| Croquet Happenings |
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| Written by Laurence Stettner, Croquet at Woodlawn | |||||
| Wednesday, May 28, 2008 | |||||
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One of the things I remember most fondly about the 60's is the idea of a "happening", as in " There will be a happening in the park this Sunday, everyone come and bring your musical instruments, your kids, your dogs, your kites, some food to share while we all enjoy the sunshine and share stories about peace, love and good will on our little planet." A happening came to mean just about any event where a group of like-minded people got together and shared an experience that was in any way larger than themselves and enriched their lives at that moment. Today I start writing about an ongoing "happening" in Hancock County, Maine - the “Croquet Renaissance”. We will talk about what is happening in this burgeoning little world within a world, how it happens, who it happens with and you all can join in the happenings. In our first blog today we will talk about how this on-going and growing happening happened in the first place. This will be a prelude to what's happening now. How Croquet HappenedI. HistoryCroquet took the world of games and social pastimes by storm when it became wildly popular over night in England in 1the 1850's, then spread literally around the world. It was a game that could be played by men , women and children, it could be played in just about any backyard space, and it became the new “in thing." Its wild popularity among the middle class and the gentry inspired Lewis Carroll to satirize it in Alice and Wonderland. Anton Chekov wrote about croquet being played at a party in Russia in the 1860's way out in the provinces hundreds of miles from Moscow. Photos exist showing Abraham Lincoln's cabinet playing croquet on the White House Lawn, Winslow Homer immortalized croquet during the Victorian era with paintings of women playing croquet with a flirtatious air, croquet even achieved Olympic Status in 1900 in Paris, where 4 women on the French team were the first ever females to participate in Olympic Competition of any kind. Ironically, one thing we don't know is how croquet got invented in the first place, we only have theories. We do know that a Ms.McNaughten from Ireland gave a set to a Mr. Spratt of London in 1840's. Mr. Spratt sold it to a Mr. John Jaques of London who put it on display at the great British Exposition in London in 1851, made up a set of standard rules and advertised it widely through printed handbills and croquet was then off and running. We don't really know how it got to be played in Ireland in the first place, though. The most plausible theory is that someone from Ireland observed French Shepherds in the countryside playing a game that involved using their crooks to hit balls through hoops made of supple willow branches. They took the idea back to Ireland, got a set of mallets and hoops made and set up some rules, and, as they say in France, Voila! The form of croquet popularized by Mr. Jaques is the one we are all used to from childhood. More or less: there is a court with a stake at each end, 9 pretty wide hoops and relatively small mallets and balls set up on whatever more or less flat ground we can find. If you hit an opponent’s ball you can put your ball up against it, then keep your ball in place with your foot while you smash your opponents ball as far away as possible while trying not to injure you toes in the process. There was another form of croquet, however, developed in Britain in the 1860's which attempted to elevate croquet from a social pastime to a competitive sport - called six-wicket croquet. This game is played on a totally flat lawn, with 6 rectangular wickets just a tiny bit wider than the balls, sturdy mallets and a single stake in the middle. A regulation sized court is 105 by 84 feet, and one is not allowed to "foot" the ball, but must come up with more clever ways to foil the opponents. This game became the focus of an organized set of clubs and tournaments, etc. etc. primarily in Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand which have thrived right down to the present. It was virtually unknown in America, however, for more than a hundred years.Hancock County Croquet RenaissanceIn 1976 an avid croquet enthusiast from New York City married to a woman who grew up on Mt. Desert Island left his job as publisher/editor and bought the venerable Claremont Hotel in Southwest Harbor. Mr. Alan Mc Cue and his wife Gertrude established a very flat and trim croquet lawn adjacent to the hotel and established an annual tournament in August for themselves, their friends, hotel guests and employees - and any one else who happened to hear about it and wander by. This year the "Claremont Classic” will be celebrating its 32nd