Croquet:  Why do I love thee? Let  me count the ways.

     1. Hitting a croquet ball is a delight A croquet ball is not  moving when you try to hit it like a baseball, its not small like a golf ball, it does not travel through the air and wreak havoc if hit improperly. It is large, it is stationary, it sits on the ground and it makes a satisfying “crack” or “thonk”  when you strike it with your mallet. The time it takes to  learn to hit a  single croquet ball accurately is a fraction of the time it takes to learn to hit a golf ball more or less straight or manage to hit a baseball or a tennis ball  that is moving.

2. Croquet as a pastime can be played by people of just about any age and both genders on an equal footing. They can all play; woman and husband, man and wife, significant self and significant other,  grandson and granddaughter, brothers or sisters, grandpa and granddaughter, etc. can play together as partners or as opponents. It can also be played on just about any patch of land that is at least 40 feet by 20 feet that is relatively flat.  If it is NOT flat, you can play “guerilla’ or “extreme ”croquet.

3. Kids love croquet. “What are we  gonna do now? Dad, Mom, Grandma? “ ”Why, you can just go right out and play croquet while I take a nap.”

4. Croquet is the most social game there is, because the players all have “down time” during a game, and thus are available for interaction with others while playing.  Kiibitzing and camaraderie are  croquet’s middle names.

5. Croquet is a great way to enjoy the outdoors, but can be practiced and even played indoors as well. Every skill needed to master croquet can be practiced by yourself while you are enjoying the outdoors and the satisfying sound of hitting croquet balls.

6. Croquet is colorful- blue, red, black and yellow balls, stripes  on the stake and flags ae fun to look at.

7. Like golf and tennis, .croquet has an organized network ot tournaments across the country  and a system of handicapping.   Unlike  golf and tennis a player at the beginning level can compete in such tournaments, since they  are organized into different “flights” depending on ability. Further, many tournaments offer a day or half day of instruction  for relatively novice players as part of their program. Imagine if you played golf as a “hobby” and could play in the same tournament as Tiger  Woods or tennis and played on the court next to Roger  Fedderer who would be only too happy to  chat with you and give you some tips. That is what  the “croquet circuit” is like. (Serious partying and scrumptious food is also a major feature of most croquet tournaments, if you like that sort of thing.)

8. Croquet club dues and the costs to play are a a small fraction of those typically associated with playing tennis and a miniscule fraction of those associated with golf. Despite its “genteel” image, croquet is a game accessible to everyone.

9. Croquet can be played as singles or doubles and the nature of the game is identical. Thus, though  it is in its competitive form the most strategic of all sports, sometimes called “chess on the grass” in fact, you can always play doubles and let your partner do  the thinking and just enjoy hitting the ball.

10. The rules of the d fastest growing form of croquet,  6-wicket Golf Croquet , can be learned in 5 minutes or less,  so you can teach your family and friends to play in a jiffy. 

 Okay,  enough already, how do I get started?

 The simplest way is just come to the Woodlawn museum any Tuesday afternoon between 3 and 5 PM where members of the woodlawn croquet program will show you the ropes and how to play golf croquet and tell you about how to get started loving this new version of the game.

  Another good way is to sign up for the next free Saturday class, which will be on Saturday, June 14, from 10 AM-12:30  also at the museum.  Call Perry Mattson at 667-9335 to sign up and for more information .

This weeks tip for relative beginners: When you  make a wicket and have no really easy way of making your next wicket, you should always be thinking about going out of bounds, because with your three ball liveness that you earned by making the wicket, you can always make the wicket from the boundary when  your partner joins you and sets you a rush, and you will  also be in a great position to swoop down on your opponents if they falter. Going out of bounds is not the last resort, it is the first  opiton of good play when you are live on partner. 

This weeks tip for more advanced players:When setting a break for partner, tthe best play is usually to put a ball at partner's hoop and then another ball where partner can easily roquet it, this is much easier than tryiing to set a rush for partner to its hoop and putting another ball at pioneer. Once partner makes the roquet and has a ball at its hoop, they can set their own pioneer.. In the situation where partner is on the boundary and you have roqueted the spent ball, send spent ball to partners wicket, then go out of bounds next to partner with your continuation shot. 

 Fpr more info on Woodlawn Croquet, go to www. Woodlawnmuseum.com, and tthen cllick on croquet  in the black bar above the picture of the  Black House. For more info on croquet generally, go to Croquet World Online Magazine and to the US Croquet Association website, CroquetAmerica.com 

 Croquet happens every day, every way in Hancock County, Maine. 

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