It was not your typical, blazing August day in Davis -- so it wasn't the heat that put perspiration on brows at the croquet field today. This was a game of astonishing leads and just-as-astonishing turnarounds, and as the game wore on the tension was palpable in the air.

The group had a lackluster start until Linda Ribera (playing red) got to her second turn . . . and ran three straight wickets and an occasional bumped ball, bringing her almost to the halfway point while the other four, gentlemen all, could do little but stand and gaze at their mallets. Blaine Sullivan (playing black) knocked Dave Krause's ball (blue) well off the track early in the game, but once Ribera broke away all were opting for extra strokes rather than spite -- a strategy that paid off in spades. Yes, Ribera led close to the halfway point, but somehow a series of lucky strokes brought Karl Krist (playing green) to the actual halfway stake first, and there was no looking back as Krist came on that one turn to within 3 hoops of victory. Sullivan, swinging left-handed, made a valiant effort, but the best he could do was place second after a brilliant run off the halfway stake, round about same the time as Krause finally cleared his fourth wicket. Jim Coats (playing yellow) finished an unremarkable third, followed by Ribera, whose ball completed the course without her after having been struck by Krause's, and finally one-time champion Dave Krause wrapped up the game.

THE RESULTS: 1ST: KRIST (green) 2ND: SULLIVAN (black) 3RD: COATS (yellow) 4TH: RIBERA* (red) 5TH: KRAUSE (blue) Game Time: approx. 20 minutes

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