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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