Croquet, OK?

This afternoon four of the retreatees (Nicole, Kylie, Russell and Matthew) went to Nowra to watch Nicole’s husband Tim, an Australian rep croquet player, play a practice game. He’s getting back in trim to play competitively next week. Though conceding a substantial handicap Tim handily won his game, then introduced us to the rudiments of the game. The easy game of golf croquet, mind you – Association Croquet looks like a cross between chess and billiards, and requires more forward thought than fantasy writers need for a trilogy.

Oh, what fun. We got to thwack our own balls and do nasty things to our opponents’ balls. We did not miss an occasion to strike them vigorously. In the end, after an hour of madness, Kylie and Russell triumphed over Nicole/Tim and Matthew by 7 to 4. Yes, you read it right. One might suspect that Tim was merciful and held back a little, and one would, I suspect, be right. But you should have seen Nicole. Talk about toys out of the cot! As soon as she got 3-2 down, off the court and under the shade for a bout of the sulks.

Back home now and into the post-match review and drinks. Nicole is studiously avoiding any discussion of her ignominious performance. I must check back to day 1 and see if I wrote down ‘beating Nicole and Tim at croquet’ as one of my goals…