The Future Has Arrived

Matthew Essick has been playing croquet in some form for over half his life. That’s not particularly unusual- a lot of people have played croquet for years. But Matthew just turned 10 years old last December. He began at the age of 3 with a special homemade mallet that Danny Huneycutt gave him. It was just his size. He call it “the yittle mallet”. He soon began hitting croquet balls with a regular mallet, often playing golf croquet with the Meadows gang.
He played in his first sanctioned Croquet Tournament at the age of 6. It was quite by accident. His Dad and Grandparents belong to Meadows Mallet Club in Northern Davidson County in North Carolina. The last week in July, all the clubs in NC converge on the Linville area to play the NC Club Teams Tournament. It is easily the largest tournament in the NC tournament circuit. It is absolutely the high point of MMC’s croquet year to play in that tournament. They formed the club late in 2002, competed in 2003 and came in third. In 2004, they came home as the Champions. Chomping at the bit in 2005, everyone in the club was matched up with a doubles partner and were all set to head up into the cool, clean air of the NC mountains and vie for the top prize yet again. Casper Essick, Matthew’s grandfather, had his partner to drop out because of a family emergency. Danny Huneycutt, Steve Summer, Jon Essick , Casper & Becky Essick gathered at the Essick court on Tuesday evening for a last practice when they got the news. All the members of the club already had partners. There was no one to be Casper’s team-mate. While they discussed the dilemma the club faced, Matthew practiced shooting wickets on the court, using the 20” mallet his Grandma had made especially for him out of her first mallet. He had only played Golf Croquet, never 6-Wicket, but he loved to shoot. Danny watched for a bit, then turned to Casper. “Would you be willing to play with Matthew as your partner?”, he asked.
“Well, I’m willing, but you know we won’t win a game.” Casper replied.
Danny called Matthew over and asked him if he would listen to his Grandpa and shoot the ball where he told him.
A big grin came over his face as he nodded. Matthew loves competition and loves his Grandpa to death. He couldn’t be happier!


Meadows went up the mountain with a dream and came back down on Sunday proudly as the winning club of NC.
Oh, and Matthew and his Grandpa only lost 1 match that magic week (by 1 point) and won their flight. They have been a team ever since. This year (2009) will be their 6th Club Teams Tournament as partners.
-Becky Essick

[Editor's Note: Matthew just came in second in the third flight of the Southeast Regionals, losing to another promising junior who is 5 years older. His handicap will soon be equal to his age, but not for long.]

An Epic Doubles Playoff Ladder

At last weeks Southeast Regional, young punk Charlie Gillmarten and I played together in the championship flight doubles. It was tons of fun and we even managed to win a few games. Here is my memory of the eventful final day:

The semi-final match, Sunday morning, was back and forth between locals Bob Cherry and Frank Thompson and the young guns Ben Rothman and Charlie Gillmarten. After a prolonged out game between Ben and Bob, Ben pulled off an attack in a very tricky corner four, nearly rolling his ball out of bounds on the pass roll to the opponents. Charlie took the break around, but before he could peel his partner, he made 4-back and went out of bounds. Bob and Frank seized the innings and played a shrewd deadness game. Even as they failed a croquet-out play, they retained overall control and made several difficult attacks until Bob had a game ending break chance. Before the break was fully realized (no pioneer) Bob chose to attack back near that risky corner to get the fourth ball, but his roquet rolled off. The bearded boys got clean and took the lead going into last turns leaving Bob one last chance. As last last ball, the former National Champion went ball to ball to get a rush as close to wicket 5 as he could. Bob needed only score 1-back for the win, but missed the roquet after making hoop 5 giving the finals spot to the twenty-something croquet bums.

The other side of the ladder which had the lone dominant result, with the only team to score over 20 points in a game, was another Pinehurst combination of Horace Hayworth and Mike Taylor who managed to effectively handle the team of John Knott and Barry Williams 25-10 in the semi-final.

In the doubles final, the kids tried a croquet out while Horace and Mike were separated by 12 feet across corner 1. Horace said, “this is when Ben likes to screw with your head” and promptly hit the line ball to take the break using only opponent balls. All was well until Horace stuffed hoop 6, handing Ben a laid 3-ball break with the spent ball. Ben went around but stopped after penultimate with a leave that nearly wired the danger ball and left a rush for his partner-dead teammate. Mike took the hail mary shot from 100 feet and while missing the peg, he hit hoop 3 and stayed on court. Charlie started strong, peeling partner through rover on the second attempt (a rush peel after making wicket 6) but missed the following wicket. Horace took the reins again and made it count by staking out Ben's ball. With around 20 minutes remaining, Mike went about his slow and methodic two balling. The home team needed a mere six wickets to take the lead. After some jockeying, Mike took the lead and separated. Charlie managed to get in position at 1-back and with only one minute remaining, Charlie made the go ahead wicket. The precise hoop shot left Charlie 1 foot past position at 2-back, so he escaped to corner three as time expired. To begin last turns, Horace was in corner two while Mike was out of bounds a few yards north of corner four and for wicket 2-back. Needing the game tying point, Horace shot at the peg with just enough pace so that if he missed, which he did, it set a straight six foot rush for Mike. Mr. Taylor, who was recently lowered to a 2 handicap showed that he has ice water running through his veins as he made a great rush and tied the game. He shot so well, in fact, that he made the hoop cleanly and went out of bounds! This left Charlie the slimmest of hopes.

