Tuesday

It was another amazing day!  Our daily routine consists of getting up early, breakfast, then catching a ride with Uber to the venue.  My matches today were at the Victorian Croquet Center where there are 12 lawns and impressive matches going on everywhere. Temperatures rose into the 90s again adding another challenge to stay hydrated.  The air is hot and dry similar to being in Arizona.

This photo from yesterday is of England's Stephen Mulliner getting a closer look!

The competition is incredible, it turns out the gentleman I played yesterday (Salah Hasan) is a 2-time World Champion, and my first match this morning was against Alix Verge, the 2009 Women's World Champion!

My second match of the day was against one of the Coulter brothers from New Zealand, Angus, age 16.  The young Kiwis are incredible shooters and very well coached and composed.  Angus was introduced to croquet just 2 years ago by his grandfather and brother George.  He was New Zealand's Most Improved Player 2016 and has had a meteoric rise to #156 in the world in a very short time.  I played a very good match losing 7-5, 7-4.

It is very obvious to me after playing here that we in the US can and should be doing more for player development both for tournament players and youth.

Tomorrow it is back to Williamstown for one more block match, then I will be competing in the Plate (consolation) at a venue to be determined.

Day 3 of Block Play

What a day!  Temperatures reached 95 degrees and two of our US players, Sherif Abdelwahab and Mohamad Kamal, were absolutely stellar in improving their records to 6-0 and 5-1 respectively.  With 3 block matches remaining for all players over the next two days, these two fellows should be guaranteed spots in the top 32 Knock Out.

My other teammate, Matt Griffith and I will be relegated to the Plate (consolation) but we are both competing well and soaking up the experience.  My first match this morning against Egypt's Nihal Ahmed lasted 3 hours although in the end I lost 7-6, 7-2.  My second match was against another Egyptian player, Salah Hassan, and while I gave it my all, he was just too good!

Egypt's Nadine El Menoufi

USA's Sherif Abdelwahab 

Top players in block play include 8-Egyptians, 4-Australians, 3-New Zealanders, the 2 Americans,

1-South African, and 1 English player.

It was an early start to the morning as we headed out at 6:30 a.m. to allow enough time to get to the venue and for me to be ready to play by 8:00 a.m. My first match was against Egypt's Mohammad Karem, a top player in Egypt and one of the favorites in this tournament. I played respectively losing 7-4, 7-2. He was such a wonderful player to play against.

My second match was against Australia's Gail Hopkins.  She was a tough competitor and I came on strong in the second game but it wasn't enough to force a 3rd game.  I was somewhat disappointed losing 7-4, 7-5.  Tomorrow I need to turn it up another notch which would mean playing at an even higher level than I already am.

The weather was an absolute "10" warm and sunny with very little wind, just beautiful for the last week of summer in Melbourne.

My teammates each won matches today so overall the USA is competing well.

(More technical glitches today with loading photos, hopefully I'll be able to add a few tomorrow).

You can also check out my entries to the Croquet Network at www.croquetnetwork.squarespace.com

Play is Officially Underway

Day 1 of Block Play found each of us spread out at 5 different venues. My matches were held at the Williamstown Croquet Club located southwest of Melbourne.  This club is actually the closest to where we are staying (about a 25 minute ride).  The two lawns and clubhouse were built in 1926 by a Mr. Ogden who built it for his wife and her friends to enjoy.  In 1929 it became the croquet club it is today.  Interestingly, the current president of the club is from Boston and now resides in Melbourne.

It was a beautiful sunny day although slightly chilly.  We were welcomed by a number of club members who volunteered for the day to make sure we had all the tea and snacks we needed as well as preparing lunch for us.  I had a bit of time to wait for the match ahead of me to finish, so we headed out to explore the surrounding neighborhood.  One of the delights was to stop at a Milk Bar (basically a little neighborhood grocery - very cute).

My first match was against Chris McWhirter of Australia.  A true gentleman and a fine player.  I played respectively but lost 7-3, 7-3.

It was fun to spend some time with friends I had met in New Zealand back in 2011.  Dallas Cooke and her parents Phylis and Geoff Young - all fantastic players. They had been so welcoming when I was there and invited me to their house for dinner during that tournament.

Geoff and I were opponents in my second match of the day and I can tell you he is a very seasoned and steady player.  Again, I played pretty well but came up short losing 7-4, 7-4.

(Photos hopefully to be uploaded tomorrow).

Interesting tidbits - we have been using Uber for transportation and the conversations with our drivers have been fascinating.  Many of them are very current on US issues and love to chat about our current president and political climate (unsolicited by us), our gun laws (there are much fewer gun crimes in Australia as they have more stringent gun laws than the US).

