A Personal Landmark

Few of my readers will, I fear, be acquainted with the intricacies of Association Croquet. I discovered Golf Croquet late in 2006 and, when I am in New Zealand, I play enthusiastically and as often as I can. I have a reasonable tally of decent Tournament and Club Competition results and a modest collection of silverware. I also have a much prized handicap of 3 (only one other person in the Club has a Golf Croquet handicap to match.). From this you will gather that I love the game.

Last year I started playing Association Croquet ('proper' croquet as would have been played by the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland). I've had a love hate relationship with the game. Despite that I was partnered last year in the Doubles with Frank who is a sebnior, experienced and very good player. We won the Club Doubles Championship. Despite that I've not managed to shake off my love hate feelings.

A few weeks ago one of our top Association players, John Versey, took me in hand and gave me some coaching. He sorted out some of the complex shots I couldn't get to grips with, refreshed my knowledge of making breaks (going through sequential hoops) but, more than all that, he altered my attitude and gave me more confidence: confidence that I already have in Golf Croquet.

Today I pegged out for the very first time. That means that I went through 12 hoops and placed my ball on the central 'peg' with each of my two balls. I thus had a score of 26. My opponent had a score of 1. OK so I did use 10 of my 11 free shots but then I am a novice with a club handicap of 11.5 and he an experienced .5 player.

As an aside a few weeks ago I decided that if I were to continue playing Association I needed a mallet which was more suitable for that game; my original mallet being more suited to Golf Croquet. So I now have two mallets:

Original mallet on left

Both mallets weigh 3 lbs but the weight distribution is very different. The head of the new mallet (on right) has most of the weight in the stainless steel ends. and the handle is carbon fibre with a sleeve all the way down to make holding easier further down the handle.

Now didn't you just want to know all of that?