Immaculate turf, brightly colored balls and white wickets makes the game of croqui, a variation of croquet, a sensory delight that seemed particularly suited for a cool afternoon behind the Hancock Inn on Wednesday. There, two pairs of players faced off in a match that fell about halfway through Hancock’s annual summer croqui tournament. The game’s quiet play and breezy atmosphere- some played barefoot in the wet grass- almost succeeded in disguising the intensity of the competition.
“There’s a lot of strategy, you have to be really patient,” Daniel Henderson said, who faced off against Tom Gloudemans and Katie Cousins with his teammate Craig Stockwell. “There’s such a huge defensive component, it’s somewhat passive-aggressive,” Henderson said. Unlike golf, players can block others’ shots with their own ball as they all progress through a specific order of wickets, each with a margin of just one-eighth of an inch. Games run anywhere from 25 minutes to two and a half hours, organizer Tom Shevenell said.
Croqui has different rules and layout as compared to better-known croquet. It’s popular in pockets of the East Coast like Newport, Rhode Island and Miami Beach, Florida: “Equally tony places to Hancock, New Hampshire,” Hancock Inn owner Marcia Coffin said with a laugh. It’s a hybrid nine-wicket game played in teams, and is convenient for tournament-style play, she said. The Hancock Inn maintains the pitch and some equipment, and co-owner Jarvis Coffin started the summer tournament around 2014. This year, when Coffin added head chef to his responsibilities at the Inn, he delegated league leadership to Ric Haskins, Tom Shevenell, and Dick Warner. The triumvirate managed 15 teams of two organized into three divisions this year. Players range widely in age, and three generations of one family are playing in the league, Shevenell said, and the series of 30 scheduled matches began in June.