With all the driving we have been doing in and around the city, the most obvious difference I noticed is that there is very little horn beeping than you find in the US.  One driver mentioned that it is not part of the culture and people here drive noticeably safer than many places in the US.  Very refreshing.

The people here are very diverse from many different countries.  For example, our drivers have been from Sudan, Latvia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.  Interestingly, our driver from Sri Lanka was a refugee who fled his civil war-torn country after been kidnapped, tortured and held in a camp for three weeks until rebel forces attacked the camp and he was able to escape.  It is difficult to imagine what he went through. It was really neat to talk with him as he is one of the most positive people we've met so far.

Fri. 2/25/17 Opening Ceremony

A few notes first on our sightseeing to explain some of the previous photos. Early Friday morning Bill and I walked over to see the tennis center where the Australian Open is held.  All around the entrance to the grounds are bronze busts of Aussie tennis players and an impressive statue of Rod Laver, one of the all-time greats!

Next we headed to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds nearby.  The stadium can hold 100,000 fans. There were some amazing statues of cricket players outside the stadium with incredible lifelike detail.

In the afternoon we headed over to the Victorian Croquet center for practice, the players' meeting, and Welcome Ceremony which included a member of parliament, president of the World Croquet Federation, and an Elder from an aboriginal tribe who performed a smoke ceremony to dispel of evil spirits and welcome good spirits.  The eucalyptus leaves he burned will be buried at the VCC in honor of the ceremony.

USA - Matt Griffith, Cheryl Bromley, Mohammad Kamal, Hal Denton, and Sherif Abdelwahab.

Host Country - Australia

Team New Zealand

The incredible Egyptian players!

 Canada's John Richardson and Sweden's Joakim Norback

England's powerhouse players - Stephen Mulliner, John-Paul Moberly, and Richard Brooks.

A Few Photos

Great walk today to the sites of the Australian Open and Melbourne Cricket grounds.

This was on my bucket list of places to visit

Melbourne Cricket Grounds.  100,000 seat stadium.

Clb and Mohamad Kamal

Greetings from Down Under!

It was an early start on Monday morning as we traveled cross country to LA to catch our 15-1/2 hour flight that evening to Melbourne. We arrived on Wednesday morning and I was quite surprised at how well Bill and I felt after traveling all of that distance.  We both managed to get some sleep on the plane, thank goodness.

We made it!

After checking in to our hotel near the airport, we decided to venture out and do some exploring.  We took the Skybus which is an express bus from the airport down to Southern Cross Station in the CBD (commercial business district). The trip can take anywhere from 25 - 40 minutes depending on traffic. From there we set off on foot.  My first impression was that Melbourne was very much like San Francisco (with no steep hills of course) but instead of cable cars, there is a series of trams.  We stopped for a bite to eat down one of the Laneways (narrow side streets) where the cafes and shops are located.  Within the CBD the trams are free, but if you go outside of a certain range, you have to purchase a MYKI card.

Today (Thursday), we relocated to the apartment we rented through Airbnb and were able to unpack and get settled in.  The area we are staying in is a suburb east of the city with many many restaurants and shops located up and down both sides of the main street that also has trams running through the middle. After doing a bit of exploring we settled on a fun open air restaurant and yes, I did try a bite of a Wagyuroo burger (yep, 30% kangaroo meat - yikes!). That very well might be the most adventurous thing I do here...

Unfortunately all of the 5 croquet venues are spread out and located on the outskirts of the city, so logistically much of our time has been figuring out the best and most economical way to get around.  For now we are using UBER and so far it has worked out well and is less expensive than a taxi to get outside the city center.

This afternoon I participated in a doubles match with compatriot Mohammad Kamal in a special event called the Ramsis Cup.  This year's competition is between players from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.  We won our match 7-5, 7-6 and tomorrow at the players' meeting we should find out the final tally from the other matches that were played.  Friday will be a practice day and then it's the main event starting Saturday morning.

Tomorrow's goal is for me to figure out how to load some pictures onto this blog from my IPad - I'm stumped at the moment but am motivated to figure it out!

Final day of preparations...

We are packed and ready for our departure tomorrow.

A huge thank you to everyone for all of your support leading up to this. I am truly humbled by the generosity of my friends and family. From the Fireside Chat at Riverbend to last night's Pep Rally at Holiday's, I am so grateful and am taking all of you with me in spirit!

One other tournament note - I've been invited to play in an additional event on Thursday - the Ramsis Cup. Previously, this has been a match between Egypt and the ROW (rest of the world), but this year they decided to have the Southern Hemisphere players against the Northern Hemisphere players.  Should be a lot of fun and an opportunity to get some additional practice/competition in before the start of the Worlds.

All for now.

It's getting real!  Just 12 days until departure.  Received my official shirt.