AMERICAN DEFEATS BRITAIN'S `BABE RUTH' OF CROQUET.Byline: Gloria Gonzales Daily News Staff Writer The Yanks are up and coming - at least in the world of croquet croquet (krōkā`), lawn game in which the players hit wooden balls with wooden mallets through a series of 9 or 10 wire arches, or wickets. The first player to hit the posts placed at each end of the field wins. . While the American team succumbed to the British in overall match play for the Solomon Trophy, the top-ranked American, John Taves, did beat the undefeated British ``Babe Babe Paul Bunyan’s blue ox; straightens roads by pulling them. [Am. Lit.: Fisher, 270] See : Strength Ruth'' of croquet, Robert Fulford Alternate use: see Robert Fulford (croquet player) for the English croquet player. Robert Fulford, O.C., (born February 13, 1932) is a Canadian journalist, sometime editor and essayist. He was born in Ottawa and lives in Toronto. , during a tense match that started Thursday afternoon and went over to Friday. And though the American team lost all but a handful of the 21 five-game matches, the group won enough games in those matches to give it hope for the future. ``Our match score doesn't look so great,'' said American player Michael Mehas. ``But we're much more competitive if you look at our game score. We're getting better all the time.'' The two six-man teams met at Sherwood Country Club this week for the Solomon Trophy, an international competition that, like golf's Ryder Cup Ryder Cup Biennial team golf event first held in 1927. It was originally played between teams of golfers from the U.S. and Britain; since 1979 players opposing the U.S. have been chosen from all of Europe. The trophy was donated by the British seed merchant Samuel Ryder. , has the winning nation keeping the prize in its country. And though the Brits kept the cup, Taves did beat Fulford. ``We went into the fifth game late Friday afternoon at two-for-two,'' said Taves, a 33-year-old American software engineer from Seattle. ``We played late Thursday for about 40 minutes, until it was too dark to go on. But even the way the field was set up last night, I felt confident.'' The tie-breaking game continued Friday afternoon, beginning about 1:30 and ending an hour later with Fulford's defeat. The loss ended Fulford's nine-year singles winning streak Noun 1. winning streak - a streak of wins streak, run - an unbroken series of events; "had a streak of bad luck"; "Nicklaus had a run of birdies" . ``He has never lost a singles match in team play,'' said Rhys Thomas Rhys Thomas may refer to:
Immediately after his 45th singles match, Fulford slipped quietly away - perhaps hoping for better luck on the links Friday than on the croquet lawn, Thomas said. ``I know he had a 3 o'clock tee time and wanted to get some golf in before he left California,'' Thomas said. Taves attributed his win both to his own skill and an off-day for Fulford. ``He wasn't playing his machine-like best,'' Taves said, still on an emotional high from his streak-breaking win. ``He made a few uncharacteristic un·char·ac·ter·is·tic adj. Unusual or atypical: an uncharacteristic display of anger. un errors - he even got (his ball) stuck in a hoop. That allowed me to play again at a critical moment. I knew then that I could win.'' ``But he makes a mistake like that once in a while,'' Taves added. ``And it just so happened that it came on one of my good days.'' Taves said he was unsure how the win would affect his world ranking, which now hovers around 20. ``It will make it rise: I just don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. how much,'' he said. |
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