Aficionados (and -nadas) of the wooden mallet finally broke their hot-weather hiatus this week, playing two rounds of croquet on the spotty but well-clipped turf of Playfields Park. A slight breeze and patchy, high clouds kept the weather mild as veterans Linda Ribera and Jim Coats were joined by newcomer Claudia Myers. Though there was no croquet in her recent vacation, Claudia confessed to having enjoyed many games of pool while visiting family. It may be that the cue and ball honed her sense of the physics of momentum and the transference of energy among masses upon impact -- or maybe it was just beginners luck -- but, either way, all agreed that Claudia had a tremendous afternoon on the pitch.

Ribera (blue) led off the game looking strong, but was short of the third wicket at the end of her first turn. Myers (red) quickly challenged Ribera, distracting her more-experienced opponents with disingenuous questions ("Does that give me an extra turn?" "Do I hit it with this end?"), while with skill that belied her claimed inexperience she thwacked ahead to an early lead that, though briefly challenged, was never lost. So went the first game, and then she did it again in the second. Coats (black) lagged inexplicably two to six wickets behind the leaders both time around. He was seen later in the day drowning his sorrows with several glasses of what he claimed was cranberry juice. A bitter pill, indeed.

THE RESULTS:
GAME 1: 1ST: Myers (red); 2ND: Ribera (blue); 3RD: Coats (black) Game time: approx. 12 minutes
GAME 2: 1ST: Myers (red); 2ND: Ribera (blue); 3RD: Coats (black) Game time: approx. 10 minutes

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The first and last CS croquet match for June, 2008, played out under smoky skies as the Sacramento Valley coughed and blinked its watering eyes at the fifth day of pervasive smoke from 1,000+ wildfires in the north state. To conserve fuel and minimize their overall time outdoors, the players opted to play on the patch of lawn next to the CS Davis offices rather than the infinitely more playable (and aptly named) Playfields Park. The contestants thus played their round on turf that was both undermowed and overwatered, such that a clear shot at any time or at any thing was practically impossible. Balls hopped or dribbled where they pleased, thankfully passing now and then through a hoop or into a stake.

Jim Coats (red), playing one-handed as a result of his late-May bicycling encounter with a wayward loaf of French bread, took an early lead. He Kiai'd his way nearly to the halfway point with Linda Ribera (blue) and Leigh Dragoon (yellow) in close pursuit. Missed wickets were, however, the order of the day, and when Coats skipped wide of number 5, Ribera saw her chance and took the lead into the midway post. Whether because of the mid-90s heat, the haze, or toxic combustion gases in the surrouding air, however, Ribera momentarily mistook the halfway point for the finish and had launched her ball well away from wicket 10 before she realized her mistake. Coats re-took the lead then, but made another bad shot and fell back on the approach to number 12. Two very lucky strokes later, Ribera had the match. Coats finished on his next turn, and Dragoon conceded from wicket 6.

THE RESULTS: 1ST: Ribera (blue); 2ND: Coats (red); 3RD Dragoon (yellow) Game time: approx. 25 minutes

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Like the fabled bride of Spring, today's match saw something old and something new -- so new and revolutionary, in fact, that it may signal a change in the very nature of the game. The old: For first time in 10 months, players returned to their original thwacking grounds, the once-soggy rectangle of turf that sits just to the south of the CS Research Park offices. Thankfully, irrigation of this patch of sod has been cut back to antedeluvian levels, such that one can listen to the songbirds warble as one plays, rather than the loud squish of mud underfoot. Now if only we could get a proper mowing. The new? That will be revealed in the account of the game:

We worked with a backup croquet set kindly brought in by Linda Ribera. Leigh Dragoon (orange) led off the game, followed by Jim Coats (yellow) and Ribera herself (blue). We were two hoops short in the set, but compensated by setting single hoops at each post, with a ground-rules agreement that each should count for two. The too-long grass yielded only three types of shot: short muffs, erratic hops, and, at odd intervals, an inexplicably good shot that left us all wondering. Play proceeded (very) slowly through the first three wickets, with Dragoon in the lead, closely trailed by Ribera. And then it all changed. A chance "Hah" from Ribera as she completed a stroke inspired Coats, now a full wicket back, to add a Karate master's shouted "Kiai!" (here's your "something new") to his next shot, an angled 6-footer that easily cleared the wicket. With his free stroke and another "Kiai!" he managed to hit Ribera's ball, 9 feet off. Thence another "Kiai!" propelled him through another wicket and on toward Dragoon at midpoint. Coats continued his shouts on to victory with a wide lead, followed by Ribera five turns later. Dragoon conceded at the seventh wicket.

All remarked afterward on both the wretchedness of the shaggy turf and the phenomenal effect of the martial shout. The sport may never be the same.

THE RESULTS: 1ST: Coats (yellow); 2ND: Ribera (blue); 3RD: Dragoon (orange) Game time: approx. 20 minutes

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Six players took to the turf today, including three newcomers to CS croquet: Janet Byron (playing yellow and visiting from Oakland), Claudia Myers (playing blue stripe), and CS Director Bob Sams (playing orange stripe). The game played out under clear, sunny skies with variable winds at a new venue, Mace Ranch Park in Davis. The turf was firm, even, and well clipped, and more level overall than that at Playfields Park.

Play began evenly enough, but it was not long til Linda Ribera (red) took an impressive lead that remained essentially unchallenged until she was approaching her 11th wicket. Number 11 doubles as number 4, of course, and newcomer Sams (orange stripe) took advantage of their crossed paths to croquet Ribera's ball well out of the pitch. Alas, that move barely fazed Ribera, who maintained her commanding demeanor and her lead when a masterful 23-foot return put her back within wicketing distance on her next turn. But that one-stroke delay was sufficient to allow most of the pack to come withing striking range of the leader. Ultimately Ribera's strong start paid off, though, and she finished a clear first. The rest of the players followed, alternating newcomers with returning players. Well played, one and all!

THE RESULTS: 1ST: Ribera (red); 2ND: Byron (yellow); 3RD: Coats (black); 4TH: Sams (orange stripe); 5TH: Dragoon (blue); 6TH: Myers (blue stripe) Game time: approx. 40 minutes

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