VPC: Oklahoma Open Wrap Up, Part 1

The MCA held a Virtual Press Conference (VPC) today with MCA President Dylan Goodwin as a follow-up to last Saturday’s Oklahoma Open. This is Part 1 of 4 of the Q&A:

The second event in the 2014 Midwest Croquet Association season was all the way down in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That is, what, a four-hour drive from the Kansas City area for the group formerly known as the Missouri Croquet Association. What drew the MCA to Oklahoma?

Yes, four hours is about right. I made it in 3.5 hours on the way back with no stops.

The concept behind around adding Oklahoma is both basic and then wildly ambitious. From a basic standpoint, once we modified the name from the Missouri Croquet Association to the Midwest Croquet Association to accommodate players (like myself) on the other side of the state line. It made sense to me that we would look to neighboring states to truly become a Midwestern association. I first thought of Nebraska and Iowa because of distance, but the concept of going to Tulsa occurred later. Many of those players had already come to KC for nine-wicket nationals, so having a base of players made it a no-brainer.

From the broader perspective, the members of the MCA have been supportive of the concept that we are building a Pro Croquet Tour here. There are still many practical issues to address, and this was really just a little mini-step, but the trip to Tulsa furthered my belief in the concept and I think it illustrates that there are really no borders. And if the MCA doesn't push out a project like this, who will?

You mentioned several players from Oklahoma had played in Kansas City before. Likewise, several MCA players have a history of playing in Tulsa, right? How did those connections affect how the MCA Oklahoma Open took shape?

Well, it certainly had a bit of a similar feel to previous tournaments that I’ve participate in down there. Everyone knows everyone ... Bill and Diane Berg are new to the Tulsa scene, but they had visited the courts before. We saw some re-matches. McQuigg vs Millican in round one was a re-match of the First Flight Final a few weeks ago at the USCA’s Midwestern Regionals. Ron couldn't get revenge, though. Spradling vs Millican was another re-match and this time Spradling came out on top.

I got beat up pretty good against Baird at Regionals and we got to face each other twice on Saturday. I also saw Art Parsells again. Strangely, I didn't meet up with the KC pro players ... Millican and Greg Adams.

Oh and the first round playoff I had with Pat Garner was interesting. Back in 2011, he knocked me out in the first round of the FF regionals playoff on an extremely windy day. That ended a pretty good win streak I had been on. Meeting him in the first round on another windy day was a bit eerie for me.

Besides being familiar with the faces in Tulsa, what about the facilities there made them attractive to the MCA?

LaFortune Park is an interesting deal. It's a public facility with a golf course, library, tennis courts and I think a football stadium. So, they can set five slightly under-sized six wicket courts there. Which really makes it one of the better capacity croquet venues in the U.S. ... the NCC, Mission Hills, Merion Cricket Club and I suppose Pinehurst are the others that come to mind. There are probably a few others, but not many more.

For nine-wicket they could probably get seven to eight courts there, which means they should probably apply for the USCA's 9W Nationals in 2015.

As far as being attractive to the MCA, it was definitely the concept of testing out 9W on a set of true croquet courts and being driveable distance for our KC-based players.  Plus, with the USCA 9W Nationals being in Kansas City in September, I also thought it would be good for Oklahoma players as a warm-up.

The only thing that LaFortune is missing is a permanent structure next to the courts.