The Beloved Croquet Lawns

The Marewa Croquet Club in Napier to which I belong has six of the finest lawns in New Zealand: certainly as good as the best I have played on. That doesn't mean, however, that they are constantly flawless. At the moment we have an invasion of starweed. This is a plantain which lives in colonies making holes in the thatch of lawns. It probably arrived in topsoild used to dress the lawns each winter. As an aside many bowling greens are not grass but wholly starweed. We have been manually working on the lawns digging the weed out prior to the winter work on the lawns. It's not a pretty sight. As a general rule it affects me less than many players in the Club because I tend to hit the ball hard and it 'ignores' minor flaws in the lawn.