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August Photo of the Month (2009)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thy/ / CC BY 2.0

Product: Mallethead Shirts and Hats

Mallethead Ringer - Purchase Online

Croquet Network has launched a new product line through Cafepress. The mallethead shirts, hats and other attire and accessories are a not so subtle way to show your love for croquet. You can visit the Mallethead store here.

Mallethead T-Shirt - Purchase Online



Mallethead Golf Shirt - Purchase Online



Our first Croquet Network Store:
It Takes Balls

News Clips: Nontuple, Jerry Stark, Ben Rothman

Can anyone tell me what a nontuple is?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFjjXE1jm8M

This Jerry Stark magazine article must be posted for archiving purposes. This link is for the digital edition (see page 40):
http://www.emag-americanwaymag.com/july_15_09.html

Ben Rothman has a blog going. This will be a must-read:
http://croquetpro.blogspot.com/

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

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paytonc/ / CC BY 2.0

Links of the Month: Maui and USCA

After changing platforms, I realize I need to build up my links again in the right column. A site I find to be extremely useful is the Maui Croquet Club website. Tons of useful information and probably the best list of club links around.

And of course, the USCA website is a critical link. Normally, it has a good list of news in the lower section, though nothing new has popped up since mid-July.

First Shot: Consistency of Rules

Another summer is reaching it's final weeks, but I was able to put in a lot of work on the croquet fields. My little social backyard club here in Kansas City successfully implemented some golf croquet events that seemed to breathe new life into the summer tour. I've gotten a chance to play more six-wicket at the Kactus Creek Croquet Club up in Parkville, Missouri. I know now that's where I want to be -- the six wicket game.

Still, Kansas City is nine-wicket country and the September 25-27 USCA Nine-Wicket National Championship is now in the wheelhouse. I was eavesdropping on a discussion about consistency of rules between the nine-wicket game and six-wicket. I suppose that's all up for debate depending what the goal of nine-wicket game should be. I'd like to see more uniformity, but that is a post for another time.

It reminded me though that during the annual cutthroat nine-wicket that my backyard club holds, a veteran of that scene wanted to debate the out of bounds rule. In nine-wicket my interpretation has been that if the ball touches the line, it is out of bounds. We've always played it that way and I was surprised that this player wasn't aware of this. It of course differs from the six-wicket halfway rule, but I think makes sense for deeper grass of the nine-wicket game which often utilizes painted boundaries. Finding the true center of a painted line will always bring up debates.

This player argued though that it should be all the way out to match the all the way through the wicket rule. He lost the debate of course; however, I'd never really thought of it that way and frankly, I have to agree with his point. For simplicity, it seems that the OOB for nine-wicket and six-wicket should match the through the wicket rule. I suppose though that the nearly two inches of extra field could have profound effect on the six-wicket. Still, as I hop back and forth between the different games, I sure would love some consistency.

Dylan-Publisher / Croquet Network

Pop Croquet Video

June Video of the Month

I'm getting ready to embark on a four-day practice session of six-wicket up in Parkville, Missouri. This six-wicket video seemed appropriate. On top of that, I really liked the homemade deadness board.

Croquet Network Back to Blogger

After a little bit of jumping around, Croquet Network is back on blogger. The site just didn't merit the pay model over on squarespace. Expect posting to start flowing again soon.

May Video: Mohamed Nasr by Bob Kroeger

I find this video to be very interesting for two reasons:

-- The way he opens his feet during the huge back swing
-- Notice during the slo-mo on the first shot that the mallet follows through all twisted, yet the shot is still successful

May Links: Sonoma-Cutrer and Kentucky Nine-Wicket

Sonoma-Cutrer Croquet Club / Club

A beautiful club site designed in WordPress, which allows for an RSS feed that people can subscribe to with their iGoogle, My Yahoo or MSN pages. The feed for Sonoma-Cutrer comes in on the Croquet Network feed below. More croquet sites need to use a blog platform (Squarespace, WordPress, TypePad, Blogger) for their sites. The updating is easy and the RSS feed capability keeps more players and fans in touch with the site.
http://sonomacroquet.org/

Kentucky Croquet Club / Club

A nine-wicket club that plays on clay and claims to be the oldest croquet club in the U.S.

http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Loge/9814/

The National Croquet Center / Venue
This is a high quality site with merchandise available.
http://www.croquetnational.com/

April Tournament Winners

4/25 -- Alumni Cup/Leawood, KS -- Kansas State
4/26 -- International Rules Championship Singles/West Palm Beach, FL-- Brian Cumming
4/26 -- International Rules Championship Doubles/West Palm Beach, FL -- Leo McBride & Doug Grimsley

No word on the results from P. Diddy's tournament.

Sources: USCA, Croquet World, PBR Tour

First Shot: Upside/Downside

Well, I'm finding out how difficult it is to manage a blog site, play some croquet, keep the grass under control and spend some time with the family. The downside is nearly another month without getting a post up, but we forge on.

The upside is I've got a couple of tournaments under my belt.
The downside is they've both been wet and cold and dark.

The upside is I played and hosted my first team event for our local club -- Alumni Cup.
The downside -- we lost to K-State. Oh well, the NC and Orange Bowl will have to satisfy me 'til next year.

The upside is my yard is starting to fill in.
The downside is it seems like I spend more time mowing that playing.

The upside is it looks like I've wrangled an invite to play some six-wicket croquet on a real field.
The downside -- there is none, you can't go wrong with that.

The true upside is that the weather is starting to warm up a bit in Kansas and it's time to "swing the wrenches."

Sincerely,
Dylan, Publisher -- Croquet Network

April Croquet Photo of the Month

recursion_see_recursion / flickr creative commons

2008 WCF Golf Croquet Championship Video

April Video of the Month

Last point of a series of videos from YouTube on the final game between Ahmed Nasr and Chris Clark. Could use some play by play, but otherwise, very good.

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.