USCA Mid Atlantic Regional US rules croquet tournament. August 25-27, 2023. Karen Leoncavallo and Michael Jeary in another tight block game. Lots of options to think about, interesting tactical choices: what would you do here?The Green Gables CC. Sea Girt, New Jersey. Loretta Cooper TD, Ann Leddy TM, Club President; Paul Neubecker videography; Russ Dilley editing.
Sponsors Chris Barley; USCA www.croquetamerica.com; The Croquet Store by Oakley Woods.
And now in new venues so we’ll let Google Earth lead us in on the Jersey Shore south of New York Manhattan the Statue of Liberty Asbury Park of Bruce Springsteen Fame we will find seagert New Jersey with a big brown patch that’s the military training center for the police
Academy the National Guard Etc and there is the patch of green that draws us all like moths to a flame it’s the Green Gables croquet club we there in August of 2023 for the Mid-Atlantic Regional us rules croquet tournament Loretta Cooper is the tournament director the tournament manager is an
Ley who’s also the club president our videographers are Paul new Becker and Cecil ccie when Paul is playing and as always we want to thank our sponsors Chris barley the United States croquet Association where you can find everything you want to know about this wonderful Sport and Don Oakley’s croquet store
Supplying the equipment needs of beginners to world champions and now first flight blog play in the Rain featuring Karen Le and cavalo who’s a local member of the Green Gables croquet Club playing blue and black and an eight and her opponent Michael Jerry is a seven handicap these two were seated I think third and fourth Michael Jer is from the Rumson croquet Club the fierce Rivals of Green
Gables about 15 20 minutes north on the Jersey Shore north of Asbury Park okay you got it all right is your camera rolling yep the audio does pick up sure no hold on hold on C okay do these people have a I don’t know uh I think they did start their
Clock I don’t know where it is I don’t think they have a clock they might have it with them she walked over and reset it so okay cat stri you have a clock on here comes Ann Ley the club president and tournament manager from whom I learned learned that the name of the
Club was coined by Susie lynon on Whose property this club was started in Spring Lake up north of seagert her house apparently had Green Gables and I’m sure it was a tip of the hat to the classic children’s novel and of Green Gables by Canadian author Lucy Montgomery from
1908 one of the better Club names in the country goes along with Prairie Lights croquet club by Mickey huttenhoff in Illinois and albam Maro croquet Club at doodle hill by the Lasser family in Virginia and I’m sure many other creative ones that I apologize for leaving out of that
List with opponent pairs of balls in and out of the game like this the one that plays first in each pair always on the same team of course has a little bit of an advantage for instance if she comes in with black now her danger ball yellow is
Two turns from getting away so if she could get to her partner ball she could goo a croquet out to red or at the very least set up something for blue to do without danger of having it broken up it’s not a massive Advantage but in Championship flight where a first break
To the peg can decide the game it can be a big deal and that from nearly 80 feet away what a shot for this game I know just put a cover over your this is really picky but if she went straight out at right angles it would be
Easier for black to give her a nice 6 8 in line rush to hoop three if the lawn’s fast enough I’m partial to line rushes because you don’t have to have a ball out on the court in a vulnerable position that said she may have put blue
Where she did to discourage red from shooting it blind here I have this is kind of Next Level stuff but if she now gave black a rush on Blue to his balls it would force him to separate and if she didn’t want to deal with this back and forth impossible
Attack she should put blue over on the East Boundary then join up with black to try to make hoop three and now he’s giving yellow a rush to the hoop means maybe black should be going to the east boundary to avoid an attack that’s going to come after he makes that hoop you’re
Fine I love our shelters this is so nice and now Michael really has no choice but to attack and this is pretty interesting if Blue’s up in corner one and your balls are going for hoop two then you leave Blue behind but in this situation blue is guarding
Both of those hoops and he eting needs to be very confident of his ability to make hoop three and get his break going or leave red with black and use blue to make hoop three and then get rid of blue I like to think about roking first
The ball I want to leave behind but you got to put some thought in to which ball you want to leave behind he could have rolled red and yellow over there rocade black take blue to hoop three and give the break over to Red here he really needs to R
Blue leave it behind and then get a rush on black so a nice little take off Rush black to hoop three and get your three ball break going leaving behind the danger bone go [Applause] she’s going to hold this position for almost 20 seconds if it’s shorter in the
Rest of the game is because she is so still that it’s really easy to edit that out now she’s got a bunch of options kick right out as an escape ball get over there and make the hoop off yellow sending yellow further down alone get a ball to ball break going send red
Down now do a split shot that puts um blue south of yellow and make the hoop and whatever she does you should get that yellow bomb from the other game out of there so it doesn’t affect her thinking it looks like she’s just playing it safe
But it also may be the best tactical option rather than trying to build a break for blue with red yellow she can now R yellow send to Black try to rush red to hoop for and then take blue back to two to give black the break I think it probably is the best
