Courtside: The New and the Old

We are a few weeks into the new year, but signs of the old year still remain. This is typical of the calendar change and can be found in everything we confront. We make brand-new resolutions for the year while holding onto previous traditions. Croquet is a perfect example of the adoption of the fresh as well as the concurrent maintenance of respect for the long-standing.

This issue of Croquet News was challenged to offer novel articles within a season of cancellations of the many croquet events that would normally provide stories and illustrative photos to the magazine.

A theme for this issue could be the new and the old. It may be more politic to say the emerging and the developed. Within these pages you will find a profile of USCA member Zack Watson, a younger player who plays in competitive categories including on Team USA, and, separately, members’ expressions of Steve Mossbrook, whose untimely death rocked the foundations of the croquet world at all levels of the sport: Steve having served in leadership roles at club and national levels. Both very successful players, each one at a different point in the modern-established spectrum. You will also see an article on the Chesapeake Bay Croquet Club and its founding, a maturing club in comparison to established croquet clubs in the country, but exciting and thriving today.

This issue also covers two topics that both seem new but represent different stages of innovative plans that are currently being rolled out: the Golf Croquet Handicap System, of which you have heard so much already, is now active and explained so all GC players can participate; in addition, the new USCA marketing plan is described with an account of its development and the coming elements the USCA can expect to see. The latter being totally new, the former almost new.

A little of everything in croquet can be found on these pages. The magazine may have been a challenge to fill, but the articles and pictures ended up being of great interest and, as it turns out, a success to fill.

Enjoy your reading, with hope the editorial will continue to inspire you throughout the year.

Sara Low

USCA President | president@uscroquet.com