What a woeful scorekeeper I am.

Until I get the response videos from the LAST THREE GAMES edited up, please take solace in that I have finally gotten the box scores from those games up. Scores are up to date.

The decimal values in the wickets column results from the heart-shaped course laid out for the V-Day game. In order to not unfairy affect wicket averages, they are brought into ratio through the following formula. The result is rounded, using standard rules, to two decimal places.

(WicketsMade/WicketsTotal)=Wickets

That means that Dave who made 13 wickets in the 14 the wicket course has a wicket score (rounded to 2 decimal places) of 9.29.

Croquet Suicide...

A few rules were brought into question in today's match. One: whether or not its legal to lift your foot during a roquet and send both balls flying. Rule two: Can someone win the game (as poison) by killing a ball that lays on the other side of a wicket in one shot by hitting them and then pass through the wicket in turn killing oneself. This is a tough shot because the margin of error is a matter of centimeters. There are a few factors to consider. A croquet ball must be halfway through a wicket to be considered "through." The last ball alive is the winner of the game. You are supposed to make an aggressive shot if you are down to the last two players. In my opinion, it shouldn't matter that someone commits croquet suicide to make a kill as long as its on the last person to knock out. Its the order that counts. Its like a samurai death. Its an honorable death.

Aside from all that, it was fun game. The arguing of rules is what makes croquet interesting. Once again there was a pileup at the middle turning post. Chris Macdonald got used by everybody at least twice in the middle wicket and when he couldn't take it anymore he let out a cry of emotion so loud that birds took to the sky and some nearby picnickers got up to leave. He is pointing to the culprits in the picture seen below.



When Justin wasn't busy hurtling me towards said picnickers he could be found clowning around on a nearby cannon. Careful there sailor.



In the end I "cheated" by killing Christi through a wicket and committing suicide, a move that Mike disputed whilst reading a text message from Roarke instructing him not to let me win.

"When" He Misses....

It was another unusually warm day for early January. It was a high of 73 and a low of 56, which made for perfect lunch croquet conditions. The contenders, Roarke, Christi, Chris M, Chris B, Scott, and Matt slogged down to the usual spot and set up a standard course on what Roarke would call "fart grass."



The game began like many others. The early balls, blue and red (Scott and Macdonald), hit a snag at the first wicket thus setting up a trail of colored stepping stones for the rest of the group to move past. The black ball (Chris B) capitalized on both balls to make it through, stopping at the third wicket. Roarke had an easy ladder of croquet balls to surpass Chris B, but couldn't make a short shot through the second wicket. To be fair, the short shot was today's biggest challenge for all the players. Not "if," but "when he misses" became the choice taunt. Christi and Matt both came out to a slow start but as we all know, the win rarely goes to the fastest player around the course. Slow-play Scott has proven that many times before.



The turning post proved to be a thorn in every ones side. There was a traffic jam going into it between Scott, Macdonald, and Matt. Chris B took it upon himself to help Macdonald out of the jam by giving him step by step instruction on the best shot possible. He did this out the goodness of his heart and not for selfish reasons. Scott begs to differ.



Roarke made short work of the second half, leaving himself a comfortable foot away from the last wicket before poison. He was sweating bullets though when he turned around to see Matt bearing down on him. Matt roqueted roarke to the other side of the turning post only to flub his final shot to make poison. Chris Macdonald and Scott scrambled to catch up but were without the means to bridge the next three wickets. Chris was drooling over this most fortunate turn of events. A short pop over to Christi gave him the two shots he needed to reach Matt who was resting just under the last wicket. Matt was roqueted into poison but swiftly dispatched for an easy kill. Chris learned his lesson in the last game and high tailed it away from everyone. "Go small or go home," his motto. Roarke was accurate once again in setting himself up for poison and was about cheer for himself when he heard that familiar cackle. Moseying in like a little boy with chocolate ice cream all over his face was old man Lynch. Roarke knew that the pressure was on now. It was just what he needed though. He made two very impressive long shots to kill Christi and then Mackydoodle. Scott soon found himself in between a rock and a hard place. Roarkes next shot should have been his undoing because he left himself inches in front of scott and a wicket. If we were playing golf I would have called it a "gimmie" and just declared roarke dead. Scott wasn't able get the lie he needed though and was left scratching his head. Chris being the greedy dog that he is suggested that scott throw him a scrap(roarke). Scott attempted, but failed to send the scrap more than a foot. Chris promptly committed suicide by sending himself through a wicket giving everyone a good laugh. Roarke took out the former stat leader and made chris eat the words, "when you miss."

