Upcoming Tournaments / January-February 2010

January 2010

Jan 04-09 / Pat Apple Bisque Tournament (Association) / Rancho Mirage, CA
Ben Rothman - croquetpro@gmail.com

Jan 18–23 / Palm Beach CC Invitational / West Palm Beach, FL
Archie Peck - (561-835-1726 or 561-818-6039) archiepeck@aol.com

January 19-23 / Desert Classic / Rancho Mirage, CA
Jim Butts - (760-328-9482) jbutts@dc.rr.com.

Jan 27-31 / The Beach Club Invitational 2010 / Palm Beach & West Palm Beach, FL
Dwight Mayer - (561-845-8820) marshamontoya@msn.com

Jan 28–31 / Croquet at Koele / The Four Season Resort Lanai, The Lodge at Koele
Leo Nikora - (808-879-0087) leo@maui.net / www.mauicroquetclub.org/koele/

February 2010

Feb 04–06 / Grand Haven Club Championship / Palm Coast, FL
Richard Burns - (386-446-9478) rburns3007@aol.com

Feb 04–07 / SCCC Winter Singles Invitational / Venice, FL
Jackie Jones - (941-484-3206 or 941-416-1009) crokpeople@aol.com

Feb 08–13 / Peyton Ballenger Invitational / Palm Beach Gardens, FL
Joan Murphy - (561-627-7426) jasmurf0101@yahoo.com

Feb 17–21 / Int'l Polo Club Palm Beach 3rd Annual Open Tournament / Wellington, FL
Don Jacobson (561-254-0999) donjay16@aol.com

Feb 18–21 / SCCC Club Singles/Doubles Championship / Venice, FL
Jackie Jones - (941-484-3206 or 941-416-1009) crokpeople@aol.com
Will be played on February 26-28 and March 19-21, 2010

Feb 18–21 / Green Gables Winter Tournament / Palm Beach, FL
Carol Neves (732-546-0170) carol4croquet@gmail.com

Feb 24–28 / Ocean Reef Anglers Club (ORAC) Invitational / ORAC, Key Largo, FL
Mike Todorovich - (305-684-9500) miketodo@aol.com or michael@arm-ins.com

Feb 25–28 / Audubon Croquet Invitational / Naples, FL
John Richardson - (239-653-9705 or 416-648-6249) john_richardson@munulife.com

December Croquet Links: Greenwich, Lenox and Croquet Ireland

North American Clubs

Greenwich Croquet Club -- Active croquet club in Greenwich, Connecticut with a vast website.

Lenox Croquet Club -- The Lenox Croquet Club is a USCA-sanctioned club located in Lenox, Massachusetts with two and a half full-size courts or as many as five half-size courts.

Associations

Croquet Ireland -- Croquet Association of Ireland website.

Scottish Croquet Association -- The Scottish Croquet Association's website.

International

Carrickmines -- Carrickmines Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club in Ireland.

Edinburgh Croquet Club  -- Edinburgh Croquet Club in Scotland.

All links above will now appear in the Croquet Links section on the navigation bar at the top of the site. Any links back are greatly appreciated.

Nine to Six: Part 3 - Boundary Play

USCA stock photo shows the string line boundaries utilized for six-wicket croquet

A Subtle Difference

After a month off due to a very busy website schedule in November, it was time to get the Nine to Six series back on track. This month, we are looking at the boundary rules for nine-wicket and the U.S. six-wicket games. At the USCA nine-wicket national championship, option two and three of the advanced rules are utilized which effectively means that boundary rules mimic the U.S. six-wicket rules with just one subtle exception. In the nine-wicket game, a ball is considered out of bounds once it touches the line as opposed to six wicket where a ball would not be ruled out of bounds until half of the ball crosses the line.

My personal opinion is that ther are two reasons for this minor difference. First, the slower speed of the nine-wicket long grass fields means it's a little easier to roquet a boundary ball as it is less likely to roll out. Creating a smaller margin balances the lawn speed difference to a degree.

Secondly, you are more likely to see painted lines in nine-wicket as opposed to the thin string lines used in six-wicket play. From a practical standpoint, it is just much easier to judge out of bounds on a thick painted line at the moment the ball touches the line.

