yes, once again we'll follow up in February with an updated 2017 Mallet Directory based on the results.

FORDYCE WINS NZ GC TITLE: Sixteen year-old Edmund Fordyce became the youngest player to win the New Zealand golf croquet national open singles title with a 5-7, 5-7, 7-3, 7-5, 7-1 over Josh Freeth in the final. Full story from the Nelson Mail.

BOB CHILTON PHOTOGRAPHY: CWO has a piece on Bob Chilton's incredibly engaging photography that goes well beyond croquet. You might note that the last photo in the article appeared on the cover of the USCA's Croquet News for the 2015 Volume 1 issue. All of the photos in the CWO article are downsized, but you can see Chilton's full collection on his website: www.bobchilton.com. I recommend following his Facebook page as it's always enjoyable to see one of his beautiful nightshots pop in your newsfeed.

MACROB EXHIBITION TEST RECRUITING: The current issue of the USCA's monthly PDF newsletter is calling for six championship flight association croquet players to play a one-day exhibition test match against England’s MacRobertson Shield team. Each player will play two singles games and one doubles game. The exhibition will be played Saturday, April 15, 2017, at the Pasadena Croquet Club, Pasadena, California. Anyone interested should e-mail Eric Sawyer at ecsccs323@gmail.com. He will select the six players with the highest dynamic WCF AC grades.

FEC EUROPEAN GC CHAMPIONSHIP: The UK's Croquet Association fixtures calendar has listed the 2017 European Golf Croquet Championship dates as May 24-28, 2017 to be held at two clubs in Cadiz and Seville, Spain. More infomation on the event from the CA website.

GERMAN GOLF CROQUET OPEN: The Ninth German Open Golf Croquet Tournament will be held at Renzel, close to Hamburg, Germany from Saturday 20th to Sunday 21st May 2017. .

NICHOLLS IN FLORIDA: Australian's Jim Nicholls is in the US for a stint as the croquet pro at the Ponte Vedra Club in Tallahassee, Florida. Check out his Croquet Pro #01 and Croquet Pro #02 blog posts for his take on the visit so far. 

Morning Coffee: Back On Schedule

After flip-flopping last week to get the AC Worlds coverage front and center, we are back on track with Morning Coffee kicking off your Tuesday. In the meantime, the croquet underground is abuzz with debates on live streaming. If only there was already a neutral croquet media entity out there with the stated goal of providing live video for croquet events. Oh well, we'll just have to keep our eyes open. Here's your weekly feed ...
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Morning Coffee: Croquet Cuppers

After 11.5 hours of watching croquet this past Sunday and a good chunk on Saturday, I've certainly been suffering from an AC Worlds hangover as I try to get back on track. It was mentally draining, so I can't imagine how Stephen Mulliner and David Maloof must have felt this week. It was tough to go three years between AC Worlds, so thankfully the next worlds are just two years and will be held in New Zealand.

But as the incredibly diverse and vibrant sport of croquet rolls on, many will have noted St. John's edged Navy 3-2 in the Annapolis Cup in the midst of the AC Worlds. With the nine-wicket Annapolis Cup generally drawing 2,000 spectators, it is known as the biggest spectator croquet event in the world.  So, now England
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Morning Coffee: 2016 AC Worlds Coverage

It's been an entertaining eight days of croquet at the 2016 WCF World Championship in West Palm Beach, Florida. As we prepare for a few remaining block finishes and the tiebreaker, we'll note that Mark Avery (9-0) (ENG) and Simon Jenkins (6-3) (USA) have made it all the way from the qualifier to the knockout. Also from the qualifier, Ted Salter (5-4) (AUS) could make the tiebreaker playoff, if Chris Patmore can defeat Ian Lines in the last remaining game for Block F.
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Morning Coffee: Fletcher Out for ACWC

The 2016 WCF World Association Qualifier started yesterday at the National Croquet Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, but the big news is the potential withdraw of reigning World Champion Robert Fletcher from Austalia from the main event. This was reported on the Nottingham Croquet List, but no other information has been made available. A check of Fletcher's block on croquetscores.com does show his name removed and an additional qualifier spot.
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Morning Coffee: WCF World AC Block Draw

The WCF has published the Association Croquet World Championship draw with eight blocks set for the field of 80 players. Seven qualifiers are yet to be named. The number ones include Robert Fletcher, Reg Bamford, David Maugham, Paddy Chapman, Stephen Mulliner, Samir Patel, Jeff Dawson and Ian Dumergue. From the US,
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Morning Coffee: US Player Poll Results

Congratulations to Sherif Abdelwahab and Ben Rothman for each receiving nine votes to win the 2015 US Croquet Player of the Year Poll. Croquet Network has had pretty good success with online polls and while we had more votes for this year's poll versus the 2014 poll, it was clear that the poll carried the wrong title. Our result would better be characterized as the "Most Popular Player Poll."
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Morning Coffee: WCF Grant to SCA

It was another busy week in the croquet world as the WCF released it's February PDF Newsletter. Highlights include coaching sessions in England in May and a one-day AC course held prior to the AC World Championship in Florida next month. The WCF also approved a grant to the Scottish Croquet Association for support of the Balgreen Club project in Edinburgh, which involves taking over bowling greens to create a new club.
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