Welcome to our Third Annual Croquet Network Most Popular Mallet Poll. This has quickly proven to be the most popular annual feature on Croquet Network and with this 2017 edition we are anxious to see if RPM Mallets can register a third straight win (2016 Poll, December 2014 Poll). Of course, it should be recognized that this is a popularity contest and the reality is there is a long list of great mallet makers out there. This is a great opportunity for players to support their favorites.
Read MoreMorning 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.
2017 Croquet Network Media Kit
Dedicated followers will note that in 2016 Croquet Network launched an initiative to provide daily coverage of certain events. Examples include the British Opens, Solomon Test, USCA Golf Croquet Nationals and the US Open. Ideally, we'll tackle more events in 2017 ... so we would love to see some sponsorships develop to help us accelerate our ability to produce better croquet content here on Croquet Network.
Read More2016 Supporters of Croquet Network
Certainly the biggest surprise I found in launching a croquet website back in January of 2008 was the closed environment on the internet for the sport. There are definitely a number of facets to defining what that even means, but getting other sites to link to Croquet Network is a large part of the equation and it has proven to be a futile effort. Success for Croquet Network has been built through more challenging methods, but the promotion of traffic and sharing of good croquet content is one of the key factors in building a successful website and active internet community overall.
It remains as the top challenge for Croquet Network and that is why I wanted to recognize the top sites that do support Croquet Network by driving traffic. For 2016, here is our list for top 10 supporting sites for CroquetNetwork.com. Congratulations and thank you for supporting this site and the sport overall.
TOP 10 SUPPORTING SITES
01. Facebook
07. Twitter.com
08. NationalCroquetClub.Rountablelive.com
2016 Best of Croquet Network
As 2016 winds down, it's always a great time to look at the most popular articles and pages on the Croquet Network site. The trends always present an interesting look back at the year in our wonderful sport and the popularity of specific pages or articles makes me appreciate the loyal audience that has been cultivated over a near-decade of work. The past year was particularly enjoyable because, we kicked off a small but targeted effort to invest in and produce more original content. It's nice to see some of those pieces in the top 10 for 2016.
Read More2016 Croquet News Volume 3, Web Edition
The 2016 Volume 3 issue of the USCA's Croquet News magazine went to press earlier this month and should be mailing to members soon. The web edition PDF is also now available to USCA members on the magazine page of the USCA website (log in required).
Here's the full run-down of articles you'll find in this issue:
- Ideas to Kickstart Nearby Club Croquet Activity
- 2016 Selection Eights
- Golf Croquet National Championship
- 2016 US National Championship
- 2016 Seniors Masters Championships
- Member Profile: David Maloof
- Club Profile: Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club
- On Tactics: Peel to Get Clean
Abdelwahab in Control of US GP
Looking at the current USCA Grand Prix standings, it appears as though Sherif Abdelwahab is on his way to claiming the 2016 race. The standings below were pulled from the USCA website on December 18, 2016, and show that Abdelwahab is just ahead of Stuart Lawrence. From our last glance at the end of August, the positions are exactly switched.
2016 US Open: Cumming Over Grimsley in Five
PLAYER JOURNAL BY LEO NIKORA:
Finals were played on Saturday in both flights. They were accompanied by a courtside bar and luncheon.
2016 US Open: Elimination Blocks (Day 4)
PLAYER JOURNAL BY LEO NIKORA:
For the first time in its 29-year history, the United States Open did not have a single-elimination playoff. Instead, each flight of ten players was reduced to two round-robins of four players each, seeded according to the block results. The winners will advance to the finals. There was some trepidation in the players, but I thought it worked well.
2016 US Open: Block Day 3
US OPEN PLAYER JOURNAL FROM LEO NIKORA:
The third day of Block play had the best weather yet. Each player played another three games. Afterword, the Toast & Tally was held at the home of Donna Dixon.