Option taking blue and yellow to four is further down on the list but may be supported by the fact that yellow is dead on Blue so there’s no risk to there she’s playing Don Oakley’s Predator Mallet his top of the line soon to be joined by some new Innovations developed in concert with
David and Kyle malof who’ve won multiple national championships with that mount this is the variation on the Predator theme called the aod dkm designed for vastly decreased lateral wind resistance and probably increased peripheral waiting as well a lot of folks would send red to the West boundary up by hoop one now so
That yellow can join up giving r a rush back to hoop two the problem with setting up in front of hoop 2 with red is that black is also for hoop too so he needs to get wired if he can nope want to I think we know where is right on the Wicket
Right I’m a little surprised she’s not marking and lifting that red strip ball she’s playing at Palm Beach to step make a hoop and get out of bounds make a hoop join back up what she’ll do next year is she’ll do a split shot send red Beyond The Hoop
Make the hoop and then rush red back up to hoop four where yellow and blue together give her a golden opportunity to start a four ball break she put red sort of out of hoop shooting position and she’s going to hit a wonderful setup now excellent golf cro
Shot but not so great for American rules cuz all that yellow has to do now is come to red and red has a three ball break if she doesn’t move blue Red’s got a four ball oh good she’s not going to leave it there and actually shooting at black
Makes sense cuz then she can go bust up red and yellow discards hoop three in case he gets out of the sords by the time he gets over there [Applause] okay no no the board’s right yeah [Applause] [Applause] first on here is to do the big split shot Samuel a little for
Red goes to Black at Hop three get the three ball break going but yellow is partner dead and blue on the boundary back there is dead on yellow so he can make the hoop off black get rid of black and maybe yellow can get clean later later oh dark [Applause] stor
And with blue and black both clean he really can’t afford to set up at Blue’s hoop nice you know other words Stand Out of Rain over there get on yellow what she thinking Yes red is dead on black but yellow plays next oh good now of course we’re red Not Dead on
Black she just gave away an easy croquet out where yellow roket is red puts it out of bounds next to black and a croquet shot setting up in front of four at the same time to guard against that black would have just gone straight out to the East
Boundary where blue could then join up for Black’s line rush to hoop four but red is dead on black so what she did works fine work you know what you got one of these you can sit on a white bench look at Paul’s noted oh no I’ve seen plenty of CR bag
Ponas in my day well this was born because I had to ride a scooter and I didn’t have rain pants and you go to put your legs up yeah you take your pants off and pants back off you never done that come on now I
Told you I left part of my knee on Ro love thank you watching get dressed all already red strip this don’t do it you cannot intervene and he has approached the distress mys figed it out after on red but I believe yellow was the the ret shot so that went out so
Which one should I what should I do it’s dead on red that was the strike over from five that I hit from six but yellow was the ret clean on clean onk you thank classical dilemma yellow is for this hoop and yellow is clean so she can’t leave Blue there she’s going to
Have to either set up a scatter shot to get both of her balls out of bounds after she makes the hoop or she’ll have to attack seems like these La strain pretty well oh wait right here it’s not it’s all the so go get red send it back
To Blue and get R of yellow oops not far enough now all she can do is hit yellow get rid of it and then R red and send it back to blue and then set up in front of H well it’s not Florida it’s not hard pack keep going and going and
Going abrupt jokes said if you this one she will want back right idea to send her partner a ball but she sent her the wrong ball and now having been so generous she just needs to put black out of bounds away from Red that spots as good as any
You can just hear Michael thinking one good mistake deserves another but I think hers is going to hurt more than his going for the wrong hoop d ask about a wire Happ really yeah way [Applause] no not much of a break opportunity here but he can’t
Send blue to Red because it’s the danger ball and he can’t send yellow to Red cuz it’s dead on yellow so the roll up makes sense although pass roll that good is not what he needed here oh come on I gave a lot of American rules players can’t do that
Did what he wanted of course was a 3/4 roll that put yellow and hoop shooting position and blue Beyond The Hoop but Blue’s dead on yellow so no real harm done he probably could set up in front of five Oro to Yellow here but if black had hit red in either of
Those instances then black would have had a chance to get something going so he’s ahe no reason to take risks they try they’re not I see fine she has the rush she needs to make him pay for leaving yellow out by hoop six to say our conversation I Okay quick what kind of shot do I want him to use here right a Dy shot which he’s not going to do he also does his split shots with his right foot forward most right-handers put their right foot back in that situation it’s a minority that does it
His way but it seems to work for him the problem there was not technique but shot selection folks think they have more control when they get down close to the ball and put a little roll on it but in fact a little Drive shot is much more
Controllable than is the norm on hoop approaches for the top Championship players she should Rush this much harder than she’s going to cuz he just gave her a laate three ball break and this is why maybe the thing that would improve most middle handicap players the most is
