Image by Emily Bates
The news came through late on Tuesday afternoon. The Authorities had erected a marquee on the croquet lawn in advance of two weeks of tennis tournaments. There were mutterings.
Later, a phone call informed me that a group of croquet players were defying The Authorities and were…but then I lost signal. What could be going on? I decided to investigate. Arriving at the club, I found a group of reprobates had set hoops on the portion of the lawn not now enclosed by the marquee and were well-advanced in a game. Indeed, had the marquee not contained further obstacles, I was informed that the culprits would have played the game inside it. There was talk of further direct action on a vacant tennis court nearby.
This action, together with the subsequent drinking session, was clearly brought to the attention of The Authorities as evidenced by an email a number of us received from the very highest authority late on Tuesday night.
Has Guerilla Croquet (a variant of American Backyard Croquet where the court is distorted) reached the sleepy banks of the Rother? Where will it end? Visions spring to mind of members playing against the dystopic landscape of the Mad Max movies spring to mind: Mad Max 5 – Beyond the Tennis Court? The possibilities are endless. The challenges insurmountable. And maybe the Rye game will evolve to embrace Extreme Croquet . In which case, Rye Tennis players should be afraid, very afraid because then grass banks, the drainage culverts and even the bar itself might be pressed into service for the noble game of croquet.
We look forward to developments with interest.
Richard Marsh
pmackenziesmith
