First Time in Central Park

"Give me five"


I set off yesterday morning for my first taste of croquet in Central Park. I arrive at the park after a bus ride and a walk and find the building where I need to purchase my permit to play for $30. I skirt around the edge of the zoo and head for what I think is the direction of the 'Sheep Meadow' and the 2 croquet/bowling greens. It soon becomes very apparent that there are no signposts, and the paths, of which there are a lot, wander in somewhat random curvaceous manners, making it obvious the Romans were never made it this far.
Every now and again I would spot a map on a lamp post, but without the obligatory 'you are here' pointer they are pretty useless, and none too detailed. I ask a few, what I presume are locals, and they send me in various directions, none of them useful. In the end I just head west towards the buildings in the distance and will then look for 69th St, as that is the entrance nearest to where I want to be, and then I stumble upon a plaque 'Strawberry Fields', and I know I am not far from where I want to be.

I won't go into detail here about Strawberry Fields, but if you want to know the full story there is a link below. I find the Lennon Memorial and wait in turn for the 'tourists' to take their photos, before taking mine and then exiting to the croquet club.

Two lawns surrounded by hedging and fencing, with flower beds running inside the boundaries, in a pleasant opening in the trees. The lawns appear very lush, and there has been a lot a rain.

Preston and Blair Stuarton playing on a short lawn, obviously American Rules, as they are turning down roquets and the deadness board is in evidence. It makes no sense to me that at the end of a turn there are four balls relatively close together and neither player wants to attempt doing much except maybe run a hoop and clear deadness. My hands are itching and I want to tell them it's such a tedious version of the game, but that's the part of me that has been playing Association for 23yrs, and if I do that then I will sound like a whinging Golf Croquet evangelist, "our game is so much better than yours....blah blah blah". Truth is people just play the version they enjoy - end of!

While I am waiting to finally meet Stuart Lawrence, some curious squirrels arrive and dance across the lawn, one climbing on a hoop, another investigating my bag, before coming to investigate me, but I fail to have anything good for them, so will have to remember to remedy that for next time.

Dennis Hough arrives and is friendly and chatty. He eventually puts out the other short lawn after we have chatted a while and just as I am about to hit a ball, Stuart arrives, and we have a short lawn game of advanced, with 'Sunshiney' balls. Kind of ironic given the weather, but they seem ok.

Unfortunately having set off like a train, Stuart comes to grief at 2-back and doesn't make any more points in the game. As we start the second, I jokingly set up with a 1-back leave. As he stands at hoop 1 and looks at the long shot to corner three, he says "I don't think I really want to take this one". I tell him that if he doesn't take it I can't mess up the sextuple, so he misses, and I duly mess up, as Eric Turner and Justin Berbig of the State University of New York, turn up for their coaching session.

They have both bravely entered the advanced rules association tournament next weekend, only ever having played American Rules. We try to give them the important differences, they both look a little bemused, so we decide to play alternate shot doubles and hope that playing will help. They roquet well, but the 'finesse' shots are more of a challenge, as they are used to playing on grass inches long, and now being on the manicured lawns, their natural weight of shot is invariably too strong for what is required, but I'm sure they will adjust.

As Tom Casey, another member of their club arrives, I make my exit so as he can be included in the play, and I can escape the weather, again, hoping it will improve for the tournament.