CROQUET NEWS:  Resort at the Mountain Invitational Won by Robert Fulford

	Rank		Player, Country
	#1		Robert Fulford, England
	#2		David Maugham, England
	#3		Reg Bamford, South Africa
	#5		Mark McInerney, Ireland
	#6		Trevor Bassett, Australia
	#7		Ronan McInerney, Ireland
	#11		Jonathan Kirby, Scotland
	#12		Toby Garrison, New Zealand
	#20		Damon Bidencope, United States

8-12 June 2005
Resort at the Mountain, Welches, Oregon, USA
by Leo Nikora

Robert Fulford wins the 2005 Resort at the Mountain Invitational.

The 9th annual Resort at the Mountain Invitational was won by Robert Fulford of England, the top-ranked player in the world. David Maugham of England, the second-ranked player, came in second. Reg Bamford of South Africa, ranked third in the word, came in third. Two-time previous winner Mark McInerney of Ireland came in fourth. The two courts at the Resort at the Mountain were in perfect condition, and the weather alternated between warm sun and cool drizzle. Tremaine Arkley was the tournament manager.

Pictures are posted in the Maui Croquet Club Gallery. Commentary by Tremaine Arkley appears below. A newspaper article entitled Wicket Good Fun, about the tournament, also appears below.

	Year		Winner, Country
	2005		Robert Fulford, England
	2004		Mark McInerney, Ireland
	2003		Mathew Burrow, Jersey
	2002		Mark McInerney, Ireland
	2001		Reg Bamford, South Africa
	2000		Shane Davis, New Zealand
	1999		David Openshaw, England
	1998		Chris Clarke, England
	1997		Jerry Stark, United States

The top four players in the Block Play advanced to the best-of-three Finals Play. Fulford played flawless croquet, defeating Maugham in two straight games, the second being a sextuple peel. Bamford displayed prowess and hubris completing two consecutive octuple peels; the first octuple peels ever done in tournament play in the United States, and the second consecutive octuple peels ever done in world tournament play.

Finals Play

1st	Maugham	Fulford +24tp, +15sxp
2nd	Fulford
3rd	Bamford	Bamford +26octp, +15octp
4th	M. McInerney

An extremely strong field of nine players, including six of the top seven players in the world, played a double round-robin Block Play.

Scores below the main diagonal are upsets.

Block Play		Fulford	Maugham	Bamford	M. McInerney	Bassett	R. McInerney	Kirby	Garrison	Bidencope
#1	Fulford	2nd (10)	+7sxp +16		+14otp +26sxp	+26tp	+17sxp	+25tp	+25tp	+4 +13tpo
#2	Maugham		1st (11)	+26tp +24tp	+26tp +26tp	+26tp	+21tp +26tp	+17tp	+26tp	+16tp +26tp
#3	Bamford	+6tp +26qp		3rd (9)	+17sxp	+16sxp +26qp	+26qp	+26sxp	+26sxp	+7sxp
#5	M. McInerney			+26tp	4th (8, -41)	+26tp +17tp	+26tp	+26tp	+26tp +13otp	+18tp
#6	Bassett	+8tp	+14tp			7th (7, -72)	+17tp	+26sxp	+17tp +26tp	+17tp
#7	R. McInerney	+25		+20tp	+17	+14tp	5th (8, -34)	+8 +14tp		+23tp +26tp
#11	Kirby	+26tp	+17	+26tp	+26tp	+26tp		6th (7, -1)	+26tp	+26tp
#12	Garrison	+22tp	+26	+21tp			+12 +26	+6	9th (6, -100)
#20	Bidencope			+26tp	+26tp	+20tp		+26tp	+16 +12	8th (6, -50)

Detailed game descriptions can be found at the end of this report, or can be reached by clicking on the highlighted score of a game. Not all games have such descriptions.

Commentary

13 June 2005
Resort at the Mountain, Welches, Oregon, USA
by Tremaine Arkley on Nottingham Board

The 9th annual Resort Invitational was the closest event yet. The range of block play wins ranged from 6 to 11. The nine player demographics; The average age 32, the average age when starting the game 13 years and the average years of experience 18 years.

Some extraordinary play took place in this event. Reg Bamford’s final four games on the last day set a four game peeling world record; 2 sxp games followed by 2 octp (octuple) games. These were the first octp wins in the USA in tournament play. David Maugham had a run of 6 tp consecutive wins in 6, 5, 5, 5, 6 & 6 turns. According to all present this has never been done in tournament play. Out of the 76 games 64 were peel games; 59 tp, 9 sxp, 3 qp, 2 otp, 2 octp, & 1 tpo. Play was quick, rounds completed early leaving time for a few rounds of golf for many players, especially Bamford who arrived with his new set of golf clubs.

