4/25 -- Alumni Cup/Leawood, KS -- Kansas State
4/26 -- International Rules Championship Singles/West Palm Beach, FL-- Brian Cumming
4/26 -- International Rules Championship Doubles/West Palm Beach, FL -- Leo McBride & Doug Grimsley
No word on the results from P. Diddy's tournament.
Sources: USCA, Croquet World, PBR Tour
Well, I'm finding out how difficult it is to manage a blog site, play some croquet, keep the grass under control and spend some time with the family. The downside is nearly another month without getting a post up, but we forge on.
The upside is I've got a couple of tournaments under my belt. The downside is they've both been wet and cold and dark.
The upside is I played and hosted my first team event for our local club -- Alumni Cup. The downside -- we lost to K-State. Oh well, the NC and Orange Bowl will have to satisfy me 'til next year.
The upside is my yard is starting to fill in. The downside is it seems like I spend more time mowing that playing.
The upside is it looks like I've wrangled an invite to play some six-wicket croquet on a real field. The downside -- there is none, you can't go wrong with that.
The true upside is that the weather is starting to warm up a bit in Kansas and it's time to "swing the wrenches."
Sincerely, Dylan, Publisher -- Croquet Network
recursion_see_recursion / flickr creative commons
April Video of the Month
Last point of a series of videos from YouTube on the final game between Ahmed Nasr and Chris Clark. Could use some play by play, but otherwise, very good.
Available tournament results from March:
03/08 -- Peyton Ballenger/Palm Beach Gardens, FL -- Bob Chilton
03/11 -- Croquet Week Golf Championship/West Palm Beach, FL -- Trevor Herin
03/16 -- 2008 World Golf Croquet Championship/Cape Town, S. Africa -- Ahmed Nasr
03/16 -- Club Championship/West Palm Beach, FL -- NCC/Stewart Jackson & Johnny Mitchell
03/22 -- Mar-a-Lago Singles/Palm Beach, FL -- Sandy Walsh
Sources: USCA, Croquet World
Wow. I laid out the best of intentions last month in the first edition of this department establishing a minimum target for monthly features/departments. I hit on two of the seven targets for March. So what happened? Well, a little of everything. I picked up that little cold/flu and that held me back a bit. That was followed by a couple of major family birthday celebrations. Throw in that miserable daylight savings switch and it was a rough month.
The good news is that despite a very cold spring here in Kansas, I did get my backyard field set up. The consistency is off a little as we suffered through a pretty good drought last summer, but it seems to be filling in.
So, a new season goal after I got hooked on the WCF Golf Croquet Championships in March was to an attempt to try out the golf version for myself. I've had three occasions to give the game a shot and I have to say I think it's a winner. Under thirty minutes each time and in a backyard setting, it's pretty much a shooters game. Quick and fun. My club will definitely be doing additional testing over the summer.
Up next, I've changed over the field to the nine-wicket set up and it's time for some team play. As for Croquet Network, I have a few improvements in mind and the goal is to at least get a feature and skills story out before the end of April. In general, I want to get two posts in each week. In the meantime, get out and play and if you're in the mood check out the website store at http://www.cafepress.com/croquetnetwork.
Sincerely,
Dylan, Publisher -- Croquet Network
Apr 3 -- Bald Head Island Singles Tournament
Bald Head Island Croquet Club, Bald Head Island, NC
Contact: j_jknott@bellsouth.net
Apr 4–6 -- National Croquet Center Singles Championship
National Croquet Center, West Palm Beach, FL
Contact: archiepeck@aol.com
Apr 5–6 -- Croquet Fools
King City and Westmoreland, OR, King City&Westmoreland, OR
Contact: sweeney@pdxlawyer.com
Apr 10–13 -- NC Open Croquet Champ. Flight
Pinehurst Croquet Club, Pinehurst, NC
Contact: ron.lloyd@pinehurst.com
Apr 11–13 -- NCC Association Rules Championship Singles
National Croquet Center, West Palm Beach, FL
Contact: archiepeck@aol.com
Apr 18–20 -- Sarasota County Spring Singles Invitational
Sarasota County Croquet Club, Venice, FL
Contact: Crokpeople@aol.com
Apr 21–26 -- USCA Association Rules Nationals
NCC, West Palm Beach, FL
Contact: tournamentusca@aol.com
Apr 26–27 -- USCA Collegiate National Championship
Merion Cricket Club, Haverford, PA
Contact: lehanna@aol.com
Source: USCA Calendar Page (click for more details)
In honor of the WCF World Golf Croquet championships, I had to post this awesome little segment of great golf croquet shots. I've got to try this game.
The Missouri Croquet Association has posted dates for the USCA 9-Wicket National Tournament. The event will be held in Shawnee Mission, Kansas (Kansas City Metro Area) October 3-5, 2008.
It looked like the Egyptians might be in danger of finally losing the WCF Laidlaw Golf Croquet World Championship this past weekend in South Africa. Local favorite Reg Bamford took on Ahmed Nasr in the finals with a home crowd behind him but fell in four games during the best-of-five final.
For Nasr, it was his second world championship with his other title coming in 2004. The Egyptians now have won all eight of the golf croquet championships.
FINAL SCORE
Ahmed Nasr (EGY) bt Reg Bamford (RSA)
7-6, 7-4, 2-7, 7-2
Sources: www.croquetworld.com / www.wcfcroquet.org