Croquet Charities Event, July 23

I know most of you have heard about the Charities Event on the 23rd, but have you committed to play yet? We have 33 signed up so far and we want more of you! Last year we had a total of 44 playing. So surely, we can top that. You can pick up a form from the Tennis pro shop, at Wine & Wickets, or from Linda Garner and Nancy Avera.

Something to remember about this event!!
This is for fun. Some would call fun a competitive game and others call it play. Whatever you call it, come out and lets make it an enjoyable day for a good cause. There is no skill limitation when it comes to playing for charity. We are out to have a great day and evening for the community at large, so I vote fun as the operative word here. Please sign up and we will enjoy a great day together!

More Wine & Wickets News

Monday, June 20
I hear that we had a first timer, Sally Morgans, who came out and became a Croquet Star, winning that evening. Wahoo and please come back again to play! Repeat performances are allowed.

Monday, June 27
Hello to all grandkids for coming out and playing the game. We love your participation! You are our future players. Thanks to our snackettes, Cary Lide and Sue Hester for contributing. Karen Phillips was the lucky raffle winner this week.
I hear that Bob Hamilton won the shootout, hitting the stake. Paint some flames on that mallet, Bob. You are hot.

Paul and I are looking forward to getting back on the courts for some play. Thanks to all of you for filling in while we have been out of town. Have a safe and enjoyable July 4th!

PS and don't forget to check it out!

PARI stands for Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute as many of you know already. I am hoping that we will see some kids at the next Feast with Friends on Monday, July 11. Maybe we can entice them with the food and some fun information to pique their interest in astronomy. Wouldn't hurt to take that field trip to the facility either. They can actually check out the website and do some exploring themselves. If they are to spend time up here in the future, lets plan on educating them as to what great things we have to offer here in the area of  Lake Toxaway!
Just in case, here is the link again:  www.pari.edu
Thanks!
Cathy

Thank you Linda and Susan!!

Like last week, I will not be here for W&W, but Linda Garner and Susan Bagwell will be here to greet you. They are good with the name tags I hear. Linda tells me that we made 60.00 from last week's raffle. Thanks to all who came out to play, and to our "Snackettes".
I am hoping for a great turnout for the next Feast with Friends on July 11. We did so well with the last one, and this one will prove to be just as interesting. Our friends from PARI will be educating us about the facility. We are thrilled to have something so significant close by to visit. They have a great kids program, so for all of your visiting relatives, I would recommend a trip there. You can ask Dr. Joe Phillips about it as well; he gives a great tour! For more info go to www.pari.edu and check it out.

Croquet Mallets

This is a reminder to let everyone know that if you would like a mallet from woodmallets.com we can get them at a 20% discount from Highlands Country Club.  We just have to order at least 8 mallets or more in order to get the discount.  I currently have orders for 6.  You can click on the link above to get to their site to view your choices. Once I get 2 more I will call them and place the order and it should take 2 - 3 weeks tops.  Highlands will also let us charge the mallets to our individual LTCC accounts.  So here is what I need, 1) Type of Mallet you want, 2) Length of handle, 3) Weighting in the Head of Mallet, 4) Initials or what you want embossed on the head, 5) Your club number.  I will assume everyone wants a brown leather handle wrap and a 10 inch mallet head unless you specify otherwise.  Please call or email me with any questions or any orders.

Paul

Photos from June 13

Hello to all,

I took some photos at Wine and Wickets and at our Feast with Friends. Take a look. I will be formatting a new slide show for you to look at.
Linda Garner will be your host at the next Wine and Wickets on June 20. Be sure to sign up to bring a snack. Hang onto your receipts and we can reimburse you. We need help in August. Thanks for the great goodies so far.
The first Feast with Friends was a great meal with a great speaker. Thank you to all who attended.
In reference to the Croquetnut Blog highjacking, I say keep it up!! Don't know who you are, but you are getting a great response!!

Beware of the "Nut"