At the welcoming Tuesday reception for the players and friends with the Resort owners, Ed and Jancie Hopper, we were, as usual, faced with a groaning table of delightful PNW gourmet dishes, treats, local wines, micro-brews, other drinks and desserts. We spent a relaxed evening with Ed and Janice talking about this event and what it means to the participating players and possible plans for the 10 annual invitational in 2006.

On Wednesday evening on the annual bus ride to Timberline Lodge at 6000+ feet at the base of the 11,000+ foot Mt. Hood, looking up at the Palmer Glacier near the top, we were treated clear spectacular views to the south overlooking the Cascade Mountain range with Mt. Jefferson and the North, Middle and South Sister mountains in sight. We then went to a local brew pub at Government Camp below Timberline for some amazing homemade pizzas and micro-brews.

On Thursday evening the Resort hosted the annual outdoor BBQ overlooking the golf courses in shirt sleeve weather. The views to the south are fantastic. We then had some golf pitching contests from the high spot to the green below and managed to later engage a group of snow boarders partying in front of the adjoining outdoor café. We compared our sports and again found another sport less obscure than ours.

On Friday evening after The Resort pizza feast most of us retired to the Tartan Bar for some late night fun with lots of Resort guests, a small blues band and I don’t know who else since some of us retired early!

Saturday night we gathered together for the more formal, in dress that is, Player’s Dinner with Ed & Janice Hopper, Scott Cruickshank, Connie Peters and some invited guests including Leo Nikora and his wife Beverly who bought a summer home here to avoid the hot weather in Maui. At the dinner, as tradition requires, each person stood and told us something about themselves and at times were on the receiving end of some roasting. We also present Ed and Janice a USCA reward recognizing The Resort’s efforts on behalf of the International games in 2004.

We had a very large crowd watching the Sunday narrated finals under sunny skies and warm weather. Bassett, R McInerney and Garrison provided colorful comments during play including some very clear explanations of what Reg was doing completing his octuple peels! Amazingly enough many began to understand his efforts by the second game.

Throughout this tournament the media coverage was extensive including a full page color front page Saturday story in the Living Section of the Portland Oregonian, the major daily newspaper in Oregon.

In the story some interesting comments: Robert was referred to as a “middle aged chap in glasses”. The sextupe peel is not a form of cosmetic surgery. David Maugham when asked how he’s doing, responds, not uncheerily, “Badly. And you?” Sound familiar? They also pointed out he has recently taken up jive dancing. Mark McInerney referred to as a mandolin rock ’n’ roll star and brooding bookworm. Tremaine Arkley an impish man. Garrison, clearly unhappy with his play in this event, takes a seat next to his girlfriend. He takes her hand, grins and says in true McEnroe fashion, “This game is proving to be less than satisfactory.”

Next year we will hold an expanded 10th annual Resort Invitational singles competition, same format. We have been discussing plans for a special event what with the MacRobertson Shield being held at the end of the year. We are starting to line up the players and plan to have a special 10th annual. Stay tuned.

All the players agree that this event is the best singles event in the world and continue to be impressed on how The Resort treats the player’s with respect, takes care of them and treats them as the world class athletes they are. We are also pleased to regularly attract the best in the world.

Wicket Good Fun

Charm, steady nerves, keen intellect ... a good book -- the world's top croquet players bring their game to Welches

11 June 2005
Resort at the Mountain, Welches, Oregon, USA
by Chris Hunt in The Oregonian, Portland Oregon, USA

Crisp white against emerald lawn, the gentle "thunk" of wood against plastic sphere, polite banter over the wickets. Croquet, in most Americans' minds, is a refined pastime, the stuff of Ralph Lauren ads and Merchant-Ivory films.

In reality, however, the croquet enthusiasts of the world can come across as a bit of a cranky lot. One need only glance at the headlines on Croquet World Online to glimpse the testiness that lies beneath the civility: "How We Lost Wimbledon: It wasn't lawn tennis that ended croquet's surging popularity in 19th-century England; the sport's newest historian points to the real culprits." "Does the dominance of male nerds keep women from competing?" "Croquet on Celluloid: It's Not a Pretty Picture" "What's in a name? Perpetual confusion if influential Anglophiles in America insist on calling it 'Association Croquet.' "

Yowza. And these people are walking around with mallets.