Practicing rushes I don’t mean a one- foot Rush me rushes of a yard or two so that when you have an opportunity like this you can take advantage of it because you’re not afraid to hit that two yard shot hard clearing red thday okay EXC that was clutch and she stuffed that one
This game probably would have been over wait is I just play Black you can no she went through she is now she went through she went through with black me I think she went through with black this is she’s only down by one it’s a little cheeky to leave black out like that
Where red can take advantage of It Sign what that all I don’t know what that is good question you need to take off in a hurry might just be a fire alarm fire trucks in Spring L it’s the sound of the ER any idea what that siren was in Spring Lake that sound is like the
They’re calling all the e people to come out actually First Responders okay I just want to make sure it’s not no to try to make I should say that but it’s not in [Applause] Spring which is why I put this supp oh no I knew that
This is the kind of rush I was talking about he needs to rush this up toward three back so he then has a good chance of getting a decent Rush on Blue to two bag but it takes practice sitting in my car we play next okay looks like quite a while uh know
How’ you do in your first game want a very low 1210 1210 met yeah that’s American rules for you who’ you play fell from Georgia gley nice very nice guy Oh Creasy SP clearing black clearing black [Applause] stripes Another choice would have been to shoot it yellow here because if you miss it didn’t be guarding yellow’s shot on two back and these two balls together down here are not really a double Target cuz a double Target is two balls separated by a ball diameter fielder’s choice and a one-point game again Believe now that a class pass roll is going to come in handy yes distances were perfect here comes another judgment call based on your assessment of your own abilities that’s probably about 11 Y a lot of folks would just shoot it red she’s going to move Red by going to Blue now which works but sometimes you got to strike while the iron is [Applause] hot got the lunch dragon’s here do you want me to take the board for you no I’m
Good I just thought you might want to Stripes 13 minutes I’m kind of into this right now for this for this game thanks I got my skirt I don’t know if I I just didn’t know if she knows where it all where you want it oh it’s not
Arrived to be placed okay do you mind no I don’t 13 minutes oh she’s going to do it get right out of hoop shooting position and bring yellow Back to Black three ball dead for a three ball Breck solid 15 minutes all right R andell blue right should ask board right John
Yes yes that’s wonderful yellow play Blue has no deadness oh no that’s correct I’m sorry that’s sorry red black has no want start think the weather is just my and red is only live on Blue so she has to be sure she doesn’t give him a wiring left oh
Did you ever know any of the sipples in Buffalo where’s where’s your car is it open it’s the white Jeep in the second okay yeah push the back I always wonder whether a ball from the other game left in that position subconsciously keeps you from hitting this shot hard enough
So she got the three ball Dead part right and but for that would have had the three ball break and because blue is three ball dead he can now take yellow to red and have a laid four ball break this game’s not over it certainly ought to be com I know better made
Yeah I didn’t see it before Mark was telling you that’s right watch it please Michael I’m just gonna have him watch I know you’ve got a nice juicy One Solid black is only dead on sorry that coming this way yes be out of here might want stop uh yeah stop clock please how do you stop it uh just the big bigger button there yeah just starts and stops don’t I know can’t ever get everything right
Right a maget there’s a magnet this these are oh oh yeah in the back [Applause] uh Michael again a simple Drive shot putting blacket two back and giving red the rush on yellow to one back would serve him best here oh good he switched to a drive
Shot that could have been better but let’s see if he can cut this down to the ho nice thing about a reverse takeoff hoop approach is you don’t have to do a split shot to put the object ball in good position but when you make it this
Long it makes it harder to get a good hoop approach with the striker ball he needs to look at the board before he does this one minute Stripes Michael one minute 53 seconds look like she might be right what Bob Kroger wants her to do is peel red through one Back and clear black then she can row red again row okay yellow and have her three ball break Peter Timmons is an expert on that maneuver yes yes at the hands of yours two minutes for interference you stop what H for interference in the last 15 you stop technically players should
Stop but as the boep have some how much time is that 51 seconds even though blue and black are both free ball dead black has an easy hoop shot against Randy cardo this would lose him this game yellow should probably be in corner four or Corner three
In here maybe red should take out blue so the black doesn’t have a break at all you can guard one back from corner two but you also give them a chance to pick it up and get a break going so you might have wanted to put red in three
For just like we mentioned for yellow yes Black’s first last so black is first ball in last turns but because blue is three ball dead she has to get it done with black thank you thank you strul I’ll get it when I um finish our okay
What is it uh Hammond Swiss and turkey and Sloppy Joe’s and something I don’t know sloppy Jo I didn’t seeast beef so by two Hoops Michael Jerry prevails over Karen ly cavalo in the Rumson green game a Smackdown Michael’s going to go on to play in the first flight final against
Cat Robertson and that will be the last of the games that we put up from the Mid-Atlantic Regional from the Green Gables croquet Club in Seager New Jersey so give us a like subscribe hit the notification Bell thanks as always to our sponsors Chris barley the United States croquet
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