Two Volunteers Needed for Sunflower Wickets Benefit on June 2

The MCA seeks two more volunteers to supervise games at the Sunflower Wickets Croquet Tournament in Olathe in the afternoon of Friday, June 2.

The tournament is a benefit for the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop & Farm in Olathe, and MCA has supported it with equipment, officiating and tournament administration for many years.

The golf croquet games run from 1:30 until 3:30 p.m. on the day of the event. Sunflower Wickets will be held at the Olathe Community Center, 1205 E. Kansas City Road, Olathe, KS 66061.

Email Dylan if you are able to volunteer.

Read more information about Sunflower Wickets.

GC Test Announced: Kansas vs Missouri

The MCA has announced Saturday, May 21, 2016, as the date for a new golf croquet team test to be held at Kactus Creek Croquet Club in Parkville, Missouri. Full details are still under discussion, but the concept lines out as a test between three-player teams representing Kansas and Missouri. Dylan Goodwin will captain the Kansas team and Matt Griffith will captain the Missouri team. 

The format will include one doubles game and three rounds of singles games. That means all players will play against all of the players from the other side. If the series is tied, one final doubles game will be played. The game format is likely to be seven-point games with 75-minute time limits.

Right now, the captains are starting the process of selecting two teammates each with the primary requirement being that they must be a resident of the state that they represent on the date of the event.

Missouri has a deeper pool of players to pull from as Griffith and Steve Jackson both carry international GC rankings. Kansas currently has no players with official ranked golf croquet game experience.

"Selection will be a bit subjective for the launch of this event," said Goodwin. "The key is to just give this a trial in year one and if we like it, I suspect you'll see a more formal selection process next year. You might even see some selection events develop out of this."

One detail that has been decided is that the event will forgo treating the test games as ranked GC games. However, it will move toward that in year two.

Goodwin said, "This is something I've wanted to try for several years and I want to keep it simple and make it fun. With the USCA Midwest Regionals being hosted here in Kansas City as a golf croquet event in June, it seemed like the perfect time to give it a go."

2015 Sunflower Wickets Mahaffie Croquet Tournament

Teams are forming now for the Sixth Annual Mahaffie Sunflower Wickets croquet tournament.  This unique event is hosted by the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm Foundation in support of the preservation, programming and promotion of the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm Historic Site located at 1200 E. Kansas City Road in Olathe. 

Sunflower Wickets will be held Friday, June 5 at the Olathe Community Center, located across the street from the Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Historic Site. Event registration begins at 1 p.m with croquet play from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Wicked Wickets Happy Hour runs from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Prizes will be awarded to the top four finishing teams at 4 p.m. in the Olathe Community Center.

Croquet was a popular, inexpensive sport throughout the country in the mid-19th century. Tables of eight are available and two-person teams are now forming.  For more information about forming a team or tournament sponsorship opportunities, visit Mahaffie.org, contact Mahaffie at (913) 971-5111 or email Mahaffie@olatheks.org.

VIDEO: http://bcove.me/38v2aov1

MCA Championship Returns to Belton

BELTON, MO -- Bill Berg reported yesterday that an agreement to hold the 2014 MCA Championship at Markey Park in Belton, MO with the Belton Parks and Recreation Department has been reached. The event will be held Saturday, September 13 and will be for the top qualifiers in the respective MCA Nine-Wicket Series points races. Players must be members to participate in the MCA Championship, but there is no entry fee.

The event will be one week prior to the USCA's Nine Wicket National Championship which is set for September 19-21 in the Kansas City area. The MCA Championship should provide a good warm-up for that event.

Behind the scenes, the MCA is also close to announcing another regular season event. The target for 2014 is four regular season events in addition to the MCA Championship.

2014 MCA SCHEDULE TO DATE

02/22--AGM (Kansas City)
05/17--T-Bone (Lee's Summit)
09/13--MCA Championship (Belton)

Detailed Schedule:

http://missouricroquet.squarespace.com/2014-schedule/

PeakVision Leawood Challenge: Miller Begins Streak

Miller and Clouse in the Pro FinalLEAWOOD, KS -- Paul Miller took his second straight MCA tournament with a 28-16 win over Greg Clouse in the Pro Division Final of the PeakVision Leawood Challenge. In the Gold Division, Deborah Millican took the title with a 21-7 win over Bill Berg in the final.

