guestfeature Gail Warning! By Barbara Ellis-Uchino & Sherri Paisley / abcofwomen.com


Te “pupil from hell,” she called herself. When Gail Curry was a


little girl, her mother bought a croquet set. No one in the household could decipher the instructions that came with the set so Gail’s mother took a lesson and Gail was “dragged along to keep her company,” or maybe out of trouble. Gail was fascinated but this was England and winter was com- ing. Gail took books out from the local library and spent the winter practicing with colored balls. Te living room carpet was her “lawn.”


Her final report, when Curry graduated from school, said she had “conducted her-


Because of the large grass court area needed, croquet was an upper class sport. At the turn of the 19th century, women played croquet on green lawns on summer days for social entertainment, sporting big hats and wearing long white dresses. Com- petitiveness among women was forbidden. Men, however, played for keeps. Only one woman challenged this. Lily Gower, born in Scotland, set the world of England’s men’s croquet on its ear from 1897 to 1905.


Gower, a young and fragile-looking woman, stood head on to the ball, unlike the men, who stood sideways and hunched over the ball. Her technique worked—


a comeback. Te U.S. Croquet Association began in 1977. Te World Croquet Fed- eration was founded in 1986 and had 17 full and associate member nations in 2010, as well as another 10 observer nations. Te first croquet world championship was held in London in 1989. Te European Croquet Federation was founded in 1993. In 2010, there were some 170 clubs in England and Wales alone.


When the six-time national champion appeared at the Cheltenham Club after her first triple, she found her jacket flying from the top of the flagpole—“Gail Warning!”


self entirely to her own satisfaction.”


Curry became an archeological assistant, where she learned the fine art of horserace betting, then switched to social work and got a degree. During this time, she contin- ued playing croquet, slowly becoming an expert.


Croquet is an ancient sport. Bored Roman soldiers started it. Teir game was called paganica—hitting a leather ball with a stick against trees in a field in a set order. One offshoot became golf, another became croquet. Similar games had many names in different countries. Te word croquet was coined by a French doctor who encouraged his convalescing patients to play it. Called paille-maille, “ball and mallet,” it soon became popular at health spas in southern France. In England, the game was called “pall mall.” On Apr. 2, 1661, Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary that he had watched some people playing “pesle mesle.”


20 | croquetnetwork.com | may-june 2011


she beat the best of the men not once but many times. Gower once drubbed the men’s champion by 26 points, taking a mere 35 minutes to do it. In 1907, Gower entered the Men’s Medallion tournament. It had been an open tournament, then men changed its name to exclude women but forgot to change the rules. She won.


Lily Gower married fellow croquet player R. J. C. Beaton, who asked for her hand by telling her father he had nothing to offer except that he could play croquet. Te pair went on to become mixed doubles champi- ons in England for many years. Gower won the Peel Memorial at the age of 71.


When lawn tennis became popular, croquet lawns were quickly converted into tennis courts. Te All England Croquet Club at Wimbledon added “Lawn Tennis” to its name and then dropped “Croquet.” Te sport dropped off the radar but in the last part of the 20th century, croquet made


Gail Curry began hitting her stride when she won the Budleigh Salterton tourna- ment in England in 2001, beating the men, the first woman to win a sanctioned tournament since Lily Gower. When the six-time national champion appeared at the Cheltenham Club aſter her first triple, she found her jacket flying from the top of the


flagpole—“Gail Warning!”


Croquet is one of the few sports where women and men compete, although there are now some women-only tournaments, but the winners are overwhelmingly men. Lily Gower (England), Debbie Cornelius (England), Jenny Clarke (New Zealand) and Gail Curry are a few of the women who have beaten the men.


Gail Curry said, “For me and probably for others, the Holy Grail had to be the sextuplet peel.” Named for one of the first giants of the game, Walter Peel, who died in 1897, a peel is when you hit your op- ponent’s ball through a hoop, thus getting another turn. As Curry explained, “Te sextuple is a turn in which you not only run twelve hoops with your own ball but peel another through the last six in the same turn.” Curry did it in August 2001, against Lionel Tibble. Local headlines screamed: First Female Sextuple! •


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28