'The most fun sport'

Arkadelphia boasts only U.S. Croquet Association member club

By Donna Stephens

Photo by Rusty Hubbard

Jeff Caldwell, from left, Shelvia Bozeman, Ralph Bozeman, Glen Taylor and Joe Franz are members of the Royal Knights of Croquet in Arkadelphia, Arkansas' only U.S.Croquet Association member club.

ADVERSTISMENT

LITTLE ROCK — Arkadelphia is the site of Arkansas' only United States Croquet Association member club, the Royal Knights of Croquet.

And this isn't the backyard croquet you remember from your childhood.

"It's a combination of different sports," said Glen Taylor, 70, a member of the club. "You make the shots like in golf; it's a whole lot like pool as far as the angles go, and you have to use strategy sort of like in chess.

"You can't just get out there and start leaving balls all over the court. Somebody who knows what they're doing will walk all over you." With hundreds of organized clubs taking advantage of smooth greens over a court 105 feet deep and 84 feet wide, the USCA estimates 10,000 croquet players and more than 600 greens for this "elegant and exacting sport." The USCA directs a handicap system based on play in its sanctioned tournaments; regional and national tournaments adorn the schedule.

"This is the most fun sport I've ever played, and the people - we just don't have what you call bad people," said Jeff Caldwell of the Arkadelphia club, one of the country's best croquet players.

What makes a good croquet player?

"Someone with good hand-eye coordination, who loves competition and strategy," Caldwell, 68, said.

According to the USCA's Web site, www.croquetamerica.com, a game of croquet can include more than two miles of walking as well as bending and stooping. Age and gender are no detriments.

"It's something that anybody of any age can enjoy," said Joe Franz, 66. "You don't have to be the strongest person - man, woman, older person, child - anybody can play and do well. It's a challenging game andvery interesting." The club was born in the late 1980s and started getting serious about the sport in 1995, Caldwell said.

"When we first started, it was a dogfight every time we played, more like when we were kids," he said. "We've tried to add a little more finesse.

It'sjust a fun game." Six players are regulars now: Taylor, Franz, Caldwell, Ralph and Shelvia Bozeman and Bob Sanders, whom Caldwell called "the instigator" in getting the club founded. Caldwell said new players are always welcome.

The group's regular date is Monday nights, most often at Caldwell's home court.

"Usually we'll play Saturday and Sunday, too," Franz said. "When two of us gather together, we'll play. If it's not too cold or too wet, we'll play." Originally the club members played the familiar nine-wicket version of the game that most of them played as a child, but they have sinceshifted to the more challenge sixwicket version.

According to the Web site, ninewicket is the more casual, social form of the game on the traditional twostake, double-diamond court most often on long grass or other "slow or irregular surfaces."

This version is usually played with lightweight equipment.

The more complex six-wicket game, on the other hand, is played with one stake and "calls for well maintained, level lawns cut very short and involves complex strategy and advanced shot-making skills." Franz said the best court for this version was "a huge flat golf green."

Caldwell said the good ones are usually Bermuda or bentgrass.

"Basically, what you're playing on is a big golf green," he said.

The equipment for this version is heavier and of a higher quality.

"The first set I ordered was from Abercrombie & Fitch, and I sent it back and said I wanted a real set," Caldwell said. "I buy my mallets from a guy in North Carolina who makes them." Taylor called six-wicket "an entirely different game." "We use wickets that have an eighth-of-an-inch clearance and are made of cast iron," he said. "You have to be accurate. It's a game ofoffense and defense. You have to do a lot of thinking and planning on your shots." Caldwell is the only A rkansas player with a minus handicap at -1. The handicap is dependent upon a player's performance in sanctioned tournaments. Caldwell plays in several such events each year in places like Tulsa, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, West Palm Beach, Mayfield, Ky.; Haverford, Pa.; and Tyler, Texas. He finished third in the Royal Knights of Croquet Spring Fling in April and was the top finisher from Arkansas.

"I won it last year," he said. "We've had it for many, many years, but that was the only time one of us has ever won it. We have good players coming in. The guy who won it is a minus handicap. I am, too, but he's more minus than I am. But I can play with them."Since Arkansas has so few players, there hasn't been a state tournament, but Caldwell said he finished second in Texas' state tournament in May.

"They were worried - 'We can't have an Arkansas boy winning this Texas state tournament,'" he said. "I had my chances." Caldwell's experience helps the other members of the club as well.

"I play Jeff all the time," said Franz, a 2 1-2 handicap. "Your game improves if you play someone like him often. You learn not to do stupid things, and a lot of it is mental. It's like chess or bridge in that you have to think two or three plays ahead. You have to plan ahead, know when to do something and when not to." Added Taylor, who has a 5 handicap: "You play the best, and you get better. You don't have any choice. If you don't, you sit around and watch them play. You don't play much." Franz, a retired Ouachita Baptist University administrator, said he hoped eventually to get OBU and Henderson State more involved in the sport, maybe even with intercollegiate competition.

"If we could ever get these two schools going, it might spread a little bit," he said.

For more information on the Royal K night s of Croquet, contact Caldwell at (870) 246 -2241 or mykwikway@yahoo.com.

Tri-Lakes, Pages 136 on 07/26/2009

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