The inevitable Mar-a-Lago Trump croquet backlash has officially kicked off. Cue the fireworks and congratulations to the Miami Herald and Carl Hiaasen as first out of the gate. In fact, he gave croquet first mention in his brilliantly circular fake news/non-fake news posting:
Read MoreMorning Coffee: US Announces MacRob Roster?
There was certainly a bit of drama in the long wait for the US MacRobertson Shield roster line-up. I was sort of expecting a Livestream press conference with fireworks, cheerleaders and some AC/DC. Alas, the roster quietly appeared on the Americas forum on Croquet World Online. The report there names Jeff Soo, Ben Rothman, Danny Huneycutt, David Maloof, Matthew Essick
Read MoreMorning Coffee: Chilton, MacRob Exhibition and More
As the new year settles in, I can certainly acknowledge that over the past few weeks Croquet Network has been all like "me, me, me," with posts on the Best of 2016, Top Supporters and our recent announcement of our 2017 Media Kit. We'll chalk that up to a little bit of annual housekeeping and specifically in the case of the media kit -- a strong desire to expand the editorial output of the website. A mission which obviously accelerates as the budget increases.
Looking forward though, we are now ready to get back to on-site tournament coverage and the usual features on the sport of croquet. With that in mind, I always enjoy the annual re-start of the Morning Coffee winter spring series. Like a lot of good cable or Netflix series, this weekly roundup of world croquet news now focuses on a short run from January into the spring. At some point, we all need to get off the keyboard and get onto a court.
Enough with the long intro, we're back in action for 2017 and here's your weekly rundown ...
2017 MALLET POLL: Get ready for Croquet Network's most popular annual series. The 2017 Mallet Poll will launch for public votes, this Friday, January 20, 2017 and run through the end of the month. And yes, once again we'll follow up in February with an updated 2017 Mallet Directory based on the results.
FORDYCE WINS NZ GC TITLE: Sixteen year-old Edmund Fordyce became the youngest player to win the New Zealand golf croquet national open singles title with a 5-7, 5-7, 7-3, 7-5, 7-1 over Josh Freeth in the final. Full story from the Nelson Mail.
BOB CHILTON PHOTOGRAPHY: CWO has a piece on Bob Chilton's incredibly engaging photography that goes well beyond croquet. You might note that the last photo in the article appeared on the cover of the USCA's Croquet News for the 2015 Volume 1 issue. All of the photos in the CWO article are downsized, but you can see Chilton's full collection on his website: www.bobchilton.com. I recommend following his Facebook page as it's always enjoyable to see one of his beautiful nightshots pop in your newsfeed.
MACROB EXHIBITION TEST RECRUITING: The current issue of the USCA's monthly PDF newsletter is calling for six championship flight association croquet players to play a one-day exhibition test match against England’s MacRobertson Shield team. Each player will play two singles games and one doubles game. The exhibition will be played Saturday, April 15, 2017, at the Pasadena Croquet Club, Pasadena, California. Anyone interested should e-mail Eric Sawyer at ecsccs323@gmail.com. He will select the six players with the highest dynamic WCF AC grades.
FEC EUROPEAN GC CHAMPIONSHIP: The UK's Croquet Association fixtures calendar has listed the 2017 European Golf Croquet Championship dates as May 24-28, 2017 to be held at two clubs in Cadiz and Seville, Spain. More infomation on the event from the CA website.
GERMAN GOLF CROQUET OPEN: The Ninth German Open Golf Croquet Tournament will be held at Renzel, close to Hamburg, Germany from Saturday 20th to Sunday 21st May 2017. .
NICHOLLS IN FLORIDA: Australian's Jim Nicholls is in the US for a stint as the croquet pro at the Ponte Vedra Club in Tallahassee, Florida. Check out his Croquet Pro #01 and Croquet Pro #02 blog posts for his take on the visit so far.
Morning Coffee: GC WTC Around the Corner
The WCF's Golf Croquet World Team Championship will be held May 15-21 in England and you can now get a look at Tier 1 and Tier 2 blocks on croquetscores.com. Probably the most fascinating note is that Australia has been relegated to Tier 2. You can see the World Team GC rankings here:
Read MoreMorning Coffee: Back On Schedule
After flip-flopping last week to get the AC Worlds coverage front and center, we are back on track with Morning Coffee kicking off your Tuesday. In the meantime, the croquet underground is abuzz with debates on live streaming. If only there was already a neutral croquet media entity out there with the stated goal of providing live video for croquet events. Oh well, we'll just have to keep our eyes open. Here's your weekly feed ...
Read MoreMorning Coffee: Croquet Cuppers
After 11.5 hours of watching croquet this past Sunday and a good chunk on Saturday, I've certainly been suffering from an AC Worlds hangover as I try to get back on track. It was mentally draining, so I can't imagine how Stephen Mulliner and David Maloof must have felt this week. It was tough to go three years between AC Worlds, so thankfully the next worlds are just two years and will be held in New Zealand.But as the incredibly diverse and vibrant sport of croquet rolls on, many will have noted St. John's edged Navy 3-2 in the Annapolis Cup in the midst of the AC Worlds. With the nine-wicket Annapolis Cup generally drawing 2,000 spectators, it is known as the biggest spectator croquet event in the world. So, now England
Read MoreMorning Coffee: 2016 AC Worlds Coverage
It's been an entertaining eight days of croquet at the 2016 WCF World Championship in West Palm Beach, Florida. As we prepare for a few remaining block finishes and the tiebreaker, we'll note that Mark Avery (9-0) (ENG) and Simon Jenkins (6-3) (USA) have made it all the way from the qualifier to the knockout. Also from the qualifier, Ted Salter (5-4) (AUS) could make the tiebreaker playoff, if Chris Patmore can defeat Ian Lines in the last remaining game for Block F.
Read MoreMorning Coffee: Fletcher Out for ACWC
The 2016 WCF World Association Qualifier started yesterday at the National Croquet Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, but the big news is the potential withdraw of reigning World Champion Robert Fletcher from Austalia from the main event. This was reported on the Nottingham Croquet List, but no other information has been made available. A check of Fletcher's block on croquetscores.com does show his name removed and an additional qualifier spot.
Read MoreMorning Coffee: WCF World AC Block Draw
The WCF has published the Association Croquet World Championship draw with eight blocks set for the field of 80 players. Seven qualifiers are yet to be named. The number ones include Robert Fletcher, Reg Bamford, David Maugham, Paddy Chapman, Stephen Mulliner, Samir Patel, Jeff Dawson and Ian Dumergue. From the US,
Read MoreMorning Coffee: USCA Coaching Videos
The USCA posted a helpful new 21-part video series this week on referee instruction produced by Bob Kroeger and Ted Prentis. I skipped ahead to the segment on marking balls, which is quite useful. I am looking forward to viewing the full series. It's definitely a good approach to helping everyone on the court.