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Caledon Croquet Club

"In The Hills", a magazine of country living in the Headwaters Region, wrote an article (June 16, 2011) on the Caledon Croquet Club. Click here to read it:

http://www.inthehills.ca/2011/06/departments/a-courtly-romance/

NOT THE WINTERNATIONAL!

March 12 - Not a great day for croquet on the lawn

Croquet setup in the TCSCC Dining Room

Saturday morning, March 12, was an unlikely day for croquet at the Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club. The swards on the cricket field were dappled with patches of water, snow and last year’s green grass.

However, indoors, the cricket side dining room had been cleared of furniture. Except for the rose colouring of the carpet and the two mid-room pillars, it gave the impression of a smooth, level sward.

A number of years ago, Nick Holwell adapted a set of standard cast-iron hoops to circular flat plates that rest on the carpet. The hoops were set in a modified layout due to the two pillars. Stability was provided by four strips of wide painter’s tape (sorry, Red Green, no duct tape allowed) to hold the plate to the carpet.

Wickets on a plate, taped down with painters tape

Fourteen Members Signed Up

Drywall tape was fastened to the base of the pillars, baseboards and furniture legs as a protection against errant out-of-bounds balls.

Two special rules were introduced: 1. No jump shots, 2. Any shot that causes any ball to touch a vertical object such as a baseboard or chair, was deemed a striking fault, with penalty.

Fourteen members signed up. With guests, this resulted in 8 players in doubles at a time. Six timed 4-of-7 Golf Croquet matches gave everyone three games, over two hours.

The special rules and finesse of the players resulted in a “gentle game” with no impact on the dining room or furnishings.

Phil coaches a new player Congratulations to David Bryan for top score of the day.

Cricket Club Management has indicated their support for more such events in the future.

Submitted by: Georg Dej, Chair Croquet Activity, TCSCC

GOLF CROQUET CORNER

Golf Croquet – The “Commitment-Free” Way

The Toronto Cricket Skating and Curling Club has about 4500 members, which should make it easy to recruit many new croquet players. However, these members are active in at least one, and usually more than one, sport and find it difficult to make time for another activity.

When we introduced golf croquet as a response to declining croquet membership, our target market was Cricket Club curlers. Our curlers play in several house leagues, with the same teams all season, and it is a rare week without a game in each league. Winter vacations require planning and the good fortune to find spares. We did not think that they would take up croquet for the summer in a similarly regimented format

To entice new croquet players, we introduced golf croquet in a commitment-free format with the slogan:

“Come when you can, Leave when you must”.

The program format is as follows:

The courts are set up for golf croquet on Monday and Thursday evenings.
Players can arrive at any time.
Matches started after 5:30 pm are recorded, (most of our members work).
Matches can be doubles, singles or two-on-one.
Matches are set up by players as they arrive.
Matches can be best-of-seven wickets or best-of-thirteen wickets at the players’ choice.
As different matches finish, teams and opponents are shuffled.
A player can play only one match, or as many as they wish, until they are the last player standing.
As players retire from play, they usually gather on the patio for refreshments and socializing (unless they are rushing off to tennis or lawn bowling).

This format entices new members. The next question is how to retain them. The second program parameter is recognition and reward, as follows:

All matches started after 5:30 pm are recorded for win/loss.
The match winner(s) is awarded 3 points.
The match loser(s) is awarded 1 point. (Participation counts.)
Points are awarded to a player for their best three matches in an evening.
There is no penalty for not showing up on any day.
Players’ points are calculated each day, and a current ranking list is posted regularly.
In mid-July the first series is closed, and a second series begun.
The top three finishers in a series are penalized and awarded only 2 points for a win in the next series.
Each player is assessed $4 per series for prizes.
Prizes are awarded to the top three finishers of each series at the closing Brunch & AGM.

It did not take long to discover that a wide disparity in player skill can distort the results. To follow the Cricket Club mission statement of “maximum enjoyment for the maximum number of members” required special handling. Tune in to the next issue to see how we addressed this.

Georg Dej

Do Curlers Do It Best?

The Capital One Celebrity Curling Bonspiel was held at our Cricket Club on Saturday, June 5, 2010. Over $65k was raised for the SickKids Foundation.

Club curlers were joined by “Curling Celebrities” from across Canada including Brad Gushue, Glenn Howard and Randy Ferbey. Capital One also flew in Eve Muirhead from Scotland.

Eve Muirhead

Just Jaws it Eve

(Photo Credit: Anil Mungal, The Curling News)

Those of you who do not spend Winters playing croquet in Florida will remember Eve as the 19-year old skip of the Scottish curling team in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and the Silver medalist in the 2010 Women’s Curling World Championship.

Joy and I had arranged to meet some friends on the croquet courts in front of the clubhouse. While waiting for them we started a casual game while a number of curlers were relaxing in the sunshine on the patio.

To our surprise, a fellow curler brought Eve out in her stocking feet and asked if she could try croquet. Of course! Eve removed her second pair of socks and we set up a golf croquet match with Eve and I against Joy. Unfortunately, Joy was a poor hostess. She found her “A” game and beat Eve and me handily. The second game was called when Eve had to return to curling.

Eve is a multiple-sport athlete, and if Scotland would pay her to play croquet as they do for curling, she would be a future threat to many championship level players.

Submitted by: Georg Dej

Croquet Canada AGM 2010

The Annual General Meeting of Croquet Canada will take place on Saturday, November 27 at 1:00. It will be held at the Toronto Cricket Club on Wilson Avenue in Toronto. When you arrive, go to the Founders Room on the second floor.

I look forward to seeing you on that date.