As part of our end-of-year traditions, Croquet Network is excited to present our 2023 Top 25 Croquet Power List as a standalone article on this New Year’s Eve. Congratulations to Dave Trimmer Mallets for topping our list for the year as the most popular keyword on Croquet Network. Trimmer Mallets finished #2 in 2022 just behind Matthew Essick, who slipped to #3 in this year. Overall, the list tells a story of the croquet year, with plenty of surprises.
Read MoreUSCA Selection Committee Announces 2023 Solomon Trophy Team
The United States Croquet Association (USCA) has announced the 2023 team for the upcoming Solomon Trophy, a prestigious team competition between the United States and England. The AC team event showcases the talents of six players from each country competing in test matches. This year, the Solomon Trophy will be hosted at the Sarasota County Croquet Club in Venice, Florida, November 7-12, 2023.
Read MoreUSCA Announces 2022 MacRob Roster
The USCA AC Selection Committee has announced the following Team USA roster for the 2022 MacRobertson Shield team AC event.
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Triple Peels Dominate the Finals in the American 6-Wicket PFC Hoop Maker Masters
What a show! In my eight or so years of playing American 6-Wicket, I have never seen a player finish a game with a triple peel, and yet this past weekend, Matthew Essick finished three of his last four games with a triple. In the semi-final match against Zack Watson, Matthew won both games by scoring all of the hoops with his second ball while peeling (scoring his partner ball) through the last three hoops and then pegging both balls out on the center stake winning 26tp-0 and 26tp-13. Essick did the same in one of his games in the finals against current American 6-Wicket National Champion, Randy Cardo, winning 26tp-5 and 26-0.
Read More2020 Croquet News Volume 3: HOF Nominees
The 2020 Volume 3 Digital Edition of the USCA's Croquet News features perspectives from young players on attracting more young players to the croquet, Hall of Fame Bios for Sherif Abdelwahab and Rory Kelley and coverage of National Croquet Day.
Read MoreSoo #04: AC Nationals-Into The Knockout
Danny Huneycutt jokes with his opponentWhen Simon Jenkins beat Ian Harshman in the final round of the block, he made three people very happy: himself, Mike Taylor, and Sherif Abdelwahab, all of whom were now in a playoff for 4th place in Block B. And he made two other people, well, sigh in resignation: Harshman, who would be the fourth player in that playoff, and the tournament manager.
And, five hours later, Jenkins was still smiling, having played his way into the main singles knockout. He and Taylor then began their doubles semi-final with Danny Huneycutt and Stephen Morgan. Huneycutt and Morgan won the first game, and the match has been pegged down in game 2.
Meanwhile, the other doubles semi-final was able to start much earlier. Stuart Lawrence and Jeff Soo beat Wayne Davies and Daniel Pailas in two games. Lawrence tripled to finish the first, adding to the day's relative flurry of peeling.
The knockout shapes up as follows:
Jeff Soo vs Danny Huneycutt
Daniel Pailas vs Stuart Lawrence
Brian Cumming vs Chris Patmore
Simon Jenkins vs Stephen Morgan
Full Results: croquetscores.com/2017/ac/us-national-championship
Bromley #07: Five Players Undefeated
This evening as I am writing this, there is still much that is going on behind the scenes to set up the Knock Out Draw, Plate matches, and venue allocations and start times. There were several playoff matches going on into the late afternoon that had a bearing on all of these things being finalized.
Read MoreBromley #06: GCWC Block Action Winding Down
Sherif Abdelwahab and Mohammad Kamal continued to put in impressive performances today with both players now 7-1 with one block match remaining.
In Abdelwahab's second match of the day, he faced George Coulter, age 20, the older of the two brothers from New Zealand who are absolutely fantastic shooters! The "young guns" are well-coached, composed and wonderful young men
Bromley #05: Hot Hot Hot!
It wasn't only the 95 degree weather today that was hot but the impressive play led by US players Sherif Abdelwahab and Mohammad Kamal as they improved their records to 6-0 and 5-1 respectively in block play. Kamal had solid wins over Aussie Geoffrey Reilley and England's Stephen Mulliner to wrap up his day while Abdelwahab posted wins over Richard Brooks of England and Anne Quinn of Australia.
Bromley GCWC #04: Day 2 Blocks
It was an absolutely beautiful warm day during this last week of summer here in Melbourne. USA players had a good day on the lawns with Sherif Abdelwahab posting his third win (and currently in the middle of his fourth match at the time of this entry [He won -- DG]).
Matt Griffith notched a win against Sweden's Joakim Norback and, in an exciting three-game match, Mohammad Kamal took down Australia's John Arney to add another win to his record. The photo above shows Kamal's hampered jump shot attempt at the 13th hoop in game two.