Yard Game Day in the Park
by Peter JayLast weekend we spent the afternoon in the park playing yard games. We first played the yard game croquet for a while, then some of the Italian game of Bocce Ball, then juggled bocce ball balls for a while and then played some Frisbee. My wife and I along with some friends were playing.
If you are looking for something fun to do then get yourself some Croquet Sets or Bocce Ball Sets and start playing some yard games. There are so many different kinds of Yard Games that each time you play you can feel like you are doing something new and unique. Some of my favorites are Kubb, an outdoor Swedish yard game where you try to knock over all of the opponents kubb blocks and then the king in the middle; Bocce ball, where you try to get your bocce balls closest to the pallino or target ball; croquet, where you have to hit your croquet ball through a course of brackets to win; and horseshoes, where you try to get your horseshoes to ring around a stake in the ground.
Our croquet game was pretty good. I got some good hits at the start and was able to keep the lead the whole game. By the time I made it through the fifth hoop though, I had a bunch of bad short shots going toward the two hoops before the stake. It took me about three turns to line myself up and get myself into position to hit my ball through the two hoops and into the stake. By then the person in second had gotten through the fifth hoop, and was gaining on me.
Fortunately, I hit my croquet ball nicely through the two brackets and into the stake, so I got my extra hits and was able to hit it back through again, then a took a long hit and was able to hit it all the way through the next stake, which is a long shot, about 20 feet. Probably my best croquet shot ever. That got me an extra turn to hit the ball to the center bracket again, sealing the deal with my lead.
Unfortunately, I faltered on the next few shots, hitting past one of the brackets so I had to take an extra turn to get back on track. Everyone else started gaining on me by then. Finally, I was lining myself for the last shot through the final two brackets and into the stake at the end, to win the game, or in our case to become poison. There were some grooves in the ground though, that made it more difficult. My croquet ball fell into the groove and made me take an extra hit. Another player, who hadn’t played poison croquet, but had just learned that I would become poison, decided he was going to try to hit my ball away for some reason instead of going through the third to last bracket. I don’t know what he was thinking. He didn’t want me to become poison, but he wasn’t really helping himself out much.
In poison croquet, once someone hits their ball into the stake to win the game, instead of winning, they become poison. When you are poison, you hit your ball into other players’ croquet balls and eliminate them from the game. The winner in poison croquet is the last player who has killed all of the others. It is kind of like marbles at the end, I guess.
Anyway, I was able to hit my croquet ball through to the end and hit the stake, so I became poison. The person that was trying to stop me ended up getting hit by his wife and she roqued him right into me, which basically ended his game, because now I had an easy shot on my turn. I was also able to hit his wife’s ball and get her out of the game. Unfortunately, during that time of eliminating both of them, my wife was able to hit her ball into the end and become poison herself. I hit my ball toward her to eliminate her, but missed and my ball didn’t go far enough because of the grass. She was then able to hit her ball into mine and eliminate me. When you are both poison, it is whoever hits their ball into the other’s first wins. So, even though I lead the whole game, I lost at the end.
We then played a little bocce ball, which was a close game until the end. It was my wife and I against our friends. They lead for a little while during the game, but I don’t remember who ended up winning. I just know it got close. We were only playing to ten.