September Croquet Links: North Carolina, Kansas City and Dyffryn Croquet

Clubs

CroquetNC.org -- This site covers North Carolina croquet and some great articles on tactics in the reference section.

Kactus Creek Croquet Club -- This is a club in Parkville, Missouri that boasts the only quality croquet field in the Kansas City Metro area. It also happens to be where I play. Matt Griffith built this field in his backyard over a period of seven years (2000-2007).

Association

The Croquet Association -- The association website for the sport of croquet in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. More news on croquet for the associated clubs than you can keep up with.

International

Dyffryn Croquet Club (Wales) -- Since my grandfather was Welsh, I had to get this club in. Looks like a beautiful place to play.

All links above will now appear in the Croquet Links section on the navigation bar at the top of the site.

News Clips: Solomon Trophy, Fulford's Nontuple and Croquet History

The USCA posted the Solomon Trophy team rosters over the weekend. Checking the rankings it shapes up to be one of the more competitive events in the series. Looking at the top three spots the Americans match up very well. Spots four through six favor Great Britain according to the rankings. The event will be held at the Mission Hills Country Clup in California, December 4-7. Great Britain leads the series 17-0. For more details on the history and format, check out this Croquet Australia web page.

Ben Rothman has a more detailed re-count of Robert Fulford's recent nontuple. He even does a little translating for those not fully versed in association croquet lingo.

David Drazin had this recent article on the Croquet World on the origins of croquet. Ultimately, it appears that we are still settled on Ireland, though it always seems that there is speculation that it began in France. I'd like to buy into that one as I am thinking I could force the workplace in allowing a day off for croquet on Bastille Day.

From that same Origins article, this quote near the end caught my eye:

"Already there are signs that golf has eaten up more than its share of the landscape, and gateball's rapid rise may be in some way related to its space efficiency as compared to golf, or even to croquet."

I've always wondered how golf courses seem to thrive (prior to the "great recession" that is), yet the business plans for croquet clubs seem to be problematic -- number of players vs playing fields available vs maintenance and startup costs. Still, the overall expense of building and maintaining 18-hole golf course relative to maintaining four or even eight croquet fields doesn't even seem comparable. Thus far, I think bringing new people to the game and building the needed base of players for a club is a challenge due to the perceived complexity of the rules. However, I think golf croquet is a fantastic intro to the game and the utilization of that form is still under development as a player recruitment tool. In other words, I see signs that the recruitment problem is being solved and the game could be on the verge of a possible growth stage.

Upcoming Tournaments / September-October 2009

SEPTEMBER 2009

Sep 04-07 / Patuxent Invitational (US)
Paxtuxent, MD / Lee Hanna - Lehanna@aol.com

Sep 04-07 / Tulsa Classic 2009 (US)
Tulsa, OK / Bob Baker - baker111@tulsacoxmail.com (918.747.0214)

Sep 09-13 / Big Lobster Invitational (US)
Mount Desert Island, Maine / Larry Stettner - larryorfran@yahoo.com

Sep 10-13 / NC State Singles Championship (US)
Bald Head Island, NC / Frank Thompson - Frank@AVMetro.com (919.834.3059)

Sep 11-12 / The Third Annual "Great Croquet Caper '09" (9-Wicket)
Greenville, OH / www.bhrc.org

Sep 11-13 / 2009 Quebec Open (AC - US in lower flights)
Montreal, Quebec / Andrew de Courcy-Ireland - andrew_decourcy-ireland@canaccord.com (514.844.5520)

Sep 17–20 / Houston Invitational (US?)
Houston, TX / Johnny Mitchell - johnnym617@yahoo.com (832.725.8814)

Sep 18-20 / Merion Cricket Club Invitational (US)
Haverford, PA / Whitney Thain - wthain@merioncricket.com (610.642.5800)

Sep 19-20 / Greenwich Club Championship (US)
Greenwich, CT / Barbara Leeming - wicketstalker@gmail.com (203.801.4301)

Sep 23–27 / 20th Annual Pinehurst Invitational (US?)
Pinehurst, NC / Horace Hayworth - hhayworth@yahoo.com (910.690.8873)

Sep 23-27 / Autumn Leaves Invitational (US)
Cashiers, NC / Fred Jones - crokpeople@aol.com (941.484.3206)

Sep 24-27 / Osborne Cup (US)
New York, NY / Doug Moore - nycroquetclub@yahoo.com (212.473.2066)

