The largest croquet team event of the year will be held during Croquet Week at the National Croquet Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, March 13-17. The Club Teams Championships will feature team competition in at least four flights with croquet clubs competing from across the country and the U.S. Virgin Islands. More than 130 players will be competing.
At the conclusion of the tournament, individual as well as team awards will be given. Team competition for each of three divisions of the Lyons Trophy, began in 1990, is based upon the total number of entrants from each club. Clubs with a large number of entrants will be in Division I, etc. Each division will ideally represent 1/3 of the clubs represented. The makeup of the categories will be determined by the tournament director, based on the total number of clubs and entrants.
This year the National Croquet Club of West Palm Beach, Florida will be going for a three-peat in the Lyons Trophy Division I. Other teams participating in Club Teams competition are Bombay Mallet & Wicket Croquet Club, St. Croix VI; West River Wickets, Galesville, MD; Woodlawn Croquet Program, Ellsworth, ME and Sorrento V.I.A. Croquet Club, Sorrento, ME; Westhampton Mallet Club, Westhampton Beach, NY; Mariner Sands Country Club, Stuart, FL; International Tennis Hall of Fame Croquet Club, Newport, RI, Croquet Club at PGA National, Palm Beach Gardens, FL; Mission Hills Croquet Club, Rancho Mirage, CA; Houston Croquet Association, Houston, TX and Baltimore Croquet Club, Hunt Valley, MD.
Croquet Week will kick off with a Golf Croquet Tournament to be held March 9-11. The National Croquet Center will be open to the public, free of charge, during both events.
Championship croquet, under which the Club Team Championships will be played, uses six wickets (instead of the traditional backyard version with nine) and is played on hundred-foot grass courts, laser-leveled, and mowed to a sixteenth of an inch like putting greens. Four balls are used, and it is always blue and black against red and yellow. In singles play each player plays two balls. In doubles play each player has one ball. Because players get one extra shot for clearing a hoop and two extra shots for hitting (roqueting) another ball, long breaks are common with players using most or all four balls to score as many as twelve hoops in one turn. American championship croquet is a game of complicated strategy and has been accurately compared to chess on grass.
Golf croquet is a more straight-forward version of championship croquet where extra shots are not awarded for clearing hoops or hitting other balls. The strategy in golf croquet is to set up at hoops and clear them or knock the opponent's balls out of position.
The National Croquet Center has twelve full courts and is the largest croquet facility in the U.S. It also serves as the headquarters for the United States Croquet Association.
For more information on events at the Center during Croquet Week, or for general information on croquet, contact the USCA at 561-478-0760 or e-mail Erica Sherman at tournamentusca@aol.com.
Additional Resources:
USCA Website: www.croquetamerica.com
National Croquet Center: www.croquetnational.com