CROQUET

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 68, 22 March 1935, Page 5

CROQUET

SCIENCE OF THE GAME WEAKNESS OF NEW ZEALANDERS VISITING ENGLISHMAN’S COMMENT. Is croquet a game for curates and crinolines? Colonel W. B. Du Pre, holder of the English and New Zealand championships, who arrived at New Plymouth on Monday in the course of a hurried tour of the Dominion, maintains that it definitely is not, states the Taranaki Daily News. It demands a practised skill as great Yis that of a billiards player, and it has, too, an element of chess. Proficiency lies not so much in the accuracy of single shots but in the power to so position and control the balls that every stroke facilitates the next and, when a break does end, that the balls lie in such a way that one’s opponent finds it difficult to make a beginning. To win at croquet one must think in terms of three moves ahead.

“I am not in the least ashamed of playing croquet,” said Colonel Du Pre. ‘’Apparently in New Zealand the mention of it recalls old pictures seen in Punch of ladies in full skirts playing on vicarage lawns and ’ knocking their friends into flower beds in a vain endeavour to drive the ball through enormous hoops. Actually croquet rules have been so tightened that its character has completely changed, and it has become a game of science where the brain shares at least equally with the hand.

“Certainly it cannot command much interest among young people, for it is essentially a leisurely game —plenty of walking but with ample occasion to sit down to smoke or chat. Nevertheless for an older generation there is no finer recreation for men or women. In England 80 per cent, of croquet players are men: here if a man is seen in the street with a mallet people turn round to stare. Yet most English men players are by no means ‘sissy.’ They are often admirals, generals, retired civil servants who have had distinguished careers and have often been fine athletes in younger days.” Pride of Place to Woman. Colonel Du Pre is ranked as probably one of two best players in the world, but he himself concedes pride of place to Miss D. D. Steele, England, who he says, is steadier than he. Comparing the play of men and women, he said steadiness was what a woman really lacked, the men as a rule triumphing through that quality. Croquet was probably the game in which men and women could meet on virtually equal terms, however. The hardest tournament staged in England was the President’s handicap, where 10 seeded players met on the American system, each playing each twice. Eighteen games with top-rankers were a searching test, and it was found that generally the women did well in the first stages but “cracked” in the latter. They were less able than the men to withstand the nervous strain. Commenting on New Zealand play, Colonel IDu Pre found fault not with execution, but with the degree of scientific positioning displayed. Geographical and economic reasons restricted play in the Dominion principally to clubs, where members could not get the best experience. In England croquet was the £ame of a leisured class who could spend whole weeks at tournaments, where they competed against the finest players in the country. With the exception of Mr. A . G. F. Ross, Christchurch, who had now unfortunately given up the game, New Zealand few players in the world class. There were plenty of good exponents, but the really first grade players were very rare.

Colonel Du Pre was delighted with New Zealand and said he was glad to visit it on a croquet tour because it L r ave both to himself and those he met an opportunity of learninc more of the same. With Mr. B. Poulter and Mr. Ward-Petley, other members of the English team who played at the Melbourne centenary games on the West End greens. Mr. F. L. Hartnell and Mrs. A. S. Clark members of the New Zealand team, will also be present, Victorian Standard High. Both Mrs. Clark and Mr. Hartnell, who returned on Monday from taking part in the New Zealand championship tournament at Auckland, were very impressed with the standard of croquet in Victoria. The lawns were very much faster than those in this country, and the speed developed in the Australians a delicacy of touch which the New Zealanders did not have and had not time to acquire. In Mrs. Clark’s opinion New Zealand croquet can nover measure up to oversea play until the greens improve. In Melbourne there was ample water supply and after matches were over each day the lawns were soaked. In the morning they were rolled and prepared to give a remarkable surface. Our lawns here were like paddocks in comparison, said Mr. Hartnell. “The experience gained by the Newi Zealand team cannot but have a bend r fleial influence on the general standard of croquet in this country,” declared Mr. Hartnell. “The Australian players state that our standard of play has greatly improved since the last New Zealand team visited their countryseven years ago. Another good result of tho tour is that the Victorian association has arranged to pay a visit to the Dominion in 1937.” Though Colonel Du Pre said play in New Zealand was very clean, the New Zealanders were struck by the strict interpretation placed upon rules in Victoria. In Australia any shot which had the possibility of being an illegal stroke was never taken without the referee being called on to the lawn to witness it. Neither the Australians or the Englishmen played for their opponents’ mistakes. The referee's decision was never questioned, and when a delicate shot was made the players would always turn their backs on it so that the referee might bp the sole judge. They played a very strict but, veiy sporting game.