Today, my spring disaster tour officially came to an end. There were some high heights and some low depths. But more lessons were learned, mostly about expectations.

 

First point. At this level, the expectations are totally different. This is the fourth national championship I have played in. I played in the American Rules Nationals in 2009 in the second flight and made the finals. I played in the Golf Croquet Nationals in 2010 in the first flight, and my wife and I won the doubles and I made the finals in the singles.

 

But that was the second flight and first flight. In 2011, I played in the Championship flight in the Golf Croquet Nationals, and was really happy to finish tied for third in singles and doubles. And in these AC Nationals, I was simply happy to make the play-offs, which I did this morning. I had to beat the great Leo Nikora in order to do that. It was a surprise to make the play-offs. And then I was quickly dispatched in the first round of the play-offs by David Maloof from Florida. David then beat one of the favorites, Danny Huneycutt.

 

For me, I was just happy to make the play-offs. I certainly had no visions about making the Finals. And that just shows how expectations change.

 

Second point. At this level in AC croquet, you have to be able to triple peel. Here what that means. The players are so good that in order to win, you have to be able to run a break in your first turn (after at least three balls have played) all the way through the ninth hoop, three-back. You have to then arrange the balls so that when your opponent has a lift to the baulk line, you give them the worst possible shot. If they miss, you have to not only run your second ball all the way to the peg, but while doing that, you have to peel your first ball through the last three wickets and then peg both balls out. If you don't peel your first ball through the last three hoops and end the game at that point, you would give your opponent one more shot from the baulk line, but these folks are so scary good that they can probably hit one of the other three balls and run a break themselves.

 

So there is a great divide between the great AC players and the great pretenders: the ability to consistently run triple peels in tournament games. If you can't do it, your just an also ran. You may make the play-offs, but that's it.

 

So for me, I will just have to try to bridge that great divide, so I can raise my expectations.

 

Tomorrow, all you want to know about the plate (the what?)

 

Now for the news. As I said above, David Maloof upset Danny Huneycutt. Doug Grimsley beat Jeff Soo. Brian Cumming beat Jim Bast. Rich Lamm won the first game over Ben Rothman, and is up in the second game before it was pegged down due to darkness. So, two Solomon trophy team members are out, and a third is teetering on the edge. The semi-finals of the doubles will be tomorrow. And the semi's of the singles too. I'm going to be watching some great croquet tomorrow!

 

Until then.

--Eric Sawyer | Pasadena Croquet Club | www.pasadenacroquetclub.org