Sep 25–27 / USCA 9-Wicket National Championship (9-Wicket)
Shawnee, KS / Matt Griffith - Kactuscreek@yahoo.com (816.891.6762)

OCTOBER 2009

Oct 02-03 / Mallet Mayhem 09 (9-Wicket)
Rockford, IL / www.tinkercottage.com

Oct 15-18 / Texas Croquet Classic (US)
Dallas, TX / Bob Knowlton - robertk@baylorhealth.edu (214.750.8722)

Oct 20-25 / Coastal Croquet Clubs Fall Invitational (US)
Hilton Head, SC / Avril Nicholson - avril@sc.rr.com (843.705.2929)

Oct 22-25 / Selection Eights (AC)
West Palm Beach, FL / Rich Lamm - richlamm@comcast.net or Jerry Stark - TPRover@aol.com

Oct 23–25 / Jekyll Island Invitational
Jekyll Island, GA / Dan Lott - lott1965@bellsouth.net (912.506.8744)

Oct 29-Nov 1 / West Indies Croquet Championship (US?)
St. Croix, VI / Les Kelley - lkelley@nnldlaw.com (340.773.9363)

Oct 30- Nov 1 / SCCC Fall Invitational (Singles Only) (US?)
Venice, FL / Jackie Jones - crokpeople@aol.com (941.484.3206)

News Clips: Sports Illustrated and Jerry Stark

Sports Illustrated is listening? The timing of this comment amused me:

"... and croquet balls to be tapped by belligerent believers who insist that it is the only worth-while game in the world."

Jerry Stark took the Meadowood Croquet Classic over Bob Van Tassell 26-0 in Mission Hills, CA. Full article from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Croquet Network moves again? If you've really followed this schizophrenic project, then you know it started on Blogger, moved to Squarespace, then moved back to Blogger. Now, we're back with Squarespace. Why? The short story is I had to tighten expenses over the summer and Squarespace is a paid host. I figured I could go back to Blogger and manage this thing for free. Wrong -- I missed too many of the features offered by Squarespace. Anyway, I figure no matter what, the cost is worth the time saved. Hopefully, it'll be smooth going forward, but the proof will be when I demonstrate some consistency. Hope you stick with us.

Winning a hoops tourney on a jump shot would be worth an NFL-type celebration. I love the kind of reporting on events they get down under. Sounds like quite a finals match.

Thank you India -- "The truly boring ones, like curling and croquet, are hardly sports ... "
Truly boring? Why don't you try the game and do a re-write? Maybe the positive is that we've been elevated to "hardly a sport."

Croquet the Sport vs Croquet the Joke


USCA Stock Photo

Any kind of press is good press right?

As I skim the Google croquet news feed on a regular basis, I can say that the sheer number of events that roll through the feed indicate that quite a bit of croquet is being played. It supports the belief that despite having roughly 3,000 registered USCA players in the U.S. for example, there are likely tens of thousands more that are playing the game in the backyard setting. So, that's good right?

Sure, I guess. However, I'm more often having a harder time not feeling disappointed when I click on the latest story only to gaze upon photos of people dressed in theme-wear of some sort and playing with toy mallets and giant wire wickets (example). Often times, comments on the game seem condescending.

The standard approach for the serious croquet player is that there are just different types of croquet to be played and after all it's meant to be a social, fun game. In my heart, I believe and enjoy that as well. After all, you don't see golfers sweating over miniature golf. Of course, I would also propose that all levels of croquet are fun and social.

So, why let another write-up on a social croquet event get under the skin? As a proponent of the game, you sometimes exist in an isolated world of people who take great pride in the game. Ultimately, to have so many stories come through portraying your passion as a bit of joke bruises the ego to some degree.

Of course, real croquet players know that the ego hardly matters. Plus, I suppose that level of misunderstanding by the general public is a bit of the enjoyment as well. For the people who get the sport of croquet, it's an exclusive little worldwide club that enjoys a wonderful little secret -- once you do get it, the game will blow your mind.

If competition croquet ever exploded, would losing that underground cult status ruin the fun? I hope not, but oddly enough, I think in the next decade we may find out. I can't quite quantify it, but for some reason their just seems to be a buzz about the game.

A final thought. Looking through this column it appears to be a little over the top bitter. I do see the newsworthiness of these entertaining little events; however, I would like to see a little balance with actual croquet coverage. Where is the SI coverage of Ben Rothman's crazy run at the World Championships? Where was the highlight clip from ESPN, Versus or Fox on that action? I think it's time for the sports media to learn the game.


Flickr CC Photo -- Payton Chung