Beautiful Day, Sticky Gound

What a turn around from just 3 days before. The weather took a turn. A glorious blue-skied January day met today's roster. Penalty for wonderful sky was fart-grass, that mucky ground that isn't quite muddy enough to get pant-cuffs but does prove each foot step flatulent. 

Bevington once again opened with skill. While the remainder of the field became hung on the center wicket he powered to the turn and back and with a two wicket advantage over Roarke, his nearest opponent, was quickly poison. His skill would not hold for an instant though. On his first shot as stinger he ran the length of the field to within 6 inches of the turning wicket pair. This unfortunate positioning would be his undoing.  Next at bat was Roarke, able to pass and center wicket and roquet Justin, he was goaded into going for the kill. Bevington was just too inviting and two shots later was sent through the turning wicket pair without another chance for a kill. 

This kill was to be the end of Roarke's flourish for this round. His slow play through the remainder of the course left Scott nipping at his heels. After setting up for a definite poison shot, Roarke was soon reminded that in croquet nothing is certain. Scott came roaring out of the final single wicket, using his next shot to not only knock Roarke out of position but to place him on a silver platter as the first kill. 

Scott would then put a stop to Justin's turn of fortune.

After a long hang-up at the center wicket, Justin has found his stroke again and battled quickly ahead, reaching the final single wicket. His 20 foot buffer wasn't to be enough to keep him alive as Scoot laid out a dead-on kill.

Scott's opening red-dog at-bat were followed by an 8 round  game of cat and mouse game as MacDonald traversed the remaining quarter of the field. Opting to play for position over aggression, Scott allowed MacDonald to get poison at which point aggression became the only option. Leap frogging towards the field boundaries, the two traded misses. McDonald had his opponent dead-to-rights on the fourth exchange only to have the ground give a freak bounce, skipping the killing shot inches over its target. Scott got the better end of the field on his next shot, taking MacDonald and the day on this 2nd game of the Winter 2008 season.

Surprisingly enough this round didn't involve a single rules argument, this brings to doubt the validity of the game.

2008 Winter Season Opener

Today has marked the season opener for the 2008 Winter Season as well as the inaugural post for Send and a Shot. Everyone brought a strong game against the weather coming off the potomac river but Dave was able to come through. 

Following a set of well positioned turns it looked like Roarke was set to gain poison and attack on the remainder of the field, but a strong turn by Bevington snatched his hopes for a opening win away. 

Chris's strategy brought him

 a sure kill but in doing so sent Roarke thought the final wicket pair to the Starting Post, earning Roarke two points only to have his poisoned ball snatched away without a chance to play. 

Justin came roaring out, reaching the wicket pair outside the turning post on his first turn. Unfortunately the loss of momentum on his second turn took just enough away from him to make regaining the lead difficult for the remainder of the game. 

Pivotal to Justin's strong opening was his ability to use Christi three times on his opening turn, a maneuver that left her poorly out of position by her second at-bat, a deficit that also left her out of competition. 

Dave's long game was as strong as normal, but his uncommon mistakes on short-range shots has carried over from the Fall 2oo7 season. While this may have cost him on some position shots, it ultimately was not enough to snatch poison or the win away from him. 

The game came down to a poison-to-poison shootout between Chris and Dave. After a pair of missed kill-shots Dave was spared an out-of-bounds rule suicide only to be stuck in the rut of the far bushes. Chris made a strong attempt to play into a difficult position, but ultimately left himself open to Dave's attack. 

Congratulations to Dave on the win for the season opener.