: Sherrie Perkovich
One of the coolest things you can do in SF is go old school and play a little croquet in the park. Proper white clothing, hats and all. And of course some white wine. It wouldn’t be an event in SF without wine.
A group of about 30 of us got together for a friends birthday. Got dressed up and met up at Stern Grove Croquet Fields. San Francisco has a croquet club that plays regularly at Stern Grove Park. And for a small fee, they let us amateurs get a brief lesson and whack our way to victory, embarrassment and a good old fashioned time!
Croquet goes way back to the 1800′s. It used to be ultra competitive, although still proper. There is some debate about the origins of the game. The Brits say they’ve got it. The Irish say they’ve got it. The French say they’ve got it…. maybe the underlying reason these countries never could get along??? Me thinks so.
Forget what you remember about croquet as a kid. Wire wickets, rubberish, woodish mallots and light weight rubbery balls. This is the real deal. Wood wickets, wood mallots, wood balls. Those suckers are pretty heavy too. And the wickets? Barely wide enough to even get the ball through! You have to be dead on to get the ball through.
I must say, I impressed myself, my husband and my fellow croqueters with my fast adoption of the game. This is definitely something every San Franciscan must do at least once! The weather was gorgeous, the group was sublime and the wine was extra tasty.
A few croquet terms that struck me funny…
- Ball in hand
- Baulk (yes even in croquet you can baulk)
- Bisque and half bisque (anyone for soup?)
- Double tap (sounds like porn to me)
- Sextuple peel (sweet Jesus!)
For more on the history and terminology, check out Wikipedia.
