Friday May 13th
First Game
It was Agol, Dean, and Dave against me, Luissette, and Chris. Agol and I
started ahead of the pack, then I pulled away. They (the other team) all
3 then were together ahead of my teammates, so I got to poison first and
tried to come back and rescue them from so far behind. It really looked
impossible, but improved shooting by Chris and Luissette, along with some
help from me and one particularly huge roquet croquet I hit as poison on
Agol's ball had us right there at the end. Dave and Dean had finished,
Chris finished for us and it was a race for the stake: Luissette and I
ended up just beyond the last wicket with Agol about 20 feet from the
stake on the side (still recovering from the massive blow:). Luissette's
ball was close to mine, so I advised her to hit mine to get 2 strokes.
Unfortunately, a clump of grass was in the way and her ball stopped just
short of mine. Still, Agol's shot got close to the stake but didn't hit,
so we still had a chance. I hit the stake on my shot, and then it was up
to Luissette. She had a good angle, but not quite hard enough as her ball
rested about a foot short. Agol then ended it. Bummer.
During our first game, Dan (DJB, Bernstein, squirt, whatever you want to call him), Jing, and Roi showed up and were the peanut gallery. Petar also stopped by wanting to play but we were in the middle of the game and he didn't stay and didn't play despite me going out of my way twice (both games) to let him know we were playing. So we decided to play a second game, and the numbers were perfect as Dean, Agol, and Dave took off.
Second Game So Luissette, Chris, and I looked for redemption. We won handily, highlighted by me (again as poison) hitting a crazy shot hard from 15 feet that nailed Jing's ball and rebounded 30 feet to hit Roi's ball! At that point, Jing convinced her team to give up, but I explained that I had to choose one of the two balls; I couldn't send both. But the ensuing roquet croquet I had on Jing got her so far away that she literally spent the rest of the game getting back (she struggled to hit the ball hard, and had several short shanks.) Finally as our last player was about to hit the stake, Jing got through the wicket that she had been going for when I sent her. Luissette was cool during the game, having cell phone conversations with her husband Edwin every turn at one point, and when it was her shot, she'd slap her flip phone closed and throw it in the grass, all in one motion, as she ran to take her next shot. Edwin and little Kevin then came and played nearby on the SEO lawn as we finished, this time victorious. Then we went to Giordano's-DJ, Jing, Roi, Dean, Chris.
Then I went to England.
Wednesday June 1st Dave St. John, Jason Karcher/Petar, and Dean (cool colors) beat me, Jing/Ali, and Chris Atkinson (hot) in the first game. Then Jing, Chris, and I beat Petar, Dave, and Ali in the 2nd game. Then Dave, Jing, Roi, Ali, Petar, and I eat outdoors at Thai Bowl.
Wed June 8th
First Game
After seminar, Jing and I eat some sandwiches and then stop in at the tail
end of the MGSA meeting. We get a group to play croquet, but the field is
being used for softball. So we play right next to the building, in the
patch of grass just east. (One wicket is so close to the building that a
ball hits it once-the joke was that it would be "identified" to the other
side of the building.) We get Maria to play, and she's on Jing's and my
team against Dean, Ali, and Roi. Ali has to leave early, so he starts off
platooning with John Conta (a mathed MS student now the MGSA webmaster),
and shortly Ali leaves and John plays full time. John has some amazing
shots, but also over-hits his ball into the thicket behind Burnham (or
Addams, whichever that one is) Hall.
Again I'm the first poison, and I have perhaps my best game as poison ever. I go back to help Maria, and from more than half the course away, I hit her ball. Then we use each other back and forth beautifully (Maria even hits me through the wicket a couple of times to refresh my ability to hit her), before I head off to poison the other team. I nail John and roquet-croquet (it doesn't matter where your ball goes when you're poison) him so solidly and satisfyingly past the circle of grass onto the round sidewalk by the benches northeast of SEO. His first attempt to get back, he smashes his ball right into the light pole. Later I get close to John's ball in the opposite direction of the wicket he's heading for, and I'm worried that he's going to hit me to get bonus strokes and blemish my perfect poison. Fortunately, he misses me, and now he's even in a worse position, further away from where he's headed! So my being poison is yet another bonus for our team: enticing the other team to try to hit me, but having them fail and thus wasting a turn and putting themselves out of position.
Chris Atkinson and his girlfriend Lisa have come back and been watching for awhile at this point, and even though Lisa is tired, Chris is hoping for a second game. It's an entertaining game to watch. John sends Jing into the thicket, and before she can take her turn, the sprinklers there turn on. It's hilarious. Ultimately, my team pulls out the win. Maria is first on our team to finish, and then she leaves to prepare for teaching. Jing and I come in for the win, and it's already after 8:30. But I can tell Chris really wants to play, so Jing and I take Lisa, and Roi and John take Chris (since Dean left) and we play a "halfcourse" game.
Second Game Again I'm first poison, but it's Lisa's first game ever playing, and I don't play as well, so our team gets behind and loses. Jing struggled, particularly with the power game. But near the very end, when the cool colors were all congregated near the last wicket and stake, she finally cranked a great shot in desperation from 30 feet away. It was right on target to the vicinity of Roi's and Chris' balls, and I really thought it was going to nail one of them, but it went between the two, inches from Roi's ball. So the game finally ends around 10:30, and then John, Jing, Roi, and I go to Ken Kee in Chinatown for a very late dinner.
