Eighteen players from New York, Maryland, Wisconsin, Missouri, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia competed in the 2018 USCA SE GC Regional held recently at the Chesapeake Bay Croquet Club in Hartfield, VA. Players were treated to extra helpings of warm southern hospitality as they competed over four days of singles and doubles block play and knock out rounds.
Read MoreSoo: Chapman Crowned World Champion in New Zealand #10
One of the most well-liked and respected players in the game, it seemed only a matter of time until Paddy Chapman (NZ) would add the title of AC Singles World Champion to his croquet resumé. A past winner of the NZ Open, the NZ President's Invitation, the UK President's Cup, and a leading member of NZ's victorious MacRobertson Shield team, Chapman did not lack for impressive accomplishments. But the world singles title cements his reputation as one of the very best.
Read MoreChapman is AC World Champion
Paddy Chapman found a way back from down 2-1 to claim his first WCF Association Croquet World Championship with a 26tp-19, 0-26tp, 0-26tp, 26tp-11, 26tp-9 win over Reg Bamford yesterday at Kelburn Municipal Croquet Club in Wellington, New Zealand. It was Chapman's second appearance in the final after he made it in 2013, but lost to Robert Fletcher. Bamford made his fifth appearance and is now 4-1 in AC World finals play.
Read MoreSoo: Riva Back from 0-2 to Advance #08
Plate, Bowl, and of course Main KO quarterfinals were played today. The Shield (for players knocked out in the round of 16) has a doubtful level of interest. The widely dispersed venues are probably a factor (participation in the Bowl was also on the low side). Now that the tournament is in its final stages it feels like a unified event again. Those on hand to watch the Main KO quarterfinals were treated to four great matches, each with its own character.
Read MoreSoo: Plate Action Under Way#06
The Plate blocks were split between Paraparaumu and Waikanae today, while the main knockout started at Kelburn and Wellington. The Plate format is eight blocks of five or six players each, the eight block winners advancing to a knockout. The only triple of the day at Paraparaumu was by Alain Giraud (ENG) and featured an adventurous finish.
Read MoreSoo: Plimmerton is Tops For Challenging Conditions #02
The tournament opened with fine weather: mostly sunny and moderately breezy all day. With ground still damp from the recent rain, the notorious Atkins hoops are quite easy to run, up to a moderate angle. Conditions are most challenging at Plimmerton, with extreme variation in pace and significant slopes. Unsurprisingly, this is where games have been longest, and three games are pegged down.
Read MoreSoo: AC Worlds Player Journal #01
Just getting to Wellington proved challenging on a stormy Thursday, when many flights had to abort approaches into the airport and divert to Christchurch, and other flights were simply cancelled. Luckily for us our flight made it in on a rather exciting first approach.
Read More2017 Best of Croquet Network
As we roll into 2018, here's our brief annual look at the most popular articles and pages on the Croquet Network site for 2017. It's always interesting to see what rose to the top over the past year. This year the big change is that for overall content we saw the popular Backyard Warrior and Why Croquet Players Wear White articles knocked out of the top slots by the 2017 mallet directory and poll.
Read MoreVideo: New Zealand's Dramatic Win vs USA
Video from Chris Clarke: The last action of the USA v NZ Test at the 2017 MacRobertson Shield held at Mission Hills. We join it with USA leading 10-9. Chris Shilling is in the third against Stuart Lawrence and Aiken Hakes is game up against Jeff Soo.
Soo 18: 2017 Mac Wrap Up
All that history, and now our names too -- Malcolm and Greg Fletcher with the MacRobertson Shield. Click to Zoom.
On the final day of the 2017 MacRobertson Shield, England and Australia extended their leads. Two singles matches were left unplayed, due to the extreme heat (officially 105/40, but probably hotter on the lawns) and the fact that both tests had been decided the day before. The final tally:
1. Australia (3/3 test matches, 40/63 individual matches)
2. England (2/3 test matches, 38/61 individual matches)
3. New Zealand (1/3 test matches, 22/61 individual matches)
4. United States (0/3 test matches, 24/63 individual matches)
Australia's victory is notable in many ways. It is their first series win since 1935, and their first outside Australia. It is the first time since 1935 that the England or Great Britain team has been beaten twice in a row, the first time three siblings have played in the event, and the first time that the defending champions have finished lower than 2nd.
ROUND THREE PHOTO GALLERY
What lessons can the other teams draw from Australia's performance?
It's good to have the world's #1 player on your team. An obvious point, but beyond assuring a healthy number of wins at the top position, this engenders a lot of confidence for the rest of the team.Strength in depth is critical. The top performer for the series on percentage of matches won was Greg Fletcher, playing at #5 and winning 5/6 singles and 7/9 doubles with Simon Hockey. Every team has at least one player ranked in the world top ten; it's at the bottom of the order that the differences are most pronounced. A team that can legitimately put very strong players at #5 and #6 has a huge advantage.
Team unity and discipline play a role. During Great Britain's streak of seven successive MacRobertson Shield championships, their team-of-rivals style worked well enough, because of their overwhelming advantage in playing strength for most of that period. In a more competitive series, Australia (and New Zealand in 2014) have shown the value of a unified approach. This applies to on-court matters such as tactics and doubles compatibility, as well as logistical arrangements for travel, housing, etc. An effective team manager is a big help.