Again, I want to emphasize the above paragraphs are based on the rules used for advanced nine-wicket play. The base nine-wicket rules regarding boundaries are much more like Association Croquet played internationally. That means there is virtually no penalty for out of bounds and out of bounds balls are set in at 36 inches instead of the nine inches used in American rules for six-wicket and advance nine-wicket.

The Nine to Six Series (Highlighting Differences Between Nine-wicket and Six-wicket Croquet)

The Nine to Six Series (Highlighting Differences Between Nine-wicket and Six-wicket Croquet)

Part One -- Clearing Deadness
Part Two -- Post Roquet Options
Part Three -- Boundaries
Part Four -- Wiring
Part Five -- Rover Balls

More on this series: The series endeavors to describe changes that nine wicket players will encounter when they try out the U.S. rules six wicket game. There's a lot of quality information on six-wicket on the internet, but some of it seems pretty complex and is presented all at once. The aim here is to slice this into smaller concepts to allow players to absorb as needed. Also, I need to clarify that I have been playing the six-wicket game for just one-year and have not attended tournaments. So, more experienced players should feel welcome to chime in using the comments and clarify if I am leading people astray. I do think my inexperience is useful in that the concepts are fresh in my mind. Also, for players making the jump to six-wicket, I assume the basics of the game are understood.

Croquet News: More U.S. Open Coverage, ECF Flag and Nine-Wicket Date Change

The Arizona Croquet Club website has a great article with photos on the recent U.S. Open competition. Definitely worth checking out.

The Croquet World website has a nice write-up on the introduction of a new flag for the European Croquet Federation.

According to the USCA Calendar, the Nine-Wicket National tournament will once again be held in Shawnee, Kansas (Kansas City metro area) and the dates have been moved up one week. It's still listed as tentative, but that's a giant "woohoo" for me personally as I won't have to give up my KU football tickets for the weekend.

Another Solomon Trophy Follow-up article was posted on the MyDesert.com website. The website is the online presence for the The Desert Sun newspaper of Palm Springs, California. The posting also includes a couple of photos.

Croquet News: Australia Names MacRobertson Team and US Open Report

Ben Rothman took the 2009 U.S. Open by defeating Doug Grimsley 26-14otp, 1-26tp, 26-0tp. More details are to be posted in the CroquetWorld forum. Photos are available from Arthur Bagby.

The Croquet Australia website has posted their line-up for the MacRobertson Shield competion:

Kevin Beard
Martin Clarke
Ian Dumergue
Robert Fletcher
Stephen Forster
Peter Landrebe (Captain)

Reserves:
Trevor Bassett
Greg Fletcher

The USCA Nine-Wicket site just posted a rundown by Eric Sawyer on the 2009 Seward Family Fall Classic. The cutthroat event in Sacramento, California was held October 10 and had 73 players. That rivals their summer event which boasts 100 players. That again presents the case that nine-wicket play in the U.S. is under-estimated in this 2005 WCF Report as it is only based on members associated with the USCA. It reports 115 nine-wicket U.S. players. The "off the USCA map" cutthroat club that I play with has had participation that probably averages around 40 players each season this decade and a high of 80 players. That does not include MCA play that goes on right here in the same KC metro area.

Tournament Director Matt Griffith's report on the 2009 Nine-Wicket National Championship has also been posted on the nine-wicket site.

Croquet Video Game Review: Game Party 3 (Wii)

Dancing girls, golf-style swing and black wickets say croquet to me

A Decent Start, But ...

Once the Wii console was announced, it was clear to me that platform was perfect for a croquet game. So far, there has been no attempt at a croquet stand alone for the Wii, so we see the game as part of sports game compilations. The first one out of the gate was Summer Island Sports released in 2008. This fall saw the release of Game Party 3 ($29.99 to $22.99) from WB Games and Far Sight Studios which includes croquet and 18 other games.

Screenshot Gallery




The Rundown

It's based on nine-wicket croquet and the initial positive is that it does indeed utilize partner ball play with carry-over deadness. That step forward is immediately rendered useless by not allowing partner ball roquets. Yep, all strategic elements of the game are destroyed with that one mistake.

