CROQUET NEWS:  Croquet Trying to Overcome Image

23 July 2006
Greenwich Croquet Club, Greenwich, Connecticut, USA
by Jane McManus in The Journal News, White Plains, New York, USA

The lawn was manicured to within an inch of its life, and the players were dressed in tournament whites. In the brilliant sunshine over Bruce Park, Armonk's Mark Blundell spent the afternoon hitting the heck out of brightly painted wooden balls in the name of croquet.

"It's like playing chess on grass," Blundell said. "You conceive these brilliant ideas and then you have to do it."

Easier said than done, particularly when two games are taking place on one court, as was happening at the Greenwich Invitational Croquet Tournament, an event being played all over Greenwich earlier this month.

The sport has devoted practitioners who travel all over the country and the world to find like-minded types in vacation spots for the jet set. At the other end of the spectrum, there are those who just need a quiet corner in a park, a $20 croquet set and a loose interpretation of the rules.

Croquet is a time capsule. There is its fanciful association with "Alice in Wonderland," where pink flamingos were used for mallets, live hedgehogs served as balls and the Queen of Hearts screamed, "Off with her head!"

Things were much quieter in Greenwich.

"Croquet is very social," Kent resident Maryholt Maxwell said. "And very macho."

The sport was immensely popular in England during the 1800s, but it lost ground when tennis — played on the same bent grass — gained in popularity.

Croquet is a calling card of the colonial era, as evidenced by the nations that play seriously: New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom. It is even used by the U.S. Naval Academy as a way to teach strategy to midshipmen.

"There are probably just as many members (of croquet clubs) here as in the UK," said Barbara Leeming, president of the Greenwich Croquet Club. "There are about 3,000 players here and there, so it's proportionally more popular in the UK."

Leeming, who lives in New Canaan, Conn., has traveled all over the world to play. Although she took up the game only 15 years ago, Leeming was part of a U.S. contingent that traveled to Egypt to play in front of crowds 200 strong. There were 350 clubs represented, and they played on 22 Egyptian croquet courts for five days.

Leeming owns 16 mallets. There is tremendous variety in the type of material used and the shape of mallets. Although the casual sets have round-headed mallets, many serious players prefer a square one so it can be balanced on the ground before a shot.

There are several varieties of the game, but the goal is to drive two balls — the familiar red and yellow or black and blue — through a series of six wickets, or small wire portals. Bonus strokes are awarded for passing through wickets and hitting other players' balls, and the goal is to be the first team to hit a stake with both balls.

"The thing about croquet is that women can get as good as men," Leeming said. "It's a great equalizer. ... You can see in this sport an 18-year-old playing an 85-year-old — and the 85-year-old will win."

Phillis Warden of Bedford got hooked up with the world of competitive local croquet somewhat by accident. She developed a croquet lawn as a design element while converting a vegetable garden. After telling some friends, she soon became a magnet for the occasional serious player.

"It is very pretty, and people come to practice," Warden said. "But it's a nightmare to take care of."

Her court is edged by stone walls, and she has developed an appreciation for the game by watching it. There is real skill needed to hit the angles, just like in pool or snooker. There is also another similarity.

"If you get a really good player, they take off," Warden said. "You just say, 'Wow,' and then the game is over."

Maxwell, a former president of the Greenwich club who spends some of the year in Key West, Fla., worries that the sport's elitist trappings will lead to a decline in popularity. Most clubs are private, and croquet courts are not often accessible.

"They're not publicized because they're private," Maxwell said. "This isn't a baseball game. ... If you really want the game to prosper, you have got to open it up to the public."

Maxwell has also been looking into setting up a Westchester-based field. Right now there are clubs in Tuxedo, Greenwich and New York City, and serious local players must commute to compete. Others, who might be just as serious, don't know how to hook up with a game or lessons.

She has an easier answer for them: Maxwell teaches a class on golf croquet, which concentrates more on the physics than the strategy. The instruction is open to the public at Bruce Park at 1:30 p.m. on some weekdays.

"It's perfect for beginners," Maxwell said.

www.croquet.com — Find examples of croquet sets — or equipment for any other lawn sport. See the square and rounded mallet heads and sets with names like Hilton Head, Cheltenham and Bar Harbor.

www.croquetamerica.com — The U.S. Croquet Association lists all active clubs, some of which have open pick-up games. USCA members could play their way from Quebec, with Wednesday night games at Mount Royal, to Bermuda, which offers a free court with notice.

www.greenwichcroquet.com — There are 50 members at this active club that has a croquet lawn at Bruce Park. Other nearby clubs can be found in Tuxedo and New York City.

Wicket: A small gate, not much larger than the croquet ball.

Mallet: A stylized wooden stick used to hit the ball.

Deadboard: The term for scoreboard, a series of colored boxes.

Stake: The item a player must hit with both balls in order to win.

Court: A grass croquet court is 105 feet by 84 feet.

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