“Our Spring ‘11 roster is the largest it’s ever been at 40 players,” said Francis Palasieski, co-president of the New Paltz Extreme Croquet Society.
“Normally being a club sport we invite all of our members to play at Merion. Tis year though, with the college division
of a unit, allows us to give each other more attention and makes it easier to concentrate on the team. Tere’s a sort of prestige of getting on the croquet team at St. John’s.”
Despite the large rosters and rigorous preparation, both schools noted the horrid weather on April 16th and admitted that it
always plays in bad weather.”
Anne Morris, Chairman of the USCA Col- legiate Division, saw the rain positively.
“I actually like playing in the rain. I think it’s a great equalizer. Te best teams will be able to work through it.”
“Our strategy was to play it safe and wait for the other team to make the first move,” said Palasieski. “They might be our rivals, but we were never theirs. Now we’ve pushed the Navy out.”
growing, we were capped at 24 players.”
Like New Paltz, St. John’s had a full team with 16 players, two more than last year. Blake Myers, St. John’s Imperial Wicket, felt confident in his team.
“We typically don’t bring a lot of people. Having less people enables us to be more
likely changed players’ performances. Still, SUNY New Paltz, who is known for play- ing in extreme conditions, might have had the advantage.
“I think the rain definitely helped us,” said Palasieski. “I was in the rain five days lead- ing up to the tournament. Te team itself
Morris’ sentiment reigned true when SUNY New Paltz and St. John’s battled through as the only two schools to place teams in the six wicket finals.
And even though St. John’s had won the six wicket title for the past seven years, SUNY New Paltz’s strength wasn’t a secret. “I think New Paltz has a pretty good shot,” said Charlie Gillmarten, referee and St. John’s croquet alumni. “I really think it could be the start of a rivalry.” Te potential new rivalry took an unlikely
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croquetnetwork.com | may-june 2011 New Paltz championship six-wicket team
Photo by Vicky Haralam
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