GC America

Hoop Setup: Response Options

By Cheryl Bromley What to Do Against a Player Who Sets Up in a Great First Position at the Hoop

Here’s a familiar scenario: You’ve just scored a hoop. Your opponent now has the first shot to the next one and has put the ball in a good position to score. You might think there is nothing you can do, but you may be surprised at the number of options you have. How many can you think of? Below are eight options, listed in no particular order, worth considering.

• Get in front of the opponent’s ball: hit your ball closer to the hoop than your opponent’s. You might be able to land a block if all goes right. This applies pressure to the opponent’s hoop shot. • Snuggle up behind the opponent’s ball: rolling up behind the opponent’s ball may prevent he/she from taking a good backswing and may hinder the shot. • Clear the opponent’s ball: depending on your position and distance, you may be able to shoot and clear or move the opponent’s ball out of a scoring position.

• Go behind the hoop: setting up on the non-scoring side of the hoop is a defensive play that will allow you to clear their ball out on your next turn in the event they get stuck in the jaws. This also works well if you think they might be considering “jawsing” their ball on an odd-numbered hoop.

• Set up for a jump shot: this is another way of putting pressure on your opponent’s hoop shot because he/she will realize that if the shot isn’t hit well, you’ll be jumping over his/her ball on the next one. • Promote your partner ball: by advancing your partner closer, it will shoot before the first player and can clear it out of the way. • Look for an opportunity to glance off an opponent ball and go more than halfway: if the other opponent ball is near you and positioned in such a way that you can make contact, you can glance off of it and put yourself in a good position toward the next hoop without being offside. Note: if the first ball doesn’t score on the opponent’s next shot, you will need to get onside with your ball on your next shot.

R "glances" off K to legally go offsides near H6 • Give up and go halfway to the next hoop: use this as a last resort when none of the other options will seem to work.

30 | croquetamerica.com 2020 USCA GOLF CROQUET GRAND PRIX Rank Player Points 01 Sherif Abdelwahab 10435 02 Macey White 6978 03 Danny Huneycutt 6285 04 Jeff Soo 6258 05 Cheryl Bromley 5895 06 Ahab Dincer 5676 07 Stephen Jackson 5384 08 David Maloof 5301 09 Matt Griffith 4855 10 Blake Fields 3966 11 Richard Dell 3600 12 Bo Prillaman 3564 13 Eileen Soo 3329 14 Stephen Morgan 2970 15 Peter Carlin 2969 16 Jimmy Huff 2677 17 Billy Joe Simmons 2639 18 Leo McBride 2582 19 Brian Cumming 2532 20 Donna Dixon 2364 21 Ellie Griffith 2314 22 Priscilla Flowers 2288 23 Gil Flowers 2229 24 Todd Russell 2223 25 Harold Denton 2201 26 Michael Albert 2080 27 Hesham ElZoghby 1919 28 John Osborn 1908 29 Richard Boger 1879 30 Sandra Knuth 1853 31 Helen Covington 1799 32 Justin Fields 1728 33 Ben Rothman 1688 34 Ahmed Alshurafa 1615 35 Randy Cardo 1546 36 Jim Teel 1543 37 Amr Hamdy 1488 38 Clint Dawkins 1433 39 Paul Fecteau 1346 40 Nazmi Nazmi 1332 41 John Priest 1303 42 Helena Jansson 1160 43 Robert Clark 1096 44 Rick Darnell 1087 45 Dave Widdison 983 46 Peggy Fox 977 47 Cody Kittle 969 48 Amr Hamdy 969 49 George Enochs 960 50 Russell Cuccia 878 Updated January 19, 2020