yMost summer weekday afternoons since the early 1990s, a group of women have stepped out on two well-manicured lawns next to the clubhouse at West Hill Golf Course in Camillus – but it’s not for golf.
Instead, from May to September, they play croquet, that ball-and-mallet game popularized in Great Britain in the 19th century, but rarely taking root in the United States beyond the occasional summer outdoor party.
With current membership between 14 and 18 players, the croquet league, the only one of its kind in Central New York, is actively seeking players for its 2020 season
“We’re trying to recruit new players,” said the league’s secretary, Shirley Wilbur. “It’s just a friendly game, and the camaraderie between us is fun.”
As to her own interest in the game, Wilbur said it was started early. “When it was a child, we played it all the time in summer,” she said, adding that she returned to croquet when she saw a published advertisement about West Hill Golf Course’s league.
“I was looking for something to do and it sounded like fun,” said Wilbur.
The league plays by croquet’s “association” rules in conjunction with the United States Croquet Association. Two players are paired up and face another pair of players, each of them using their own ball – black and blue for one side, red and yellow for the other.
Six “hoops” are set up on the lawn, three on each side of a center peg. The aim is to hit the ball through each of those six hoops, then do so again before taking the ball to the center peg to end the match.
With 12 hoops and two players, plus the center peg, 25 points are needed to win, and it’s tough to get all of them since, quite often, a player can hit an opponent’s ball and knock it out of position, gaining another turn.
Wilbur said that, during the regular season, each individual is paired up with a different player for each match. Once they reach the playoffs in September, pairings are drawn and a double-elimination tournament determines the league champion, followed by an end-of-season dinner in October.
Since the West Hill facility has two lawns, eight players can compete at a single time, with afternoon and evening games set for each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday once the season gets underway. They also work with Larry Cranfield, a croquet professional who has been with the club for eight years.
The start of the 2020 season was delayed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but Wilbur said that, once games start again, it won’t be difficult to adhere to social-distancing rules based on the game’s rules.
More information on the league can be found at https://www.westhillgolfcourse.com/croquet/ or by contacting the croquet league’s officers, which includes Wilbur, president Nancy Karapin, vice president Nancy Rainor and treasurer Jaye Parsons. Karapin can be reached at 672-3540.
