The blog year 2023 begins Click a picture to enhance it. Blue text = a clickable linkSport. Today I am writing about a game called association croquet, which I played for the last twenty years but I'm also writing about some pervasive intangibles of modern life, such as change, fashion, capture, 'prestige push' and 'the rule of can.' The Women's Association Croquet World ChampionshipJust two weeks ago forty croquet players gathered in Christchurch, New Zealand, to contend the Association Croquet Women's World Championship. Debbie Lines, the winner, is holding the red and white English flag. Gabrielle Higgins, runner up, is at the other end of the English row. A clean sweep to England! Marion McInnes, my wife, at the back on the extreme right, managed to reach the 16 player knockout phase – the oldest player ever to do so. So what is this game?
It's a break gameMaking a break is the essence of this game. Watched snooker in the real or on televsion? A player in that game sits out while the one in play makes a break, scoring as many points as possible before either breaking down or setting a leave. Association croquet is like that, on grass. The video graphic on the left shows the basis of a break. Just switch on the sound, click the arrow and use 'Full Screen'. In advanced play, 'peeling' is often built into the break. It's illustrated in the right hand video.
Top players use the peel in many ways, particularly to: circumvent restrictions built into the croquet laws; to finish games in fewer turns. Thus there are rover peels, double peels, tripple peels and even a sextuple peel. In Christchurch after seven daysAfter seven days of tournament play, the two leading English women played the final – a best-of -three-game match taking up to 10 hours. The match was streamed on YouTube by Maori Active TV, using well known New Zealand players Nelson Morrow and Peter Filbee to commentate. I hoped to see long breaks and the skilfull use of peels. Association croquet played at this level is an elegant flowing game, beautiful to watch. DisappointmentEarly, the pattern of play became apparent. Quite often a ball stuck in a hoop and the break ended. The hoops had been set very tight. I heard the commentators say that clearance of a ball was 0.8 of a milliimeter. Long breaks didn't happen and peeling was non-existent. A flowing game wasn't possible. Spoiled by what I call 'the rule of can', the day became a long one of dreary attrition. Because we can we do. Modern hoops can be adjusted to finitudes not possible on more traditional hoops. Because they can be set phenomally tight, they are so set. Thus a game is changed. Do those who make such decisions stop to ask if such changes are for the better? The 'rule of can'. It's dangerous isn't it? It may operate in technology, in relationships, in law and other spheres. I think we'd better be careful. Croquet is just a game. But some of these other areas are serious. Prestige pushThis sort of unwise change is often a result of what I have come to know as 'presitige push'. In croquet a few top players, whose results give them reputation and respect, have pushed the tighter hoops idea while other not so notable players and voluntary administrators have silently or reluctantly acquiesced. They have been captured. So 'the rule of can' has gone unchallenged and perhaps the new way has even become fashionable. SadI'm sad at what happened last Saturday and sad to think that generally the very attractive, thoroughly enjoyable break game, association croquet, is being endangered or could even be lost. I don't play croquet now. I've moved to another game – lawn bowls. I don't belong to a croquet club, so I can't in any way influence what happens to croquet. But I hope that many of the croquet players I used to know and whose company I enjoyed, will take a thoughtful pause, do a rethink. then take some significant uaction. □ John McInnes Friday 20 January 2023 ##########
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