“Step on that ball and send it careening into the garden!” That is the backyard nine-wicket game with which many are familiar. Lightweight mallets and balls and wide wire wickets are standard fare for a simple game at home.
Not so with the U.S. Croquet Association American Six-Wicket game. Balls weigh just under a pound each and wickets are half-inch metal calibrated to be just barely wider than the ball and are twelve inches tall. Mallets are usually weighted and often custom made for each player.
For the third year in a row, Grace & Truth SportsPark will host a sanctioned U.S. Croquet Association event, attracting players from all over the U.S. Many have likened it to a chess match on the lawn for the advanced strategy involved, as well as to a billiards game for the split shots, angles and top-spin skills applied during play.
It is a much more complex and technical game than most people may realize and is absolutely fascinating to watch as the players, dressed in customary whites, try to out maneuver their opponents.
Leading the event as tournament director is past-USCA president and past nationals champion, Richard Curtis. A member of the Croquet Hall of Fame, Curtis has been a great friend and instructor to the local USCA club, The Lawn Club at G&T SportsPark, and will also play in the tournament. He will divide players into flights based on their USCA handicap and participants compete within those flights against opponents of similar handicap.
The Lawn Club at G&T SportsPark existed since 2008, but has only been a USCA-sanctioned club for the last three years. The Club maintains its own manicured lawns and plays three nights a week, drawing players from as far away as Geneseo and Buffalo on occasion.
The tournament begins Friday, August 12, concluding with playoff matches and an awards ceremony on Sunday afternoon. Local artist, Cordell Cordaro, has contributed limited edition watercolor prints for the event, which are framed and awarded as trophies and are highly sought after as a very unique award, different from other tournaments across the U.S.
The public is invited to come and observe any aspect of the tournament. The courts are located at the Grace & Truth Sports-Park, located at 373 North Greece Road in the North Greece/Hilton area. For more information, contact Tournament Manager Sue Sherer at 474-3753 or sue.e.sherer@gmail.com.
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