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

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

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

First Shot: The Croquet Network Mission

This month I thought it would be a good idea to discuss the evolving mission of croquetnetwork.com. In one sense it can be summed up pretty easily, I couldn't find another full-time croquet blog out there, so I thought I'd jump in. Of course, a primary focus is to cover news that comes up in a timely fashion. Frankly, there are not a lot of sources out there for croquet news (best sites listed in the right column), which I suppose is both good and bad. The good is that it validates the need for a good croquet blog. The bad is that it's difficult to find information.

Below the main stories on this site, you'll find a consolidated news feed that tracks this site, my club site (pbrtour.net) and another community site that I also built -- kccroquet.com. There is also a feed for the NYCC blog in there, but it hasn't seen too many updates over the winter.

So, beyond the internet news bits and tourney results, I've decided to approach this from a monthly magazine perspective. This "First Shot" column will be a monthly feature that will act like a publisher's letter to kick off each series. I've also targeted a product review, a skills article, a tournament calendar and interview as re-ocurring monthly departments. I'll also throw in at least one video per month and a photo of the month. Those are the goals, but keep in mind this is a one-man show.

Speaking of which, I'll get into my personal croquet story more in the future, but just so you have a base knowledge -- I've been playing backyard croquet since 1998 with a private little social club that hosts a tournament series in the Kansas City area. I usually play one tournament per year on the Missouri Croquet Association circuit. This year I plan to get into a six-wicket game even if it has to happen in my backyard. I'm also hosting the first team nine-wicket event that our club has ever had.

In other words, I've got a little experience around the game but in no way am I a six-wicket pro or do I have deep connections with the established croquet associations. I'm learning as I go and I'm really enjoying it. Hopefully, I can provide some good information and entertainment for the croquet lovers out there.

A final note this month -- the ads you see for T-shirts (or other products) on the site are my creation and do help fund my efforts here. I'll say it straight up -- I'm not here to make a buck, but I'd love to sell 20,000 shirts and focus on this site full-time. The mission laid out above is pretty modest, but I'd like to see some success because I really enjoy this sport and I can envision a lot of ways to expand this site and I see a bright future for the game. So if you like the site and the shirt or other products, jump right in -- it's good for the overall mission.

Sincerely,
Dylan, Publisher -- Croquet Network