So after 2 and a half days of lovely weather, no insects to speak of, a wily raccoon and one dead rat....the 2015 USCA CroqCan has been completed! More about the wildlife later....

Our newbie USCA croquet player, John Richardson, who normally plays golf croquet, told me that he has had fun, and has learned lots. Part of what he learned, given that Sunday was his wife’s birthday, was that despite being given spousal permission to play on Saturday (when there was some event in her honour that evening), and having been given permission by the TD that he could forfeit his last game on Saturday, if necessary, in order to get back home, he really was obligated to NOT play his remaining game on Sunday morning in order to maintain marital bliss!

Not knowing how to enter two “not played” games on croquetscores.com means that, at this point, John’s final games are simply missing in action. The good news is that he did manage one win…duly recorded. I am certain we will see John again on the courts playing USCA and/or Association games…..he is a force to be reckoned with in the future!

Over the weekend there were a number of rules questions not only from the First Flight (where some people haven’t played this version of the game very much recently) but also from Championship where some of us are more familiar with Golf or AC. Everything from understanding first vs second block situations, to knowing when a ball is wired, to whether a continuation shot is available to a Rover ball when it doesn’t have at least 2 ball deadness….and finally, can you clear striker ball when it roquets as opposed to croquets an opponent ball through 1-back. Answer, is….drum roll please….No and Yes, respectively. Reasoning? If it’s roqueted through, striker is still ball in hand, ergo cannot be cleared….while croqueting it through leaves striker with a continuation shot….and it can be cleared and hit the same ball again! Drat, should have asked for confirmation on that rule before I roqueted my opponent through said wicket. Good thing there was an escape ball.

Back to the wildlife….the North Toronto Croquet Club plays on 2 lawn bowling courts that have small ditches around all sides. I, and I’m sure others, had noticed a rather odd smell at the north boundary on our court on the first day…..I had simply not investigated the source as I didn’t spend a lot of time at that part of the court. Day two, different story….and a much stronger smell. Seems a rat had expired in the ditch. Thank you to whomever removed it! Day three….much better.

The wily raccoon made its presence known to David Druiett’s wife, Lynne on Saturday. A rustling noise behind the clubhouse attracted her attention and when she leaned over the fence to check the back of the building, there it was, climbing up a pipe and into a hole that leads into the generous space between the ceiling and the roof. Note to the City of Toronto…..

Day three, First flight now had a very distinct frontrunner by the name of Phil Parsons…undefeated in the block. Mary Sutton, despite having not played well and suffering from some unexpected defeats, was still in contention….partly because she gained a win as she was the opponent whom John had forfeited to on Saturday and because of her net points. Alison Streight and Gregg Hannah (yes I am spelling his name correctly!) were in hot pursuit. So the Sunday morning semi final games pitted Phil against Gregg (with a result of 13-11) and Mary against Alison (15-7). This set up the final of Phil and Mary, with the consolation game comprised of Gregg and Alison.

Great play by Phil had him up, I think, 6 wickets with little time left. I was playing and didn’t see the end, and it seemed that Mary did start catching up, but Phil remained undefeated taking the final 16-12. And in the consolation round Alison prevailed over Gregg 12 to 8. Lovely bottles of wines to the top three!

Over to the Championship Flight….6 games remained to be played on Sunday morning. With the double round robin format, playoffs had not been scheduled, but there was the understanding that there might need to be an extra game or two in the event of ties. Turned out that Paul Emmett (our TD) and Jim Wright both finished with 8 wins a piece….Paul was 4 and 1 on day one, Jim was 3 and 2. On day two Paul again finished 4 and 1 but Jim caught up by going undefeated for 5 and 0.

When the math was all completed, the remaining players were your remarkable reporter Jane with 4 wins, David also with 4 wins, Patrick and Chris both with 3. Patrick and Chris each defeated the other, but according to the results sheets, Chris had a net of 13 points to Patrick’s 4.

But I have a story before explaining who came 3rd.

Chris and I were tied when the clock ran out in our last game. His blue and black balls were both clean, closely joined up in corner three….positioned such that black had the boundary rush. My yellow had roqueted red towards its hoop which was penult, and on the croquet shot had put red on the other side so it had a chance to score 6. Red is dead on yellow, and it’s last ball in last rotation. I stuff yellow, but with only a little bit of yellow actually in the hoop.

Blue gently roquets black and takes off to attack. Ends up about 5 feet away to the south west of the hoop….goes for yellow….clangs off the west stanchion and ends up about 4 feet north west of the hoop.

Red to play. Remember it’s dead on yellow. I do have a pretty accurate jump shot, all that golf croquet, but am seriously concerned that I stand a good chance of nicking yellow and not making the wicket. So I roquet blue, thinking I could just set the final break for yellow.

Then I think again. Hmmmm, black still has a chance to hit yellow away from the hoop, use red to make 3 back and then send red packing into some remote corner….and that would likely be the end of the game.

Plan B. I line up the rush-cannon, hit red hard and the blue ball whacks yellow through penult from about 15 feet away on an angle. I prevail 16 to 15.

Ain’t this game fun? Sorry Chris…..

So who came third? Well if you have checked the scores you will have figured out that because I defeated David twice, I got the lovely bottle of 2012 Chardonnay. It's in the wine cooler as I type this report.

With many players already on their home (some with long drives) the courts and bleachers emptied out while Jim and Paul started to play off for first place in the Championship event. As I didn’t see it I have no fascinating stories….Jim took it 20 to 16.

A huge thanks to Paul Emmett, our TD, Mary and Jim for all the shopping and much of the cooking, to Paul’s friend Elvira for helping in the kitchen, Ian’s wife Jane for the lovely desserts….and to various other players and the occasional spectator for their assistance in cleanup.

Hope to see you soon on the courts!