Learning that in response to the players' request the USCA-sanctioned California State Championship now plays International Rules in the top flight and American Rules in the lower flight, Bert Myer, editor of the USCA CROQUET BULLETIN, sent us the following. Could this be really happening?

Once there was a United States Croquet Association. The founders agreed on a set of rules derived from backyard croquet and incorporating some attributes of Association Rules croquet long in existence. The USCA grew in leaps and bounds, attracting American backyard players who saw and grasped the challenges of a higher level of the game.

The USCA conducted national championships, to which entry was achieved, initially, merely by showing up. The players, amazingly, came from all over. As clubs and membership grew, Regions were formed and regional championships were conceived, both as local promotional events and then, naturally, as qualifiers for the national championship.

The USCA continued to grow. Sanctioning of tournaments became a source of revenue for the USCA. Recognizing this, the Association encouraged wider sanctioning of other tournaments throughout the U.S. and attempted to provide some benefits for doing so. State, club and district championships emerged, and a path was established, particularly for new players, in American Rules events: club championships, state championships, regional championships, national championships. And so the organization grew.

Simple, straightforward and extremely successful in the late 70's and early 80's.

High achievers in American Rules croquet then wanted more. And so they set their sights on Association (International) Rules, whose devotees had great players and a long history. This, they thought, must be the real pinnacle. The USCA had long recognized International Rules play and the international scene - and had participated in it, mostly as a learning experience. It decided that it would sponsor an International Rules tournament every year - and did. In addition, it selected players to various U.S. teams for various international competitions. Players with aspirations then could achieve success in both games. Because there were more American Rules players in the U.S. than International Rules players, the international competitions drew their participants from the ranks of good American players. Then some of these players decided that maybe the International Rules game was more important, its shot-making skills and rules more straightforward, and, since it was an older game and its proponents and players were acknowledged as "the best in the world," that perhaps it offered greater chances for glory in the croquet world.

But what was this croquet world? Who knew about it? It turns out, not many.

But a small cadre of top players around the world spent hours playing and ranking and talking about International Rules croquet, and so it seemed the way to go. And so an equally small band of players in the U.S. decided that they were going to strive in that direction and began demanding that the USCA accommodate their desires.

The USCA said, well, that was okay, but there were greater audiences it preferred to serve and that the potential for growth in the U.S. seemed to lie with the American Rules game. So, yes, the USCA would devote some of its energies and resources to participating on the world scene, but the foundation of the organization still would be to promote American Rules 6-wicket croquet as the American pinnacle.

Eighteen years passed and 18 national championships, countless regionals and state championships. More than 3,000 people remained members. Those with aspirations had real opportunities to move into international competition.

Then the small band of International Rules players became more insistent. Some clubs and individuals said, "This is a real sport. To achieve success in the sport requires that you compete against the likes of world champion Robert Fulford and, incidentally, in games where you very well might not ever take croquet and which run on forever and where the ultimate championship takes two weeks and best-of-3 matches...but we want to be great and acknowledged on the world scene. In the pursuit of these desires we intend to short circuit the carefully laid path the USCA has established."

The rift grew when several top-ranked U.S. players - products of USCA development programs, including some USCA national champions - wouldn't play in a USCA State Championship unless the championship flight was conducted under International Rules. Apparently it didn't mean enough to them to win an American Rules title event. Therefore, since they wouldn't play except under their conditions, and the USCA therefore would lose out on sanction money, the tournament committee capitulated, accommodated their wishes, and everybody supposedly benefitted - the top players got to compete under Association Rules, the USCA received sanction money, and the tournament continued its run.

Meanwhile the 2nd and 3rd flight players - where the sport's growth comes from - struggled at their now "less important" game, with no hope of ever moving on to a USCA American Rules state championship (and then on to greater fame at the American Rules Nationals). Why? Because the big boys prefer International Rules, which to the lower flighters are pretty boring and confusing, since they started with and are just now becoming somewhat proficient in, American Rules.

So these lower flighters struggle along in the lower ranks forever. Soon, the rest of the country, and particularly the mavericks, say International Rules are best; "we'll only play those, because we're so good and the real challenges are not in this bastard American Rules game that's a concoction of one man or at the very least a group of East Coast snobs...real croquet means being ranked in the top 100 among the Brits, Aussies and Kiwis!"

And so the good organizers with vision and a larger sense of the game wring their hands and...capitulate! Autonomy is now king. Whatever works, for whomever. It's called expediency. The opposition - the mainstream - is now branded "a dictatorship."

And so the bickering continues...and organized croquet fades slowly away to its enclaves in San Francisco, New Hampshire, Arizona, Connecticut, North Carolina, Florida, New York - where everyone plays whatever rules they want, under whatever conditions they want...and croquet in America becomes what it once was and has often been over the years: a hodgepodge of individually-sponsored events and games, rather than the triumphant and pervasive American croquet game which it might have been.

Bert Myer, Editor
USCA CROQUET BULLETIN
Hampstead, New Hampshire, USA

As part of my marketing scheme, I keep an eye on the lawn bowlers through their e-mailing list. They have been having an ongoing topic of different types of wild animals on their greens. This latest one tickled my funny bone:

"We also had a streaker one weekend. One of our more elderly lady bowlers decided to cheer everybody up by streaking across the green during the club Four's. I happened to overhear this conversation:

'Was that Eva Thompson?'
'Yes, I think so.'
'What was she wearing?'
'I don't know, but whatever it was, it needs a good ironing!'

- Don Oakley
Oakley Woods, Canada