The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it would twist itself round and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge or a furrow in the way wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very diffcult game indeed.

- Lewis Carroll



Many a Carousal Croquet player will swear that they've played on Alice's croquet-ground. I have some pretty vivid memories of playing somewhere similar.

Croquet was introduced to the Carousal at number IIX in Santa Barbara. Next to the Sambo Room, we spent most of the daylight hours on the second day playing match after match. In fact, the theme quote for that year was orated in the middle of one of the later matches that day.

We had a good sized group playing that day. Joe B. and I were the early favorites, having been the only ones who had played before. As the day moved on, the up-and-comers gained skill and became more of a threat. I remember it as a particularly frustrating day for Howie as he couldn't win a game no matter what he did. Mike V. pulled one out of his hat after abandoning the standard course and making his sole purpose in the game to knock my ball off the course. He somehow ended up winning that one. It was amazing. If the sun didn't set that evening, we'd probably still be playing.

The wickets have made brief appearances at Carousals since that inaugural tournament, but none have required as many beers. Personally, I long for more day-long croquet matches at the upcoming Carousals. There nothing like the site of the white wickets against the dark green lawn, the sound of the balls clacking during a daring roquet and the exuberation of sending another's ball to the far edges of the lawn with a powerful Croquet Stroke. Aaahh.... I think I'll go grab my mallet.

- Todd S.



He has the true croquet spirit. He trusts no one but himself; he never concedes - no matter how far behind he may be - and he hates his opponents with an all-enduring hate.

- Moss Hart on Darryl Zanuck (or on Ken Flax?)