HIBISCUS COLUMN
hard to credit when the struck ball doesn’t obviously move. That rarely stops the striker claiming it, often justly. Same with thin take offs. At Cheltenham, a man in his 80s with bad eyesight regularly checks for infringements through binoculars, calling it with improbable certainty from 20 yards away. The finer the players, the less frequent such accusations. Hassling your opponent by deliberately inducing self doubt is not a pretty way to win. No way does that make it unpopular or unacceptable with mid‐rangers desperate to hang onto their handicaps. P. S. Since my last dispatch, my car’s wiring has been replaced at a cost of over £10,000. After an absence of six weeks, it is back where it started, rodent free but vulnerable to a new infestation. If you live within walking distance of your club, this may not concern you. If you don’t, I’m using peppermint oil as a deterrent ‐ I hope. High pitch emitters were a possibility until research revealed that they only work until the beasties realise they’re harmless. Then it’s the gourmet wiring feast. Out of respect for my editor’s sensibilities, I won’t reveal what else was recommended. You too may not want to know.
either irritated by the interruption or with an ego boosted by a judgement call. Meticulously, markers are placed to position your potentially errant ball by the edge of the hoop. By now you are nervous, unsure whether the risk is a crush or a double hit, but aware that the odds are on the decision going against you. As it almost always will. Better to back off from the ref gambit with a coward’s escape rather than fall prey to a jaws fault that leaves you dangerously exposed? Maybe but no way to win a game. Oppo exultant…. The book, when learned by heart, reveals that you as the striker should seize the initiative by calling the referee yourself. Can it be that hogging the moral high ground gives you a better shot of a favourable outcome? I’ll try that next time. Is the ball through or not? Similar process. Amazingly the referee may stretch out on the grass on both sides of the hoop in turn to peer for a sliver of ball invisible to the naked eye. If it’s the oppo ball, you can only hope his subsequent roquet is fatally hampered; if it’s your ball, wait for perdition as the sliver goes against you. Clip or miss? We all know that a shiver of a touch is a roquet, but many find it
MINTY CLINCH Travelling Croquet Journalist Telling the Croquet stories as they unfold
The tyranny of the little yellow book, the Laws ‐ wash out your mouth if you ever say rules ‐ of Association Croquet, is something Chairman Mao would have surely enjoyed. There it sits, so compact, so densely filled with arcane dictats, so easily deployed by an experienced croquet operator to his/her/their advantage. Like their equivalents in golf and bridge, the laws were born of verbose 19th century values. The ‘modern’ version, published in 1961 and now in its 7th edition (2021), has a lot more to say about the minutiae of faults than most inexperienced players can take on board. A MOC? Come on, you must know. If you don’t, ‘maintenance of contact’ is an infinitesimally different way of saying push shot. And so….? ‘I’ll have that watched’. The ominous words ring out several times per game; your opponent’s mallet is raised, not in anger but in triumph; a referee stops the clock on their own court and strides purposefully over,
TUNNEL OF TIME YORKSHIRE WHEELCHAIR PROJECT by Mike Littlewood, Yorkshire
3. Can a ball be reached from the wheelchair user’s sitting position to place the ball for the croquet stroke.
Our wheelchair project has begun with the kind loan of a chair through Chris Rounce. INITIALLY WE IDENTIFIED 6 QUESTIONS 1. Positioning of the wheelchair in relation to the ball to be hit. 2. The ability of the wheelchair user to strike a ball from the chair’s position to a roquet.
4. Can a half roll be played. 5. Can a full roll be played. 6. Can a rush be played.
In the first test run with Mike in the chair, so to speak, all six questions had a positive outcome. Which would suggest that both golf and association croquet are playable from a standard wheelchair.
Continued on page 5
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