Wed June 22nd The day after extending my sub-5 mile streak to 9 years, I'm in the mood for croquet, as is everyone else again. I'm told that last week they played without me in the rain, and Dean, Jing, and Sid beat Chris, Dave Sahota, and Anton Leykin.
First Game Jing's friend Rita (from IMSA) joins us for croquet near the end. Jing and I (cool colors this time) had been alternating on the extra ball, and we were way ahead of Chris, Dave Sahota, and Dean when she came. My very first shot as poison (immediately after going through the last wicket) was a cross-course shot toward the set of balls congregated around the opposite stake. I hit it solidly, and I saw that it had good carry as it bounded across the lawn. It actually did go all the way to the other side and hit Dean's ball! It was such a mind-boggling shot, I kind of felt bad that we didn't really need it. Rita, Jing, and I easily finish them off for game 1.
Second Game Amazingly, we randomly draw the same teams (drawing balls out of a bag) for game 2 and Jing orders Giordano's pizza to deliver to us. The pizza comes in the middle of the game, and we stop and eat it right there on the lawn. Now this is living. The second game is much closer, with some incredible croquets, especially Chris sending Jing along the sidewalk to the entrance to SEO. Jing hits a great recovery shot, also along the sidewalk, to get back into contention. The game is back and forth, with each team getting smug about its chances of winning and trash talking accordingly. The last such trash talking is by the other team, but with some slick strategy and careful shooting, Jing, Rita, and I pull it out for the first 2-game sweep since we started the post-seminar double-headers at the start of the month.
W June 29th Jing tells us how she looks forward to croquet all week, and she is playing very well (though still "pushing" the ball illegally.) She and I finally are not on the same team (Jing: "I need to cut the umbilical cord.")
First Game Before the game, I introduce the "slaughter" rule, and it turns out to be immediately used, as Jing, Chris, and Rita slaughter me, Ali, and Dean (who replaced Gail). During the game, the orange ball is taken, probably by kids playing at the other field. Ali leaves, and in the second game Dean and I alternate on the orange ball.
Second Game We order Pompeii on the field, and John Conta joins us and plays our orange ball. We handily (though not a slaughter) defeat Jing, Chris, and Rita in the nightcap. Of course, it's dark by the end, and the sprinklers were coming on on the field. So it was dark, muddy, wet, and messy, and we had some nice roquet-croquets on the other team. Chris, John, and I chase a jackrabbit around the field; Chris tapped the streetlight twice with his mallet and it went off; Rita placed her ball on top of the rock on the corner and shanked it from there. It was a fun day.
W July 6th Luissette and Maria were studying for their prelim in my office, and Jing, Chris, and I finally convinced them to come play croquet. (Come on, their prelim isn't until August 18th!)
It was Me, Luissette, and Maria vs. Jing, Chris, and Dean (yellow red orange vs. black blue green, respectively). Luissette and Maria are a lot better than anyone (including themselves) gives them credit for. We dominated the whole game. Dean prevented the official slaughter, but we were so far ahead that even a 10-turn adventure in the thicket by Maria only gave them some false hope. After (unsuccessfully) trying to help Maria as poison, I came back for Jing. They had been feeling pretty good, coming back, getting the juices flowing, but I put an end to that. Boy did I get her. She was on the way back, trying for the middle wicket. I positioned myself near it, she came toward it but came up short, I (right after her) hit her and then set up the roquet-croquet to the south. Mmm! I nailed it just right, and her black ball bounded out of the field, across the sidewalk, kept going, past the grass in between, past the second sidewalk and into the main SEO field. Wow, it was beautiful, and it felt so good. It basically ended her game; I don't think she ever made it back through that wicket. She's the perfect target for the long send because she struggles with the long game. That's the second time I've ended Jing's game with a send this summer. Then we went to Thai Bowl, just me and the losing team.
W 13th After seminar, we play Boys against Girls, at the "championship course" with trees and rolling hills by University Hall.
It's Chris, Me, and Ali vs. Luissette, Jing, and Maria (blue black green vs. red yellow orange, respectively). What a beautiful day. I love sprinting back and forth between my ball and the main action toward the end of the game. While we're playing, I'm thinking about how great this is, and how I will always think of the Summer of 2005 as "Croquet after Seminar." This is the last day for it, but of course I'll be playing a lot next week with my brothers and family. Life is so good, especially in the summer. I wonder if I could possibly be doing this next summer, after my defense. It's great to share this with friends, who don't have the same wonderful family I do. I think of all the blessings I have, both here and at home, the kind of things that some of the Math folks don't even understand. I don't need to try to explain it, but I can share it with them as best I can.
We lead the whole game, and probably would have slaughtered them if Chris hadn't done a roquet-croquet with Jing's ball out of frustration after blowing the croquet attempt on her. Ali leads most of the game, I catch up, and he hits us both through as poison on the same shot. I have a nice roquet croquet on Luissette's ball as poison. Maria comes in before Chris and tries to rescue them, but it's too little too late. Chris ends the game with a pool shot.
Afterward, Jing and I were hoping for a doubleheader, but we were the only ones. The sun was still nowhere near setting, and we wanted to stay. So after everyone left, we did some practice shots, then sat in the grass and chatted for a long time. Then we brought the stuff back to the office and walked down Taylor to Pompeii.
What a wonderful season of Croquet After Seminar.
Back to My Journal