I am obligated to begin this post with an apology.  I have invaded your treasured space because I have made an amazing discovery of a new species that has been uncovered in our own beautiful backyard. So I am sorry for hacking into your world but I thought it was important for me to share this find with all of you. This new species of creature was first seen in the Lake Toxaway community only two years ago and local scientists believe the facts bear out that we are viewing first hand how fascinating the evolutionary process can be. Since our first encounter two years ago, the population of this new life form has managed to double itself over seven times. At first we, of the investigative community, were ecstatic to learn of the birth and growth of a new species. It is not everyday that one gets to experience this first hand. After about six months of watching from a distance and documenting the process, we began to get a bit concerned about the pace of growth and how rapidly this development process was unfolding. Not only was the new population growing geometrically but the group actually started organizing itself into a collective community. This was fascinating to my colleagues initially but soon our amazement began to turn to worry. Immediately upon organizing, the group decided that protecting themselves was imperative so they decided to bear arms. Curiously they chose an ancient style weapon to protect themselves, if protection is really their goal. The weapon was fashioned after a medieval style hammer and the group began calling it a mallet. The intelligence of this group is mind boggling because instead of becoming proficient with the basics uses of this hammer like device the group began fine tuning their skills by striking multi colored balls expertly around an open field. They then placed brackets in the ground and to further hone their talents they began attempting to knock these balls through these brackets that barely had enough room for passage. As the group population began to grow so has their expertise and skills. I personally, along with my colleagues, do not yet know to what end they have in mind.  As the species has a human like form I am fearful that we may be facing a situation similar to the movie “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. Not only has the growth been phenomenal, but they have developed traditional verbal language skills, a type of sign language that we have not yet deciphered and they are becoming very territorial. An example of this signing was first seen when one of the group began arousing enthusiasm by using a tomahawk chopping motion to excite the group. I am fearful that this chopping motion is actually a carefully disguised call to follow her into battle. No violence has occurred yet because every time their actions become too excited their apparent leader (now labeled #1, the Great Exciter) calmly steps forward and gains all of their attention by pursing his lips and creating an ear piercing whistle. He quickly calms the active crowd and skillfully begins to encourage them to be fruitful and go forth and multiply. And multiply they have. I have taken up way too much of your valuable time and space but let me list a few facts that should be cause for alarm:

1. The group quickly adopted a formal way of dress in All Whites. Is this a just a clever form of daytime camouflage?
2. They eventually began to call themselves “nuts”, “croquetnuts” to be exact. This alone makes me worry about their ultimate intentions.
3. They claimed a piece of land in our valued community and their fast paced growth has required that they double their needs and have begun occupying new space complete with plans for new hammers, new striking balls and new brackets for accuracy.  I fear that before we know what is happening they will begin to try and assimilate into our local community.

I will continue to periodically report their progress to you but PLEASE be careful.  Approach these “Croquetnuts” with caution. Their communications skills are quite powerful and they now openly try to recruit for their own cause from our hallowed population. We have already seen some of our membership convert to what very well may be the dark side (I think all whites are just a clever cover to hide their true nature). If you pay close attention, the nut who began using the chopping motion has recruited from within our own one who has the makings of a military leader. You know the real “crusty” type. Thank you for letting me hijack your space.  I feel it is my duty to keep you informed and up to date.

Keep Toxaway safe and beware of those bearing custom mallets,

Anonymous

Wood Mallets

What a great event we had last night.  The turnout was excellent (120 people), the food was good, the price was right and everyone seemed to enjoy our first Feast with Friends speaker.  Many thanks to everyone that helped make the evening a success.  Remember that July 11th is our next open community dinner and our speaker will be Bob Haywood from the Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI).  PARI is in our own backyard and only a handful of similar facilities exist around the world.  Bob comes to us with an extensive background and will be another enjoyable speaker.  Their will also be a brief presentation about an up and coming community program being held at PARI this fall.  So go ahead and start recruiting your friends to join us.

Also, Paul has been doing some mallet research and he has found a local source for the Wood Mallets brand.  You can go to woodmallets.com to view  your choices of types of mallets.  The Highlands Country Club is now sourcing the mallets from New Zealand.  If we order less than eight mallets the price is only slightly less than if you were to order them yourself online.  But if we can order 8 or more we would get a 20% discount, which is significant.  If you have any questions concerning the types of mallets, pricing or would like to place an order just contact Paul.  He already has orders for four mallets and is trying to place the first order by the end of next week.

First Interclub Match 6-7-2011

Today we had our first Interclub match with Burlingame. We came out the winners after a good day of play. The final score was LTMC - 77 and Burlingame - 67. Thanks to the LTCC staff for providing a fine spread for us and our guests.

Moving right along

Hello Croquetnuts,
We are having a great turnout for W&W as evidenced on June 6. Don't know why I didn't bring my camera to capture moments this past Monday. The rain tried to make an appearance, but not for long. Ted Mullet walked away with first place scoring honors; Bob Hamilton came in second after a closely contested shootout.
I watch all of these great players we have, wondering if I need more instruction. Remember that Kenny Lovett is available for lessons for a nominal fee. I may need to sign myself up and learn from one of the best!
It is great to see continued attendance of friends and family members. Thanks to all who come out.

Wine and Wickets, June 3

Another great time was had at W&W with top shooting  honors going to Les Avera, and Pam Weekes. Thanks to all new/visiting players for coming out and enjoying the games.

We are happy to see people continuing to have a good time as evidenced by some snapshots taken!

Remember to make your reservations for the first Monday Feast with Friends on June 13.  Thanks to Davey Wilkes and Susie Dickman, we have a great speaker in Dan Miller. He was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1992, representing the thirteenth district in Florida until 2003. His role as scholar and educator includes teaching at over 20 institutions in the US and abroad at Oxford University, England. We look forward to welcoming him here, so remember to invite you friends for an interesting evening.