MOUNT DESERT ISLAND CROQUET CLUB

BOOK OF CROQUET PUZZLERS

by

DON PARKER

The Mount Desert Island Croquet Club

Book of Puzzlers 

by 

Larry Stettner

 Puzzle Master 

with

The Members of the Mount Desert Island Croquet Club

Memorial Edition

Seawall Road Press     Southwest Harbor, Maine     2007 

 This is book is dedicated to Marcia Chapman who inspired its creation and whose encouragement made it happen, and to Jack R. Osborn, who created the most strategically fascinating version of croquet ever devised.

                The author acknowledges that the energy needed to actually produce this book came from his love for Alex, Andy, Ben, Big Eli, Bob, David, Eli Nadav, Emma, Francine, Janet, Jeanny, Judy, Marc, Michael, Peggy and Puccina.     (I know that most of you will like the look of this book and enjoy the diagrams but will not know what the text is about at all because you do not speak the language of croquet. Amazingly enough, a few of you do speak that language. You know who you are.)

Thanks, Dad, for getting the ball rolling on this whole croquet thing so many years ago.

Answer to Advanced Puzzler # 10

           Blue should go about 3 feet southeast of wicket five in a wired position from the black ball. Because yellow is responsible for the black ball’s position, black now has a wire on a ball that is at its wicket. In essence, blue created the wire but the rules clearly state that what matters is that the opponents are responsible for the striker ball’s position, not the position of the ball or balls that the striker is wired from. Danger ball  red will have little or no shot on blue, but this is not a wire, because black and blue are not responsible for red’s position. Black will now be able to take ball in hand on blue right next to its hoop, and if it gets a good split at wicket five, it can make wickets five and six for the tie and the win.

         This play is far superior to blue attempting the obvious “normal” play, i.e. to set an on-the-court rush just south of black so that black could rush blue to wicket five. This is a very difficult shot from 90 or so feet away and at best leaves a long rush for black to hoop five. Further, if blue goes down near black it is getting close to red as well. If red hits blue it will take away any chance for black to make wickets. In contrast, blue just hiding from black in front of black’s hoop is an easy shot for blue and gives black the easiest of shots, in fact no shot at all to roquet blue! Black just calls the wire and becomes ball in hand on blue automatically.

        Look for this play whenever you are dead on opponents and live on partner and opponents have moved you on the previous turn. It will most likely catch them by surprise and can win some games for you. Be sure there is a rule book handy when you use this play, though. (With really low handicap players this is not a problem, actually. They may not have seen it coming, but once it is done, they know that you are right, and will more than likely applaud your shrewdness rather than curse the rule makers.)

Answer to Advanced Puzzler # 16 

            The solution is for blue to send partner black either close to spent ball yellow on the court if it can, or out of bounds just to the east side of it. Sending partner to spent ball is the right move even though, in this case, black is dead on yellow.  In general, sending partner to the spent ball or vice versa can have two advantages. First, your partner can use the spent ball, and second, it keeps the danger ball opponent from successfully joining its partner. In this situation, the first does not apply but the second still does.

            Black may be dead on yellow, but it is still alive on red. If blue sends black close to yellow, then black, playing before yellow, would have the opportunity to take red away if it tried to set a rush for yellow or otherwise join partner. So, red will see that setting the rush for yellow is probably pointless, unless it can put a voodoo hex on black and make it miss. Because it is on the south boundary itself, red can’t get to a point on the south boundary west of yellow where black could not hit it but yellow could. This is why blue has to get black to the east of yellow, the side that red can get to. Probably the only way red could help yellow here is to shoot to a spot near wicket five and hope that black would miss it and that yellow would hit it. Overall this leaves better odds for blue and black than blue trying a dicey wicket shot or doing anything else that would allow red to set a good rush for yellow

            So, remember: there are times when it can still be useful to send partner to spent ball (or vice versa) even if partner is dead on spent ball. It just has to be alive on either the spent ball or the danger ball to prevent the join.

As you can almost see from the picture, I've had a croquet mallet in my hands most of my life.

From about 2 years old, I spent most weekends playing nine-wicket at my grandparents in New Jersey.

When I was close to retiring, my wife informed me that I needed a hobby and pointed me towards the Woodlawn Croquet Program in Ellsworth, ME. I meekly showed up with the mallet pictured above. There I learned golf croquet, and then American 6 wicket. I also met many friendly (off the court) and talented players.

At my first tournament, I met Larry Stettner, who became my mentor in croquet and far beyond. I eventually learned that he had produced a book on strategy. I asked him for a copy, but he said they were all gone. After enough pestering, Larry gave me a USB flash drive with the files on it, and I became a publisher. Now I have produced four printings of the book on my home office laser printer and have sold over 500 copies. After Larry's passing in 2017, we added a 51^st puzzler in his honor. This gave me a glimpse of the amazing effort that went into the Book of Puzzlers. I believe the entire A6W community has been enhanced by this book. I'm glad to be able to keep the ball rolling.

Don Parker

207-479-5251

plc511@aol.com