Morning Coffee: Chilton, MacRob Exhibition and More

As the new year settles in, I can certainly acknowledge that over the past few weeks Croquet Network has been all like "me, me, me," with posts on the Best of 2016, Top Supporters and our recent announcement of our 2017 Media Kit. We'll chalk that up to a little bit of annual housekeeping and specifically in the case of the media kit -- a strong desire to expand the editorial output of the website. A mission which obviously accelerates as the budget increases.

Looking forward though, we are now ready to get back to on-site tournament coverage and the usual features on the sport of croquet. With that in mind, I always enjoy the annual re-start of the Morning Coffee winter spring series. Like a lot of good cable or Netflix series, this weekly roundup of world croquet news now focuses on a short run from January into the spring. At some point, we all need to get off the keyboard and get onto a court.

Enough with the long intro, we're back in action for 2017 and here's your weekly rundown ...

2017 MALLET POLL: Get ready for Croquet Network's most popular annual series. The 2017 Mallet Poll will launch for public votes, this Friday, January 20, 2017 and run through the end of the month. And yes, once again we'll follow up in February with an updated 2017 Mallet Directory based on the results.

FORDYCE WINS NZ GC TITLE: Sixteen year-old Edmund Fordyce became the youngest player to win the New Zealand golf croquet national open singles title with a 5-7, 5-7, 7-3, 7-5, 7-1 over Josh Freeth in the final. Full story from the Nelson Mail.

BOB CHILTON PHOTOGRAPHY: CWO has a piece on Bob Chilton's incredibly engaging photography that goes well beyond croquet. You might note that the last photo in the article appeared on the cover of the USCA's Croquet News for the 2015 Volume 1 issue. All of the photos in the CWO article are downsized, but you can see Chilton's full collection on his website: www.bobchilton.com. I recommend following his Facebook page as it's always enjoyable to see one of his beautiful nightshots pop in your newsfeed.

MACROB EXHIBITION TEST RECRUITING: The current issue of the USCA's monthly PDF newsletter is calling for six championship flight association croquet players to play a one-day exhibition test match against England’s MacRobertson Shield team. Each player will play two singles games and one doubles game. The exhibition will be played Saturday, April 15, 2017, at the Pasadena Croquet Club, Pasadena, California. Anyone interested should e-mail Eric Sawyer at ecsccs323@gmail.com. He will select the six players with the highest dynamic WCF AC grades.

FEC EUROPEAN GC CHAMPIONSHIP: The UK's Croquet Association fixtures calendar has listed the 2017 European Golf Croquet Championship dates as May 24-28, 2017 to be held at two clubs in Cadiz and Seville, Spain. More infomation on the event from the CA website.

GERMAN GOLF CROQUET OPEN: The Ninth German Open Golf Croquet Tournament will be held at Renzel, close to Hamburg, Germany from Saturday 20th to Sunday 21st May 2017. .

NICHOLLS IN FLORIDA: Australian's Jim Nicholls is in the US for a stint as the croquet pro at the Ponte Vedra Club in Tallahassee, Florida. Check out his Croquet Pro #01 and Croquet Pro #02 blog posts for his take on the visit so far. 

Morning Coffee: Meadowood Dedication, Selection 8s and New FEC Website

Donna Stark recently posted on the Nottingham List indicating that the Meadowood Croquet Lawns will be officially dedicated in Jerry Stark’s honor next Wednesday, October 27th with a plaque of Jerry’s likeness installed court side. (Caring Bridge Journal Link)

"I understand the plaque is beautiful!  It has been delivered to Meadowood and will be mounted on a boulder set into the stone wall that runs the length of the croquet courts."

Hisham Abouesbaa of Egypt won the first 0ver 50's GC World Champion when he beat England's Stephen Mulliner 7-3, 6-7, 7-6, 5-7, 7-4.

In case you missed it in the forum, the line-ups for the U.S. Selection 8's were posted earlier this week. The association event is scheduled for October 28-31 at the National Croquet Center in West Palm Beach, Florida.

The Federation of European Croquet recently launched their new website. The federation has 20 member countries.

Danny Huneycutt announced on the Nottingham List that the 2011 USCA Association Croquet National Championship will be held April 10 – 16 (Sunday-Saturday) at the National Croquet Center in West Palm Beach, Florida. More from Danny:

Some players outside North America have incorrectly been under the impression that you must be a member of the USCA to participate.  The USCA Association Croquet National Championship is to North America what the British Open is to Great Britain.  Singles and Doubles will be played throughout the week.