Newspaper Article 2008 – Stalwart shows his skills

Stalwart shows his skills

Oh, if only mallet swinger could turn back time

CROQUET

By ANENDRA SINGH

Retired builder Karl Haswell turns 70 in June.

The years of lugging and shovelling at construction sites are taking their toll on the Hastings man’s body. The bones are creaking, the cramps make surprise visits like unannounced relatives at dinner time and the eyes are like those ghostly television sets destined for the scrap heap.

If only Haswell could turn back time he would approach croquet a little differently.

“I wish that if I had my turn again (at life) I’d start playing croquet when I’m much younger’’, he told Sport Today while competing in the 74th annual Hawke’s Bay Croquet Association Tournament at Marewa Club, Napier, yesterday.

“When you’re older the cramps and problems with the bones start and you generally tend to struggle.

“Younger people always have a chance of making it into the New Zealand team. They have good eyes and they are healthier,” said Haswell, who won the Arthur Ross Trophy for the national handicap singles title in Auckland in 1991 in only his second year of taking up the sport.

It was a choice of bowls and croquet as he scouted around for some form of sport that his body could cope with. The mallet swingers won because he found it more challenging.

“When I can’t swing a mallet any more than I’ll take up bowls,’’ he said, drawing parallels between croquet and chess, especially when playing the ball to one hoop while systematically setting up the other balls for the other hoops in the process. He also employs his prowess from the snooker tables, finishing runner-up last year in the over-55 age group in the Heretaunga Club tournament.

“Like snooker you have to form angles in croquet when you’re hitting the balls. Snooker helps keep my eye in too so I’ll be playing in the Heretaunga tournament again next month.”

For someone who fellow mallet swingers consider to be “a natural”, training is out of the question for Haswell, who prefers to roll up to a tournament when time permits.

“I shifted houses a month ago and just wanted to rest, so here I am,” said Haswell, whose trick to rest his weary body is to beat his opponents in one hour as opposed to playing three-hour affairs, three times a day in the hot sun.

However, it didn’t all go too well for Haswell at the end of yesterday’s tournament, which started on Monday. He had to be contend [content] with third place as Michael Crashley, of Gisborne, ended his winning streak 26-21 in the round-robin competition.

Any hopes Haswell had that Crashley would leave the door ajar for him to come back vanished when the Bay player lost his last game, 26-7, to Marewa Croquet Club member Noel Charteris. It wouldn’t have mattered any way because Crashley crushed Terry Skelsey, of Palmerston North, 26-1.

According to Haswell, the rot set in against Crashley when he made “one little mistake”.

“I went to play a rolled shot and the ground was wet so my mallet skidded a little and the ball went where I didn’t want it to go.”

The players now lock horns in the annual Bay golf croquet tournament at Te Mata Croquet Club from today until Sunday.

Photo caption – SEEKING ANGLES: Karl Haswell, of Hastings, checks out the quickest route to the hoop during the singles championship of the 74 annual Hawke’s Bay Croquet Association Tournament at the Marewa Croquet Club, Napier, yesterday.   PICTURE: DUNCAN BROWN HBT081016-01