CROQUET NEWS:  Tapping In

Austin Man, Jim Bast, Resurrects Croquet Career to Play Again in World Championship

25 January 2008
Austin, Texas, USA
by Kevin Robbins in Austin American Statesman, Austin, Texas, USA
photo by Ralph Barrera in Austin American Statesman, Austin, Texas, USA

Jim Bast has his sights set on the croquet world championships later this month in New Zealand. He resides in Austin with his family and travels to Houston to practice.

Jim Bast, who'd retired his mallets for oven mitts and laundry baskets, couldn't stay away from croquet.

He left his sport eight years ago, when his oldest daughter was born. Another child came three years later. Bast had no time for croquet and no desire to spend weeks away from his family playing.

"I was willing to accept the fact that it might be the end," Bast, 52, said of his career in competitive croquet. "There were other, more important things to do."

He quit his job in marketing. He stayed home while his wife, a lawyer, worked.

He helped his daughters grow, got them fed and off to school. Every once in a while, he'd take out a mallet and tap a croquet ball down the hall. But then he'd put them away.

Trophies and pictures reminded Bast of the player he used to be.

He'd won two Arizona Opens. He'd been a national champion — in singles and doubles. He'd been a member of the first U.S. team to play in the international MacRobertson Shield competition. He'd had his picture on the front page of The New York Times when he won the 1984 national title in Central Park He'd been a runner-up in the World Croquet Federation championship. He'd been the first American to reach the finals.

He was two point-blank feet from becoming the first to win. The year was 1991. Around him 2,000 spectators watched. All Bast had to do was roll his final ball through the last hoop.

He missed. "It was probably, most certainly, pressure induced."

All these years later, he realized he missed something else: croquet.

With his daughters, 8 and 5, now older and established in school, Bast decided to end his break from the sport he began playing as a youth in Kansas City, Mo.

So began the process of knocking off the croquet rust. Bast hauled his mallet and ball to Lost Creek Country Club and practiced hitting targets. He competed last year in the North American Open and the U.S. Open, where "I won more games than I lost."

That was good enough. Bast had been away for a long time. And there is no proper croquet lawn in Austin. The closest is in Houston.

"I wish desperately that I had a real lawn," Bast said.

He made do. He also made a commitment.

He earned one of seven spots available to Americans in the world championships next month in New Zealand.

Bast has no outlandish expectations. He said he wants to win more games than he loses, that's all. He hopes to enjoy his two weeks in New Zealand, a country he's never seen. Visit with old friends. Compete.

And he looks forward to toting his mallet around, wearing white on a green lawn, maybe getting on a run or two, having a chance.

"You never forget how to do it," Bast said. "Once it gets hold of you, it pretty much keeps hold of you."