Ellsworth American Article

http://www.fenceviewer.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10027:Wizard%20with%20a%20Croquet%20Mallet&catid=34:ellsworth&Itemid=106

San Diego Reader Follow-Up Article

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2009/jun/03/rothman-rules/

I wonder if the Lodge at Torrey Pines cares...

2009 Association Croquet Amateur National Championships

America was floundering. Maybe it was just bad timing, but there were only 17 competitors in the 2008 Association Croquet National Championships. And despite the recession, despite the heavy 2009 schedule, we rebounded. There were more than 40 players in this year's field. Thanks to this burgeoning interest in Association Croquet the USCA was able to initiate an Amateur National Championship. The powers that be saw fit to split the tournament into flights, allowing for a quickly developing crew of competitors to flourish without having to fear the big bad triple peel. There were ups and downs, but in the end there was an historic battle between two future forces in American croquet.
After two oddly similar match ups and coincidentally identical games, the two young guns emerged from the semi-final fray. An established North Carolina fixture in Tommy Harrington, who has been known to best 12 time National champion Jeff Soo in several club championships, playing against an undefeated new comer in John Young III. John has long been an accomplished American Rules player but was making his debut in Association Croquet after learning the game on a two-day clinic during the road trip up to Pinehurst from West Palm Beach. John took two breaks and an early lead on Tommy but gave up the reins at hoop 5 where he had to approach from just behind the wicket, known as the “death position”. Tommy returned the favor by missing the 2-back wicket on his first break. The game became fairly interactive, but John was able to build better breaks when he had control. After hitting in a few times (including a 50 footer on the last turn) John sent home the tournament's #1 seed 26-8.

On the other half of the ladder there was rookie of the year, Charles Gillmarten, who outlasted local up-and-comer Mike Taylor. Both missed a few short roquets and while Mike proved to be a better sniper on that day, (hitting in 3 out of 7 times from over 40 feet), Charlie was a more consistent break player and made more out of his opportunities to win 26-10.

This was the matchup the fans (mostly the Argentinian women) had been waiting for. Both players were in their first Association Rules tournament lending credence to the title of Amateur National Championships. Charlie, having played for months in practice games with his mentor, former National Champion and US team member Stewart Jackson, was no longer the upstart he once was. John, hot off of his Club Teams National Championship, was still treading water in an unfamiliar sea of nuance when it came to Association tactics. In the blocks, Charlie had come the closest to blemishing John's record, producing 18 points in a close game that went to the wire.

The game started with Charlie going to maximum distance and a standard Duffer's tice from John. Charlie chose to shoot at the tice softly, but missed with his ball stopping near the peg. While John had been hitting well and Charlie known for his accuracy, nerves showed a little bit as both missed the ensuing hit in chances. On the sixth turn of the game John finally hit a 40 foot double target left by Charlie's near miss. John had no trouble converting the hit into a controlled break and showed how much he had learned in the short week by setting the diagonal spread leave in an efficient and timely manner. Charlie took the 20 yard shot down the east boundary and watched as his ball rolled slightly towards the line and missed. John got off to a good start, but after rolling too far at hoop 3 John missed a tough angled shot.

Charlie took advantage, hitting a 15 footer but failing to rush to hoop one. After attempting a pass roll from mid court to position, Charlie joined up near wicket one enticing John to bite at his clever trap. John went for the bait...

John took his back ball all the way around 10 wickets and to the peg while his partner ball was still for four back. As Charlie's window for a comeback was closing, John envisioned becoming a National Champion and concentrated on his leave. What John failed to focus on was his shot after rover and he missed an easy 6 foot roquet! Charlie swooped in, took his break around to 4-back and set a near perfect diagonal spread. John tried to avoid the roll of the court by shooting at the on court ball, but to no avail. Charlie got started with a little difficulty, having to shoot wicket one from 8 feet, but he nailed it. The ball went through so cleanly, in fact, that Charlie was left with a long return roquet.

While successfully avoiding these distanced wicket shots at 2, 3 and 4, Charlie over rolled his way into a difficult angled position at wicket 5. While he had made many jump shots on such angled shots during the week, at this distance Charlie stayed grounded, and there he remained. John was left to hit a 4 yard roquet for the finishing chance...

He was able to get his final 3 hoops while putting Charlie's ball through wicket 5. John took the title of 2009 Amateur National Champion and remains undefeated in Association Croquet to this day.