Game Party 3Otherwise, the engine isn't too bad. Or I guess I should say it is fairly enjoyable to play and makes sense for the most part with the Wii remote. However, the field appears to be a little small, though that is counter-acted by a rough maximum shot distance of 32 feet (assuming the field size is based on 100' x 50'). I suppose that makes sense because shot accuracy is based strictly on where you aim -- meaning with unlimited power you could really make a wicket from the maximum of 80' or 90' pretty easily. I would suggest that remote swing accuracy should be a factor in how straight the shot travels.

Another weakness would be what appears to be bugs with croquet shots. Sometimes it works and other times you'll try a croquet shot and it will go right through the other ball (not moving it at all). Placement of the striker ball is a little dicey as well with the worst aspect of that being that it will not allow you to place the striker ball in the boundary margin. Pretty hard to get the roqueted ball and the striker ball out onto the field with that limitation.

There is kind of a bizarre one-player option where you score points, but I gave up on that one pretty quickly. Up to four players can play, but there is no computer opponent. Since there is no real strategy, that is a little surprising. The AI wouldn't be a challenge to figure out.

The fact that the players use a golf-style swing makes me giggle, especially as accurate as they are.

The only other thing I can think to mention is I wonder what was behind the decision to make the wickets black. Visibility? They're also plenty wide. The dancing girls in the background remind me of many of the croquet events that I've played in over the years.

The Bottom Line

I would not recommend this for purchase for croquet players unless you are just a collector of everything croquet. Some of the other games on the disc are pretty fun (billiards, trivia), but I'm not sure that makes it worth the price. Again, I think the engine is a good start. Fix the partner roquet and the croquet shots and I think you could have a lot of fun with the game as is. Game developers feel free to contact me if you need technical consultation -- croquet and the Wii are made for each other.

Croquet Search Trends (November 2009)

Here is the November list for hottest croquet keywords that hit CroquetNetwork.com in November:

01. Justin Berbig
02. U.S National Championship
03. West Indies Croquet
04. Shane Botwin
05. Stephen Mulliner
06. Ben Rothman
07. Croquet Network
08. Egyptian Croquet Federation
09. Sue Leitinger
10. Stephanie Paduano
11. Rich Schiller
12. Ben Morehead
13. Karen Comeau
14. Jenny Clarke
15. Chris Clarke

Croquet News: Solomon Trophy, President's Cup and U.S. GC

U.S. SCORES HISTORIC SOLOMON TROPHY WIN -- I suppose it doesn't quite compare with the Miracle on Ice from the 1980 Winter Olympics, but the 11-9 U.S. win over Great Britain for the Solomon Trophy certainly represents a huge step forward for U.S. croquet. Great Britain came into the year's event with a perfect 17-0 record versus the Americans. However, based on world rankings, it appeared to be a close match on paper and it certainly was. If I am deciphering the Nottingham board reports properly, the home field advantage gave the Americans the final edge. Congratulations to the U.S. team for a great win.

Full results from croquetrecords.com

U.S. TAKES PRESIDENT'S CUP 2-1 -- In a prelude to Solomon Trophy play, the U.S. players took on members of the British team for the President's Cup. Last played in 2002, the competition is American rules croquet and featured the following matches:

US -- Danny Huneycutt beat Ian Burridge
US -- Ben Rothman and Ron Hendry beat Jeff Dawson and Tony Le Moignan
GB -- Samir Patel and Robin Brown beat Jeff Soo and Jim Butts

MOHAMMAD KAMAL WINS US GOLF CROQUET CHAMPIONSHIP -- After three days of competition at the National Croquet Center in Florida, Mohammad Kamal took the U.S. Golf Croquet title in a best of five finals against Sherif Abdelwalhab 7-2, 7-1, 7-4. The event featured the top level American GC players but only had a field of seven players. I certainly would think this event would fit much better sometime during the lighter summer schedule. I suppose heat is the consideration there, but it seems like a lot of events are jammed into the busy fall schedule competing against holidays, football and other croquet events. Early June or late August seems like it would be worth the risk.

Final GC Placings:

1. Mohammad Kamal
2. Sherif Abdelwahab
3. Len Canavan
3. David McCoy
5. Mike Gibbons
6. Cheryl Bromley
7. William Bromley

Semi-Final Results:

Mohammad Kamal defeated David McCoy 7-6, 7-5
Sherif Abdelwahab defeated Len Canavan 7-3, 7-4