This month, I thought it would be interesting if I started a new monthly that would show the search terms that are bringing in the most traffic to the website. Think of it as our trend tracker for croquet:
INDIVIDUALS
01. Matt Griffith 02. Matt Smith 03. Shane Botwin (Weeds character) 04. Robert Fulford 05. Archie Burchfield 06. Duncan Quinn (shirt designer) 07. Reid Fleming 08. Mark Burchfield 09. George Cochran 10. Archie Peck
Warning. The above video does feature a mallet to the head. For the most part though, I think it would be pretty tame by today's television standards. What's all the hubbub? You guessed it. Showtime's Weeds series finished it's most recent season by having young Shane Botwin kill off the latest criminal behind the criminal (Pilar) with a mallet. The timing was bizarre as I had been thinking about a plot for HBO's Entourage based around a celebrity pro-am golf croquet tourney (unfortunately, they just did a standard celebrity golf tourney -- trash talk while golfing is much like trash talking during an afternoon of coloring book fun with your four-year-old). Back to Weeds. The show had become pretty tiresome, but that certainly was a spicy cliffhanger. Give the props team an "F" though. It looks like your standard toy mallet and I believe the intent was to imply that the elitest residence would house some sort of real croquet equipment. It would have been more convincing if Shane would have swung a Fenwick Elliott. It's just on the edge though. One serious portrayal of real croquet on a major television show would do a lot of good.
I just discovered this tactical series on CroquetNC.org -- Moving Past the Improvement Plateau. Very useful and thus far there is a Part One and Part Two. Great illustrations.
Ben Rothman posted a Google map of croquet clubs he has visited over the past few years. If Rothman has attended your tournament or visited your club, I'd say that's a pretty good endorsement.
