Ginger Cove Co-Hosts First State of Maryland Senior Olympics Croquet Tournament September 27-29

Ginger Cove was pleased to co-host the first Senior Olympics Croquet Tournament on September 27-29. Maryland is the first state to include croquet in its Senior Olympic games and Ted Wroth, Executive Director of the Maryland Senior Olympics, presented the awards after the finals at Ginger Cove on Sunday.

Contestants for the three-day event were divided into two groups – Masters (for those over 80) and Seniors (for those aged 50 to 79).

Albert Brown, 94, of Baywoods Annapolis, won gold in the Masters. The silver medal went to Bill Krause, 91, of Ginger Cove, Annapolis. The bronze medal was won by Dwight Bartlett, 82, also of Ginger Cove. Ribbons: Byron Lee, 4th; Eileen Boulier, 5th; Mardy Burgess, 6th.

Peter Oleson, 67, of Galesville, won the gold in the Seniors division. The silver medal went to Peter Bell, 79, of Annapolis. The bronze was won by Cynthia Chess, 77, of Annapolis. All three medalists are from the nationally-recognized West River Wickets croquet club, which co-hosted the event with Ginger Cove, Annapolis’ premier life-care retirement community. Ribbons: Meade Rudasil, 4th; Gerry Eubank, 5th; Penny Bell, 6th.

“This tournament demonstrated that croquet is not just a young person’s game,” said West River Wickets imperial wicket, Rodney Calver. “The croquet was of a very high standard and the games closely contested. A great deal of strategy goes into the game of croquet, often described as a cross between golf, billiards and chess. These seniors clearly show no signs of slowing down on the lawn.”

Players, 50 years or older, from the state of Maryland took take part in the tournament which was be the nine-wicket version of the game. Games were played on Friday and Saturday in Ginger Cove, Annapolis, 4000 River Crescent Drive, Annapolis, MD 21401-7269 and West River, 120 Owensville Road, West River, MD 20778. The finals were on Sunday at Ginger Cove.
The rules of the United States Croquet Association were used and the games officiated by Ted Prentis and Bob Kroeger, tournament directors from the Florida-based United States Croquet Association.

Thirteen months of planning went into organizing the event and the committee will now meet to see if the games will be held again in 2014.

To view photos of the event, please visit our Facebook page.