PHOTO GALLERY | OFFICIAL SCORESHEET

In the Pro Division final, Clouse looked to be in good shape as he ran his break through the turn until he croqueted a ball out of bounds near 11PW from the turn stake area with a hand shot. That's right, Clouse got enough power on the nine-wicket style hand stop shot to travel at least 30 feet. Of course, the game was held on court two which was the fastest of the three courts, and in this case it was costly for Clouse.

He did have a chance later in the game, but he roqueted his partner to work on an attack toward blue with his red ball. Unfortunately, he was dead on blue and in an odd twist Miller mentioned it to him before he actually hit the blue ball. Still, it was a damaging error and it helped Miller snatch control of the game.

Not only was it Miller's second straight tourney win, but he's also got a nine-game winning streak going as he was a perfect 6-0 in the event.

Gold FinalistsGold Final Experiences Sequence Issues

The Gold Division Final between Berg and Millican will mainly be remembered for a lengthy delay due to a potential out of sequence play midway through the game. Unfortunately, although something appeared to be out of whack, neither player could piece together the actual sequence error.

Play had to continue as the balls lay. It seemed to fire up Millican though as she went on a tear shortly after to roll to a 21-7 win. Berg was the only player to work in six games during the event so fatigue could have also been a factor.

Prize Package

Click to Find Out More About PeakVision's SD7 ModelKansas City Croquet Club member Paul Moore and CEO/Founder of PeakVision Sports came through with a great set of prizes. Finalists in both divisions were each awarded a of pair PeakVision Sunglasses.

Pro Playoff Results

ROUND ONE
#3 Robert Fournier over #6 Greg Adams 27-15
#4 Ron Millican over #5 Dylan Goodwin 21-17 

SEMI-FINALS
#2 Greg Clouse over #3 Robert Fournier 22-21
#1 Paul Miller over #4 Ron Millican 28-14

FINAL
#1 Paul Miller over #2 Greg Clouse 28-16

Gold Playoff Results

ROUND ONE
#4 S. Jason Cole over #5 Keith Berg 23-12
#3 Bill Berg over #6 Carl Distefano 10

SEMI-FINALS
#1 Deborah Millican over #4 S. Jason Cole 22-14
#3 Bill Berg over #2 Jason Johnson 15-11

FINAL
#1 Deborah Millican over #3 Bill Berg 21-7

PeakVision Sponsorship for Leawood MCA Event

PeakVision Sunglasses has signed on as the official sponsor for Saturday's Leawood Challenge. The company designs sunglasses optimized for golf and that translates perfectly to croquet. PeakVision, which is based in Overland Park, will be covering the prizes for both the Pro Division and Gold Division as part of their sponsorship. You can learn more about PeakVision Sunglasses at peakvisionsports.com, but here's a bit of a primer:

The science behind PeakVision’s hybrid, Dual-Zone lens technology is based on the principal that it is impossible for a solid-tint sunglass lens to optimize your vision for both the bright sky AND the turf.  When light-meter measurements are taken on the golf course, the lighting extremes range from 82,732 LUX for the sky down to only 3,122 LUX for the grass turf.  The lighting for ground-based viewing is less than 4% of the ambient light in the sky.

Stilwell Open Entry Deadline Approaches

The Kansas City Croquet Club will host the Stilwell Open Nine-Wicket Singles tournament on Saturday, May 25. The nine-wicket singles event will be played according to USCA 9W National Championship options 1, 1a, 2, 3, 7, 9 and 10 (1a is modified to disregard the game score).

The Stilwell Open will kickoff 2013 MCA Nine-Wicket Series that concludes with the MCA Championship on September 14. The Stilwell Open format will likely be open blocks that filter to a Pro Division bracket and Gold Division bracket.

Lunch will be included. Entry fee structure:

• $20 for non-MCA members
• $10 for MCA members

Entry deadline is Monday, May 4. You can enter by registering with Croquet Network Overdrive (link below) or e-mailing kccroquetclub@gmail.com

Stilwell Open Address/Details:
http://croquet.ning.com/events/2013-stilwell-open

Known commitments: Dylan Goodwin, Greg Clouse, Ron Millican, Debbie Millican, Bill Berg, Paul Miller, Robert Fournier.

Strong Interest: Matt Smith, Carl (Cleveland)

Interest: George (Cleveland), Justin Marciniak, Paul Moore, Kirk Whitworth, Jason Johnson, Brad Clouse

Update on 2013-05-17 12:51 by MCA Website Admin

Jason Johnson is now a commitment.

