Croquet Snags Nationals

Harvard's Croquet Club conquered St. John's Last Sunday at Palm Beach capturing the National Collegiate Croquet Championship.

The Harvard team beat St. John's 26-7. In singles senior Kent Karlock placed first while senior Brad Farkas took second.

This fall the club won the Eastern Regionals also and beat Yale for the first time in its three year history.

"We expected to win," says Karlock of this year's Palm Beach triumph.

Although the Croquet Club's first season was unexpectedly poor, the team scored a surprising second at Palm Beach last year, Karlock says.

The team finances its own trips and all expenses, while Harvard covers admission fees. The team is officially considered a club sport.

Backyard

Croquet is not the "backyard game we used to know," says Karlock. In collegiate croquet there are "many more rules, the wickets are just large enough to fit the ball the courts are twice the size and there are four balls on the court at all times," Karlock adds.

Farkas adds that the games is "as strategic as chess" because the players must guess their opponents next move while scoring as many points as possible.