Word: croqueted
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...Croquet as played in this stretch of paradise is a far cry from the backyard game forced on kids to keep them from killing one another before the hot dogs are served. The grownup version is a maze of complicated tactics, arcane terminology and bizarre rules played against a ticking stopwatch. A good player must have the wrists of Jack Nicklaus, the concentration of Bobby Fischer and the eye of Minnesota Fats. Ricocheting at precisely the right spot off the steel wicket is one way to get the grapefruit-size ball through the narrow hoop, anchored an unforgiving...
Under American rules, a player also has to worry about "deadness," a state almost as final in croquet as it is in life. A player whose ball has hit another ball is considered "dead" on that ball. He cannot hit it again unless he passes through a wicket. This can leave a player cooling his heels on the sidelines for a half an hour while his opponent hits through. Darryl Zanuck, one of old Hollywood's croquet fanatics, who included Harpo Marx, Samuel Goldwyn and Louis Jourdan, described the predicament: "When you're three-ball dead, you're just...
...Croquet originated in France during the late 1400s, migrated to England and Ireland in the 19th century and arrived in the U.S. in the 1860s. The game's popularity has waxed and waned over the years, but it is once again finding a serious audience. The U.S. Croquet Association, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., boasts that sales of high-quality mallets and sets have doubled in the past three years, while the number of croquet clubs has grown from five in 1977 to over 300 this year. More people are buying backyard sets, and public courts are springing...
...Croquet makes golf, a game to which it is often compared, seem like a no- brain activity pursued on AstroTurf. It is hard to see how the game could miss. In what other sport can you sip champagne and nibble strawberries on a velvety green lawn in pristine outfits that will never suffer from sweat stains? Since mental acuity rather than muscles, speed or stamina is what matters, it is a truly coed sport where women can play men without a handicap. It is also perfect for those who are no longer thirtysomething or in perfect shape. American Croquet Association...
Still, with upkeep of a 105-ft. by 84-ft. lawn running about $4,000 a year and a set of croquet equipment costing as much as $3,500, the sport's appeal to the masses is limited. The court at Sonoma-Cutrer, built on 16 in. of sand from Bodega Bay, is mowed three times a day during the tournament to exactly three-sixteenths of an inch by lawn-mower blades with the precision of Ginsu knives and then groomed with a metal comb by a greenkeeper. The dependable sogginess that keeps British courts so lush is helped along...