CROQUET NEWS: Wizard with a Croquet Mallet
3 June 2009
Woodlawn Croquet Club, Ellsworth, Maine, USA
story by Hugh Bowden in The Ellsworth American, Ellsworth, Maine, USA
photo by Ben Austin in The Ellsworth American, Ellsworth, Maine, USA
 |
|
|
Ben Rothman displays his skill with the croquet mallet. |
|
Ben Rothman wants to make his living playing and teaching croquet.
And he just might make it.
For Rothman, who has been spending summers on Mount Desert Island since his early teens, the game is a whole lot more than the casual front lawn variety known and played by most folks.
In mid-May, competing against 80 of the world’s best players, Rothman reached the final of the World Croquet Federation Championships held at the U.S. Croquet Center in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Rothman finally lost, in three straight games, to three-time world champion Reg Bamford, a South African who now lives in London.
“He destroyed me,” said Rothman with a laugh.
But the fact remains that no American ever has advanced as far in a world croquet championship as Rothman.
He’s now ranked as the top player in North America and among the top 10 in the world — not bad for a young man who played his first competition as a teenager in the Claremont Classic held each year at the Claremont Hotel in Southwest Harbor.
He’s also a member of the Woodlawn Croquet Club team, based in Ellsworth, that won a national championship earlier this year.
Now 25, Rothman is the nephew of Larry Stettner, a Southwest Harbor resident whose name has become synonymous with croquet in Downeast Maine and who taught his nephew to play.
“My best motivators probably were other cousins who were playing at the same time,” recalls Rothman. “While I was learning from Larry, I always had kids my age to play against.”
Rothman played in only two or three tournaments a year until about three years ago when he “decided to redirect my life” around croquet.
He played in 22 tournaments last year, and now spends considerable time as a professional clinician as well as directing tournaments.
He’ll be conducting some croquet schools and clinics at Woodlawn this summer
But professional croquet in America is not exactly a money-making proposition. Only a few tournaments offer cash purses and those don’t involve the big payoffs the come with many other sports.
For winning the North American Open last year, Rothman received the princely sum of $3,000.
“It’s not exactly a way to make a living,” he concedes.
But he’s hoping to do what he can to increase the visibility and popularity of the game.
The six-wicket game played by Rothman involves a high degree of strategy and skill when played competitively.
He sees the game as containing elements of three popular games.
“Like putting in golf, you have to have the touch and the accuracy,” says Rothman.
“There’s the strategy of chess. You have to think an entire rotation ahead and ask yourself, ‘how much can my opponent accomplish in a certain amount of time?’
“And then there’s billiards. In high level croquet, players are so controlled and accurate that, with one play made, they can run the table.”
But there’s another version called golf croquet that Rothman believes could be the vehicle for greater public involvement.
“It’s a great game and whether it’s at a low level or high level, you can understand it in five minutes,” he said. “That’s the game I think could grow, and it is still very competitive at the top level.”
(For local folks interested in learning the game, there’s golf croquet every Tuesday afternoon from 2 to 4 p.m. at Woodlawn, with a social gathering after play.)
Top-level croquet clearly is making gains in America.
Rothman observes that, a year ago, not one American advanced to the Round of 32 in the world championships. This year, there were 17 Americans in the field and five of them reached the top 32.
“It was a very impressive tournament for Americans,” he said.
If that degree of success continues, it’s more than likely that you’ll find Ben Rothman leading the way.