It's been a mad couple of weeks since I last posted... But what better way to offset all that than with some croquet in the sunshine on a Bank Holiday Saturday?
I've long had a soft spot for croquet. I first came across it in the classic '80s film, Heathers, and, of course, in Alice in Wonderland. I used to play casually with friends in school and have had a few chances to play in recent years - at Christchurch in Oxford, at a fabulous, rambling, ancient B&B in the Somerset countryside, and at a Diamond Jubilee garden party event in Bedford Square last year.
I learnt that the group who supplied the kit and know-how at the Diamond Jubilee event were called Croquet East, and that they played in Victoria Park every fortnight over the summer. Sadly, I never managed to make it to any of their gatherings last year, due to a combination of circumstances and weather. However, this afternoon I wandered down with a friend to join in, and we had a jolly old time. So I hope to become a regular this year, and would recommend any Londoners to come check it out some time. It really is the most satisfying game, striking just the right balance between civility, fun, skill, strategy... and malice...
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| Heather, Heather and Heather (Image source) |
I've long had a soft spot for croquet. I first came across it in the classic '80s film, Heathers, and, of course, in Alice in Wonderland. I used to play casually with friends in school and have had a few chances to play in recent years - at Christchurch in Oxford, at a fabulous, rambling, ancient B&B in the Somerset countryside, and at a Diamond Jubilee garden party event in Bedford Square last year.
I learnt that the group who supplied the kit and know-how at the Diamond Jubilee event were called Croquet East, and that they played in Victoria Park every fortnight over the summer. Sadly, I never managed to make it to any of their gatherings last year, due to a combination of circumstances and weather. However, this afternoon I wandered down with a friend to join in, and we had a jolly old time. So I hope to become a regular this year, and would recommend any Londoners to come check it out some time. It really is the most satisfying game, striking just the right balance between civility, fun, skill, strategy... and malice...
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| The ladies from Heathers, dressed to colour-match their croquet mallets (Image source) |
Great idea! But obviously you'll also need to colour match your outfit to your mallet (which may require personalising your mallet) - though it may remind the others of Heathers and frighten them. Then again, I doubt that everybody will have noted the matching.
ReplyDeleteThat reminds me that someone at the game did comment to my friend and me that it was cool that we had dressed for the occasion... To which we responded that we were just dressed like we always do!
ReplyDeleteThe mallets we used weren't coloured but the balls were, of course, so I could dress in one of the colours. The only problem would be that I might have to play another colour at some point and that would just be all wrong... Either that, or I'd have to stubbornly refuse to play all but one particular colour, and I wouldn't want to do that!