Temperatures in the high 90s this first Thursday of August, together with office workload demands (for some) and major local real estate transactions (for others), kept the croquet crowd to just a few stalwarts this noon at Playfields Park. Leigh Dragoon (playing red) led off the match with a five-stroke run through the first three wickets, but it wasn't enough to keep "I've-never-won-anything-before" Jim Coats (playing black) from finishing the game first this time, at long last. Linda Ribera (playing yellow) threatened to steal the lead just before the twelfth wicket, but Coats put a quick stop to that with the first truly wicked croquet shot of the series, knocking Ribera's ball a good 3 meters out and at a bad angle to the hoop. Asked what he's going to do now that he's actually won a game, Coats shouted out "I'm going to Disneyland!"--though on further explanation it became apparent that he'd already been planning that trip for some time.

The match was delayed on several occasions when bees, dragonflies, and moths alit on various balls, mallets, and other pieces of equipment.

Toward the end of the game Mike Poe came by with his camera and caught some of the action on what one used to call film, but this reporter isn't sure what cliche phase to use for it nowadays. Basically, the idea is that he took some pictures.

THE RESULTS: 1ST: Coats (black) 2ND: Ribera (yellow) 3RD: Dragoon (red) Game Time: approx. 25 minutes

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