Thusly, it's with trepidation that one contemplates the journey to the 2005 International Croquet Invitational. The five-day tournament, which takes place every year at The Resort at the Mountain in Welches, offers a $3,500 purse and draws the world's top croquet players, such as:

Reg Bamford, South Africa: The fact that Bamford is a former world champion is surpassed only by the fact that "he has mastered the difficult sextuple peel," which, surprisingly, is not a form of cosmetic surgery. In fact, it's defined as "winning a game by peeling the partner ball through its last six hoops and pegging out both balls." Well, duh.

Mark McInerney, Ireland: Not only is McInerney the reigning Resort and Irish croquet champion, he is also a zoology student who plays mandolin in a rock band and plans to travel the world working in animal conservation. Seriously. (Just don't bring up the whole sextuple peel thing; could be a bit of a sore point.)

David Maugham, England: This winner of the Australian Open, the U.S. Open and 17 British Regional championships is working toward a black belt in jiujitsu and has recently taken up modern jive dancing.

Unlike their counterparts at croquetworld.com, these fellows do not sound at all vitriolic (although, in his bio, McInerney does name Jimmy Page as his idol). Let's clobber some balls, mates!

Don't ask about the rules

Beautifully lettered signs point the way to the resort's croquet lawns, which boast a spectacular alpine view. Seven flags flutter above one lawn, representing the home countries of the tournament's players: Australia, England, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa and the United States. Cottonwood seeds float through the air like summer snow as a gaggle of players dressed in white eat pastry and discuss their world rankings.

A tall, intense-looking fellow stands out for two reasons: One, he's wearing a gray hooded sweat shirt, and two, he's hunched over a copy of "Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga." This brooding bookworm is none other than rock 'n' roll croquet star Mark McInerney. Apparently, the Jimmy Page obsession is authentic.

But one wonders -- with no offense to literacy or anything -- is it really OK to read while you're playing?

Thank goodness for tournament director Tremaine Arkley, who delights in helping civilians make sense of the game. He explains that McInerney is the "outplayer," meaning he's on the sidelines waiting for his opponent to finish, either by making a mistake or by playing a safety shot.

Blank stare. "So reading is OK, Tremaine?"

"Reading is fine."

Arkley, an impish man who himself is a former world-class croquet player, understands the confusing mass of bizarre terminology that masquerades as the association croquet rulebook.

"Oh, don't even try to figure that out," he says dismissively before delivering an easier-to-understand rundown.

The object of six-wicket croquet is to put your balls through the hoops in a particular order and then hit the center peg with them before your opponent does.

"See that guy?" Arkley interrupts his mini-lesson and gestures toward a middle-age chap in glasses. "That's Robert Fulford from England. He's like the Tiger Woods of croquet. He's No. 1 in the world. He's a CPA, but he makes his living by gambling. All legal, of course."

But of course. Because croquet is an amateur sport, tournament players have "real" jobs. Of the nine players at the resort, six have a background in numbers, such as economics, finance and banking. It's no accident.

Watching the grass grow, actually

Damon Bidencope, representing the United States, says that while half of croquet is physical -- hand-eye coordination, the repetition of certain skills under stress -- the other half is intellectual. "There's so much to understand: the dynamics going on with the ball, subtleties with the spin. The grass actually grows between the start and end of a day's play, so you have to know how to take that into account and change your game accordingly. If there's dew on the grass, if it's hot or cold . . . all that has an effect."

So croquet really isn't for the dim, then?

"Not at this level, no," Bidencope says. "They'd be eaten alive."

A stocky redhead approaches. It's David Maugham of England, No. 2 in the world but a bit off his game today. When asked how he's doing, he responds, not uncheerily, "Badly. And you?"

Probably not the time to ask how the jive dancing is going.

Maugham, an information analyst for the National Health Service, began playing croquet when he was 11 or 12. "My parents divorced, and my father was looking for something to do with me," he says.

The players break for lunch, after which two elderly women -- roughly one-third of the gallery -- are treated to a match between Toby Garrison of New Zealand and Ronan McInerney, older brother of Mark and also a devotee of the written word. (When he's not on the lawn, Ronan is reading "Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China" by Jung Chang. These boys' parents certainly did something right.)

Garrison, clearly unhappy with his play in this match, takes a seat next to his girlfriend. He takes her hand, grins and says, in true McEnroe fashion, "This game is proving to be less than satisfactory." As he retrieves his mallet, he says to his spectators, "I hope we can put on a better game for you."

Charmed by the young Kiwi, they giggle and assure him that he is doing very well indeed. No sextuple peel required.

Detailed Game Descriptions