March Tournament Winners

Available tournament results from March:

03/08 -- Peyton Ballenger/Palm Beach Gardens, FL -- Bob Chilton
03/11 -- Croquet Week Golf Championship/West Palm Beach, FL -- Trevor Herin
03/16 -- 2008 World Golf Croquet Championship/Cape Town, S. Africa -- Ahmed Nasr
03/16 -- Club Championship/West Palm Beach, FL -- NCC/Stewart Jackson & Johnny Mitchell
03/22 -- Mar-a-Lago Singles/Palm Beach, FL -- Sandy Walsh

Sources: USCA, Croquet World

First Shot: The Best Intentions

Wow. I laid out the best of intentions last month in the first edition of this department establishing a minimum target for monthly features/departments. I hit on two of the seven targets for March. So what happened? Well, a little of everything. I picked up that little cold/flu and that held me back a bit. That was followed by a couple of major family birthday celebrations. Throw in that miserable daylight savings switch and it was a rough month.

The good news is that despite a very cold spring here in Kansas, I did get my backyard field set up. The consistency is off a little as we suffered through a pretty good drought last summer, but it seems to be filling in.

So, a new season goal after I got hooked on the WCF Golf Croquet Championships in March was to an attempt to try out the golf version for myself. I've had three occasions to give the game a shot and I have to say I think it's a winner. Under thirty minutes each time and in a backyard setting, it's pretty much a shooters game. Quick and fun. My club will definitely be doing additional testing over the summer.

Up next, I've changed over the field to the nine-wicket set up and it's time for some team play. As for Croquet Network, I have a few improvements in mind and the goal is to at least get a feature and skills story out before the end of April. In general, I want to get two posts in each week. In the meantime, get out and play and if you're in the mood check out the website store at http://www.cafepress.com/croquetnetwork.

Sincerely,
Dylan, Publisher -- Croquet Network

U.S. Tournament Calendar -- April 2008

Apr 3 -- Bald Head Island Singles Tournament
Bald Head Island Croquet Club, Bald Head Island, NC
Contact: j_jknott@bellsouth.net

Apr 4–6 -- National Croquet Center Singles Championship
National Croquet Center, West Palm Beach, FL
Contact: archiepeck@aol.com

Apr 5–6 -- Croquet Fools
King City and Westmoreland, OR, King City&Westmoreland, OR
Contact: sweeney@pdxlawyer.com

Apr 10–13 -- NC Open Croquet Champ. Flight
Pinehurst Croquet Club, Pinehurst, NC
Contact: ron.lloyd@pinehurst.com

Apr 11–13 -- NCC Association Rules Championship Singles
National Croquet Center, West Palm Beach, FL
Contact: archiepeck@aol.com

Apr 18–20 -- Sarasota County Spring Singles Invitational
Sarasota County Croquet Club, Venice, FL
Contact: Crokpeople@aol.com

Apr 21–26 -- USCA Association Rules Nationals
NCC, West Palm Beach, FL
Contact: tournamentusca@aol.com

Apr 26–27 -- USCA Collegiate National Championship
Merion Cricket Club, Haverford, PA
Contact: lehanna@aol.com

Source: USCA Calendar Page (click for more details)

Another Great Golf Croquet Video

In honor of the WCF World Golf Croquet championships, I had to post this awesome little segment of great golf croquet shots. I've got to try this game.

Ahmed Nasr Continues Egyptian Dominance

It looked like the Egyptians might be in danger of finally losing the WCF Laidlaw Golf Croquet World Championship this past weekend in South Africa. Local favorite Reg Bamford took on Ahmed Nasr in the finals with a home crowd behind him but fell in four games during the best-of-five final.

For Nasr, it was his second world championship with his other title coming in 2004. The Egyptians now have won all eight of the golf croquet championships.

FINAL SCORE

Ahmed Nasr (EGY) bt Reg Bamford (RSA)
7-6, 7-4, 2-7, 7-2

Sources: www.croquetworld.com / www.wcfcroquet.org

March Links: Arizona and Two Extreme Clubs

Today's post will kick off a new monthly series providing links on croquet sites across the internet. The links will also be provided on the Croquet Network User Links page which is a great resource in that it allows anyone to upload a club link. This month's links:

Arizona Croquet Club / Club
This is nice site for one of the major U.S. croquet clubs established in 1975. If you dig deep enough, you'll find a great selection of instruction articles.

Golden Mallet Croquet Society / Extreme Croquet
Beautiful site -- the civil war wicket photos are the best. A lot of the extreme sites have superb presentation.

North Side Croquet / Extreme Croquet
Croquet meets Metallica. Great posters (adult language). Sort of backyard meets extreme.

WCF Golf Championships Down to Eight

Checking in on the WCF website, the Laidlaw Golf Croquet Championships are down to eight players. American Sherif Abdelwahab lost 4-7, 4-7 to Khalid Younis (Egypt) in the second round knockout.

The Egyptians are impressive as they have six players in the final eight. Six-wicket world champion Chris Clarke is still in the mix as well as Reg Bamford.

I will saying following the event has me very interested in the game. I've been checking out the rundown on the USCA site, and I'm convinced I'll be giving this game a try this summer.