The News for those few who play real croquet! May 20,2000
The News for those few who play real croquet! May 20,2000
Ben and Kristy pull off an upset, by playing as a team. Brandon miffed!
By Ben Lasher
In the only tournament of it's kind, the Ironman Croquet doubles tournament began with
Nathan stuck on a team by himself, and with Alan and Steve , arch-enemies, on the same team.
Brandon, Ben, Mike, and Kristy switching siblings.
"Damn it, Steve!", became Alan Manka's war cry though out the tournament. Despite Steve
and Alan's good play it wasn't enough to make up for the fact that Alan is a jerk.
Nathan enjoyed his 4th place finish, and cheated almost constantly to hold that placing,
but it made it all worth while when Nathan got a Rooster Bank, and as he put it, "I got 11
cents!"
Brandon and Mike finished 3rd due mostly to Nathan going out of his way to knock both
players out of Alan and Steve's way, and into the streets, allowing them to get 2nd. The
Ewoks strike again!
"Damn it, Steve!", Alan said again upon finishing 2nd.
Steve finished the tournament out with an acceptance speech for the 2nd place prize, a
Twix bar, "I would like to thank all the little people (for this prize), like Alan."
To which Alan replied, "Damn it, Steve!"
The Frog Dollars as they now stand:
Rank Player Attended Total Money Average Takings
1 Nathan 4 $ 11,800 $ 2,950
2 Alan 4 $ 9,600 $ 2,400
3 Jon 3 $ 9,000 $ 3,000
4 Ben 4 $ 6,600 $ 1,650
5 Kristy 3 $ 5,700 $ 1,900
6 Steve 4 $ 4,180 $ 1,045
7 Brandon 4 $ 3,300 $ 825
8 Mike 3 $ 2,100 $ 700
9 Rick 1 $ 300 $ 300
10 Kyle 1 $ 100 $ 100
10 Josh 1 $ 100 $ 100
(The Average takings will be more exciting after more tourneys.)
We-Have-No-Lives Classic, is May 27 at 11:30 a.m. the Lasher Course. Prepare for the action of an 12 hole course, and the horror of a box of Life Cereal.The Upcoming! June 3rd, The Orange Shirt Classic, at the Lasher Course. June 17th, The Midnight Rose Open, at the Manka Course. (Not at Midnight, at least I hope to god it isn't) July 8th, The Mike Marvel Open Invitational, at the Cough Course. July 15th, The Spam Classic, at the Cole Course.
The event that occurred on May 20 was the culmination of a six month process that Steve
and Brandon undertook to add a new variant to the sport of Ironman Croquet.
"Quite frankly, we wanted a change from the same old stroke play event. So I talked to
Steve about some new ideas for the game, a new variant," said doubles co-creator Brandon.
There was discussion of Poison rules (no, you don't listen to the band) and other ideas
but we ended up with doubles. While watching golf ( a true source of inspiration) I found
a couple of ways to play the doubles: alternate shot, ( like most croquet leagues) best
ball, (far too anal), and last the one we decided on.
The way you play is each player has a ball. Then when one gets through a hole, they are
both through. But both have to hit the end stick before the game is over.
The doubles idea got a tryout in a three team field last November. Brandon and "Living
Legend" Scott Balthrop picked up a win. After that experiment and this event, doubles is
a resounding success.
"It was fun," said the very descriptive Alan.
"We should have at least two of these a year," said the winner Ben.
So the variant was a resounding success. We might do more in the future. Anyone want to
play an Ironman match?
