10/17/2024
USCA Chesapeake Bay Croquet Club World Croquet Federation
Pre-Championship insights from Chris Clarke.
Setting the scene – Day 0
Tomorrow sees the start of the 2024 GC World Championships. It is being held at the new Chesapeake Bay croquet club which has 24 lawns. I am typing from the “media centre” – a 2 storey building with elevated views over 16 of the lawns.
I have been quite impressed so far – this will make a good croquet venue for major events. Where I point out areas of weakness, these are to be expected from such a new club.
So, from my media position there are 16 lawns laid out in 4x4 Pattern with the Western boundaries closest to me. I am sitting level with the peg on the lawn in the bottom right hand corner. These 16 lawns are all slightly imperfect and a bit slow (around 10 seconds), The grass has been well mown, but cores have been taken on some lawns recently to try and assist drainage and filled with sand, so there is the occasional sand trail and some bobbly patches. The lawns are coloured light green to straw and the hoops (Quadways) appear to be fairly firm in the ground. We are using the brand new Dawson balls (I’m going to call them Mark 4).
I believe that the plan is to live-stream some of the play from the four lawns in the bottom right hand quadrant. Regrettably, the obvious "show lawn" is one of the worst at the venue and there is discussion about whether to use it at all.
To the right of the media centre is the players pavilion and I haven’t yet dared to enter that, so I’ll ask Jenny for a report. To the right of that are 8 high quality lawns, set out in a 4x2 pattern E/W. These lawns are faster (maybe 11-12 seconds but the northern half of the 4 lawns to the North is faster still – maybe 13-13.5 seconds as the nearby trees have sucked out the moisture. In this area, there is minimal grass. These 8 lawns look like a really good test of skill.
In between the two sets of lawns is a large open-sided white marquee for players/spectators and a manager’s tent, There are 6 open-sided shelters shared between the 16 lawns. There is a large equipment shed to house the club’s two triplex mowers and finally Macey White’s house towards the top right corner. In addition to this, I would estimate there is parking on grass for about 150 cars – maybe more.
The weather is currently dry and cold (about 10 degrees) but is expected to reach the low twenties from tomorrow.
The blocks are now up on croquetscores and look fairly balance to me. Some quick highlights
Block A – My favourite for the event, Robert Fletcher is joined by runner-up in yesterday’s “Big Oyster” tournament, Sherif Adbelwahab.
Block B – Current Over 50 World Champion and 2016 GC World Champion Ahmed ElMahdy is joined by Andres Alvares-Sala.
Block C – The top 6 players have all won medals in WCF events
Block D – Mohammed Nasr is joined by the world number 23 and multiple GC World Champion, Reg Bamford.
Block E – Current World Champion Matt Essick faces past and current U21 World Champions Edmund Fordyce and Aston Wade with the ever-improving Brian Lozano making up a strong top 4.
Block F – past Champion Ahmed Nasr is joined by current European Champion Jose Alveres-Sala. Gary Phipps, winner of the Big Oyster will provide a good challenge to Kyle Maloof, Sam Cuthbert who won the qualifier and Blake Fields – a tricky block.
Block G – Jose (Pepe) Riva is joined by Khaled Kamel and veteran Stephen Mulliner.
Block H – Felix Webby and the strong Moe Karem will both be expected to qualify, so players like Balding, Hatata, Bilton and M. Alvares-Sala will probably be fighting for the other 2 qualifying spots.
For those of you who are new to this event, this the format
Days 1-4 Two best of 3 block matches
Day 5 Last best of 3 block match followed by play-offs for those tied for 4th/5th etc
Day 6 Last 32 and last 16 of knockout best of 3
Day 7 Quarter-finals best of 5
Day 8 Semi-finals best of 5
Day 9 Final best of 5
Consolation events start on Day 6
Live-streaming will be available USCA YouTube - First session link
I hope everyone enjoys some high good matches.
Chris
