a spot of croquet

Two wonderful things happened last weekend:

First some lovely friends came to visit, and then the sun came out.

Erin and Jonny spent a couple days in Oxford/Stanton St John during a 2 week tour of England. They are incredibly fun and doubled the Canadian contingent at our chapel warming party on Saturday (which was a smashing success and I was having too much good chat to bother with photos).  

On Sunday, after a dose of tourism and high tea in the city we came back to STJ for a highly competitive match of croquet on the Chapel lawn.

In Oxford this is a sport they take seriously (see above, the boys doing their best to look club-worthy). It's a little known fact that croquet is the worls'd oldest varsity sport - the first match took place between Cambridge and Oxford in 1231. One rumor purports that the sport was so popular with Oxford Dons back in the day that one college, Balliol, was even named for the sport (ball in 'ol)... umm, but I think the Balliol family might take issue with that claim. University Parks, near our former home, has a pitch specifically devoted to croquet and on any given day you might see the club out in their whites and hear them cursing over a missed wicket.

We were four novices at this ancient game so there was more guessing at rules than passing through wickets. Erin, however, forgot to tell us that 'lawnsports' is her middle name and left us all behind in a trail of grass clippings. See photo below of her looking smug during a post-match pint. I, for one, am looking forward to a rematch!