year of continuous competition, commencing on the first Sunday in august and going all week. Drawn to the game by the lovely setting the keen competition, a small but avid coterie of croquet players in Hancock County began to grow. I discovered the Claremont Classic in 1983, and that eventually led me not only to my annual August obsessions with somehow trying to win a game against people much more knowledgeable than I, but eventually into the larger world of competitive croquet in North American - And yes, there is now such a larger world!! In the mid 1970’s a Mr. Jack Osborn, also a croquet enthusiast from NYC originally, learned about the six wicket British game game of croquet and decided it was high time that this more sport-oriented version got established in America. He modified the rules a bit, formed the US Croquet Association and eventually established headquarters in Palm Beach, Florida. He envisioned a Croquet network that would grow as tennis had in the US. That has not quite happened on a large scale but, there are now several hundred croquet clubs in the US playing 6 wicket croquet on a regular basis with a standard set of rules, high quality equipment, and dedicated players. There is an organized handicapping and ranking system just as in golf and tennis. The US croquet association now has a permanent center with a club house and 12 courts in W. Palm Beach and sponsors, hundreds of tournaments all over the country as well as croquet instruction and the sponsoring of US teams’ International Competition. Needless to say I was hooked immediately upon discovering this croquet cornucopia. In 1996 I built a small court on a very flat lawn next to our home in Manset, Maine and established the Mount Desert Island (MDI) croquet club. We grew slowly but steadily, and sponsored a national tournament every other year known as "The Big Lobster." Hancock County was on the croquet map! Several years later Eileen Holberg established a second court for the club on Fernald Point in SW Harbor, and then Marcia Chapman and Mary Gould built a court at their home on the water in Brooksville Maine. Through the efforts of a historically minded croquet enthusiast from Sorrento, Maine, Sturgis Haskins, we started offering classes in croquet through the local senior colleges. We were percolating along. Then a series of events led to the establishment of a full sized championship croquet lawn and an associated croquet program in the center of Hancock County on the grounds of the Woodlawn Museum and Historic Black House - just a stone's throw from the Union River in Downtown Ellsworth. Now croquet fervor is boiling over in the county and I will be telling you about it weekly!The Woodlawn Croquet ProgramNow in its first year of full operation (the court was completed in July of 2007) ,the Woodlawn croquet program is administered by the museum with the advice and guidance of the croquet committee , chaired by Perry Mattson of Surry. It offers active play from dawn to dusk every day for croquet members, continuing instruction for members, local tournaments and social events, sponsoring of major tournaments, etc. In addition it has probably the most vigorous program of bringing the joys of 6 wicket croquet to the previously uninitiated in the country. Free beginner classes are offered every Saturday mornings at Woodlawn court; the 2nd and fourth Saturdays are the free Introductory sessions, and the follow up class for $10 fee is held on the 1st and 3rd Saturdays of each month. Once you have had these classes you can join the program for an annual fee of $150 a year, or rent court time at a rate of $15 per person for a 2 hour session. In addition the program offers “walk on” croquet play in the easiest to learn version of the game, Golf Croquet, every Tuesday afternoon from 3 to 5 PM for a fee of $5. You can not only get to see what this kind of croquet is all about, but meet members of the croquet program as well. Call Perry at 667-9335 to sign up for classes or further information or just come on out Tuesday afternoon and become part of what's happening! In future blogs we will feature special croquet events , the weekly schedule of croquet happenings in the area, notes and tips for players both beginning and advanced , my personal greatest croquet moments, croquet trivia, and other things that occur to my croquet addled brain. Next week look for my love poem: "Croquet, Why do I love thee? Let me count the ways."Major Croquet HappeningFirst ever Maine/New Hampshire State Croquet Championships, Thursday June 26 thru Sunday June 29th, at The Woodlawn Museum and the Chapman - Gould court in Brooksville. A US Croquet Association sanctioned event. Public invited to see what croquet as a sport is really all about! Play from 8-5 every day, finals Sunday morning at 9
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