San Juan Capistrano, Home to Cutthroat Croquet

By Eric Sawyer, U.S. Croquet Association

As part of the city of San Juan Capistrano’s celebration of Orange County’s 125th
anniversary, the SJC Friends of the Library decided to hold a cut-throat 9-wicket croquet tournament on library grounds.

9W is old-fashioned, backyard croquet. Representatives of the U.S. Croquet Association, Caren and Eric Sawyer, were on hand as technical advisers to set up the courts and referee the games.

With room for two courts in the shade on the back lawn of the library campus and exactly 12 players, the tournament ran as smoothly as a glossy magazine cover you would find in the library. The 12 players randomly drew from a bag containing two six-ball sets of croquet balls to determine court and ball assignments. The top three finishers in each 30-minute game then advanced to a six-player final.

The final was played during a sound-check for the evening concert, so the players were serenaded with festive 1889-style music while they played. The event organizers also hooked up a microphone and speaker, so the event was broadcast by Eric Sawyer, who both complimented the players for great shots and chastised them (gently) for poor strategy.

In the final match, Patricia “Trish” McCauley got off to an early lead and held it for the rest of the game until the players’ last turns, at which time her significant other, Jonathan Volzke, made some nice hoops and long roquets to run a break all the way from three-back to peg-out and win the game. Trish was able to survive and finish in second place. Stephanie Heredia made it close at the end but came up just one wicket short to place third.

The players were joined and honored during the awards ceremony by Madame Helena Modjeska and Judge Richard Egan, two of the early civic leaders of SJC, following their 1889 mock Press Conference and subsequent Q&A announcing the results of the ballot vote creating the county of Orange 125 years ago and discussing the events of the day in 1889. Re-enacting these historical roles was: Jessica Morrow of the Camino Real Playhouse and retired Orange County Judge, Warren Siegel.

Thereafter, all the players and attendees were invited to enjoy lemon pearl champagne cocktails on the piazza and stay for the Multicultural Arts Series season finale, “A Musical History of the American West,” with performances by Christina Duane and the Oregon Trail Singers of “Romancing the West.”

Eric Sawyer said of the tournament, “We hope the SJC Friends of the Library will consider holding this event every year as a fundraiser. If so, let us know and we’ll be happy to help. By the way, we visited THE Bookstore while we were in town and enjoyed it. In fact, we each bought a C.D. Great bookstore!”

THE SJC Friends of the Library is a 501(c)(3) community benefit nonprofit which operates the THE Bookstore at 31495-A El Camino Real, just north of the Mission, around the corner from the library. Proceeds from the croquet match benefit the library’s children’s book collection.

The Friends launches its 3 rd Sunday local authors lecture series this Sunday, Sept. 21, at 2:00 pm at THE Bookstore, with local author, Sharon Geyer, kicking off the inaugural event. Geyer is the author of Daughters of Jerusalem, The Time of Jacob’s Trouble, The Return of the Mahdi and The Samson Option. She has lived and worked in the Middle East for many years and will speak on Middle Eastern Literature.