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01 October 2010
Extreme Croquet
"- no prisoners taken!"
By: Derek Workman On Wednesday April 9, 1975, Bernt 'Mulle' Fredriksson, Anders 'P-son' Wilen and eight other like-minded lunatics, all students of the Linkping University of Technology in Sweden, decided to create a more sophisticated and cruel form of the gentle game of croquet (with the added incentive that it seemed a good reason to get together for a beer or two). The Krocketklubben R.A.S.O.P. was born and practised a form of croquet they called "terrngkrocket"(cross-country croquet). "There are no runner-ups, third places or similar in our game." says Anders Wilen, the last of the original ten still playing in the annual championship, "The winner takes all!" A match, which typically takes about five to seven hours to play, becomes a mallet and ball obstacle race. "One year we put a hoop one metre up a tree trunk, thinking it would be a difficult shot. It was actually quite easy because there was a stone at the bottom of the tree and we found we could ricochet the ball off it up through the hoop." Although ruthless during a game, the players of R.A.S.O.P. (the meaning of the initials of the club is a closely guarded secret imparted, only once, to each new member) are very cultivated people and devote themselves to a mid-twentieth century nostalgia, which is shown in their clothing. "When we first played, one of the club members knew of a shop which had an attic full of original 40's and 50's clothing still in their boxes. We bought the lot, and have continued to dress that way ever since." But only for the competition Anders hastens to add. A cassette or CD player filled with evergreens from the period always accompanies a game, but as far as the ladies are concerned, R..S.O.P. is a final foothold of male chauvinism in socially conscious Scandinavia. "They can watch and cook, but they can't play." For extremists though, the first true example of the sport appeared in the 1920's, when Herbert Swope, publisher of the New York World, built a new course on his Sands Point, Long Island estate. The course was so large that players had to shout to one another. It had sand traps, bunkers, rough, and Long Island Sound waiting in the distance. The nearest the Brits got to a bit of extreme in the croquet sense was when the Queen of Hearts walloped around a few curled up hedgehogs with an up-ended flamingo in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. You don't just pick up your ordinary household croquet set to play extreme; extreme croquet demands heavy-duty equipment. The mallets used in ordinary lawn croquet are too flimsy, and are easily broken or shattered. It's not even uncommon to shatter a ball in extreme croquet. The Connecticut eXtremists have even developed their own mallet, the Wedge-Face, which has the appearance of some sort of medieval implement of execution. It has a wedge-face built into one end of the mallet head for lifting the ball off the ground, and into the air and allows the player to shoot the ball over most obstructions. And obstruction is the name of the game in extreme. If there isn't something in the way of the hoop or wicket they'll put it there. And you're not likely to get a hole (or hoop) in one either, unless the ball's trajectory includes rebounding off a tree and executing a boomerang turn before skimming across a pond like a stone. The more delicate form of croquet has made a comeback over the last two decades, particularly among the young, and is now played competitively in over twenty countries. But it's unlikely that you'll hear shouts about first poison, post assassination, suicide or lap death, the everyday terminology of extreme croquet, whispered across the neatly-trimmed turf of the World Croquet Federation Championships. You probably won't see the Wedge Face in action either, and there'll be a conspicuous lack of tree stumps and drainage ditches. A shame really, it doesn't sound half as much fun. Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Derek_Workman
About Derek Workman: " I am a freelance journalist living in Valencia City, Spain, although my work takes
me throughout the country. My work is pretty wide ranging, both in subject and geography, but my heart lies in Spain, which is where most of writing concentrates on. I've written two successful guide books to the Valencia region, on Spain's eastern coast, Inland Trips from the Costa Blanca and Small Hotels and Inns of Eastern Spain, as well as many articles for national and international press. While most of my work features the idiosyncratic side of Spain, I've also written extensively on wine, gastronomy and hotels". To discover more about Spain, visit http://www.derekworkman-journalist.com and http://derekworkman.wordpress.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5126218 |