Update on 2013-05-20 18:21 by MCA Website Admin

New update on recruits. We now have a balanced eight. Added Jason Johnson but Matt Smith officially declined:

Known commitments: Dylan Goodwin, Greg Clouse, Ron Millican, Debbie Millican, Bill Berg, Paul Miller, Robert Fournier, Jason Johnson

Strong Interest: Carl (Cleveland)

Interest: George (Cleveland), Justin Marciniak, Paul Moore, Kirk Whitworth

Out: Brad Clouse, Matt Smith

MCA Name Change: Midwest Croquet Association

LEAWOOD, KS -- The MCA held it's Annual General Meeting February 9 in Leawood, KS and announced several new changes and initiatives. The most significant change is a new name -- the Midwest Croquet Association (changed from Missouri Croquet Association). The change is intended to better represent the organization's activities on both sides of the border and allow for expansion. New president Dylan Goodwin will work with the MCA Board to get a new logo approved that reflects the new direction of the association.

The big ticket item though was the announcement of a season-long nine-wicket points race for singles play. Details will be announced later, but the concept is that players will accumulate points at events hosted throughout the region. Top points players will then qualify for the MCA Nine-Wicket Championship event in September.

Most of the dates and venues are still to be determined, but Ron Millican announced May 4 as the official date for the Lee's Summit edition of the series (more details to come). The event will kick off the nine-wicket MCA season and Millican plans to have both partner ball flights and a cut-throat (six ball) flight as well. The MCA hopes to have at least one event per month over the summer with Warrensburg, MO and Overland Park, KS being likely hosts. August is being left open as many MCA players would like the opportunity to play in the 40th edition of the Kansas City Invitational in Parkville, MO.

The MCA also announced a $5.00 bump in membership fees for both singles and couples/families. Single memberships are now $20.00 and couples/family memberships are now set at $30.00.

Former MCA president Matt Smith asked to leave the MCA Board and Ron Millican has taken his place on the five member board. The board consists of Dylan Goodwin (President), Jodi Adams (Treasurer), Debbie Breeden (Secretary), Greg Clouse and Ron Millican.

2011 MCA Schedule Expands

04/09 -- Central Missouri University Open (GC) / Warrensburg, MO
Contact: Matt Smith (croquet1@charter.net) / UCM Croquet webpage

05/26-30 -- USCA Midwest Regional (US) / Tulsa Croquet Club, Tulsa, OK
Contact: Erica Sherman (561-478-0760) (tournamentusca@aol.com)

06/04 -- Sunflower Wickets Benefit (GC) / Mahaffie Farmstead, Olathe, KS
Contact: Visit the Sunflower Wickets webpage

06/18 -- Lee's Summit Open (9W) / Lee's Summit, MO
Contact: Ron Millican (rdmillican@kcenvelope.com)

07/02 -- Kactus Creek Fun Day (GC) / Kactus Creek Croquet Club, Parkville, MO
Contact: Matt Griffith (kccroquet@kc.rr.com) / kactuscreek.com

07/09 -- KCCC 1st Flt (US)/ Kactus Creek Croquet Club, Parkville, MO
Contact: Matt Griffith (kccroquet@kc.rr.com) / kactuscreek.com

07/16 -- KCCC Champ Flt (US) / Kactus Creek Croquet Club, Parkville, MO
Contact: Matt Griffith (kccroquet@kc.rr.com) / kactuscreek.com

09/16-18 -- USCA Nine Wicket Nationals (9W) / Mid-America Sports Complex, Shawnee, KS
Contact: Matt Griffith (kccroquet@kc.rr.com) / kactuscreek.com

2010 Mahaffie Sunflower Wickets

OLATHE, KS -- The Missouri Croquet Association provided equipment and referees for the First Annual Mahaffie Sunflower Wickets golf croquet fundraiser on Saturday morning in Olathe, Kansas. The event was held on four fields on the Mahaffie Farmstead and had 16 doubles teams battling in a single elimination event that was completed in two hours.

After the croquet tournamant, a champagne brunch was catered by delish Catering of Olathe. Engraved mallets were presented to the first through fourth place teams. It was reported that the event raised $4000 and appeared to be very popular with the participants.

Results:

1st -- Brady Small/Tim McKee

2nd -- Marge Vogt/Fred Sherman

3rd -- Brad Cornell/Matt Holstin

4th -- John Bacon/Bob Montgomery

Full Photo Gallery

2010 Sunflower Wickets action