Mo' Sun, Mo' Problems

Well, as if the burn ban has severely hindered (or killed) night play, theres even more. Norman will vote tomorrow http://www.oudaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/03/05/440bbe6e691d9 (and I assume pass) for a $44 million update on its water system. Whats that mean? A 77% INCREASE in your water bill. Why do you care? Becuase since Norman is so down on rain, it seems unlikely that this spring enough rain will come our way to really help anything. The reason I'm getting to is that when we play regularly the course gets pretty worn down. Without heavy watering, it gets beat up even more. Last year I watered enough to cuase an increase in the bill the roommates complained about to get the yard somewhat healthy. With the new prices the turf we were hoping would come back won't have a chance with a few inches of rain every few months. sigh.

Games!

When Jumpy finally made it to the game he had suggested we play a week ago a few hours after the time he suggested we start, things really got tense. With Berry here, a wrench was thrown into the normal workings of the game, that is, Berry is pretty good. Also, the black and white nature of the game was revealed: both games the first three players battled through the course nearly the entire game. The games were a change in that no player ever got a comfortable lead the entire time. All in all, thats how it should be.

03-05-06
Game 1- Berry, Morris, Todd (2 Ball)
winner: Berry, Morris, Todd

Game 2- Berry, Jumpy, Morris, Todd (1 Ball)
winner: Jumpy, Berry, Morris, Todd

Game 3- Berry, Jumpy, Morris, Todd (1 Ball)
winner: Berry, Jumpy, Morris, Todd

The Docket and The Trial

If we are to resume night games, I suggest a start time close to 8:30. It will have to be decided upon among members whether my appearance at games will justify this late a start time, but my schedule will not allow a weekday game earlier that this.

As for the gossip of the week, pertaining primarily to Mr. Loftin's apparent Sunday comeback, authoratative sources have waxed jubilant about the sudden rally in this venerable veteran's play. Although the match was a minor one, the senior croqueter's technique and strategy were both sound and decisive. And while his play lacked the creativity and deftly-executed high-risk full-grounds maneuvers that rocked the sport when then-junior croqueter Jake Rowe commandeered the Fall 2005 season, this only tends to support the opinions and cautions voiced by the sometimes guardedly conservative veterans of the sport -behind which inhere the implication that strong technical skill will trump Agassi-style braggadocio- but also that Mr. Loftin's defeat last season was due in part to the chorus-like gasconade that lauded Mr. Rowe's successes. We will see this season if there is any truth to the assertion that Mr. Rowe's inaugural trounce was more due to popular plug than to superior skill. It may well be that Mr. Loftin was defeated more by flighty fans than by an adroit adversary. Time will tell.

No posts in a bloody month?! Deplorable!

Reproachable, lamentable. Woeful. Add to that the fact that we've not organized a good game (none that I've had the pleasure of playing) in about the same time and I say its high time we get the ball rolling -as it were- on the Spring season. We will play this weekend, my croquet comrades. I propose early afternoon with a cocktail-party smile and glee-club attitude. Cell phones optional. Bourgeoise artifact mandatory.

Championship!

We finally got the championship game done. The results were something less than an exciting game. While Jake and Jumpy both didn't play that well, Jumpy was the one to capitalize on screwing up. This leads one to ask: Was Jumpy the player we thought he was?

Championship- Jake, Jumpy (3 Ball)
winner: Jake, Jumpy, Jumpy, Jake, Jake, Jumpy (Jake)

Game 1- Jake, Jumpy, Morris, Todd (1 Ball)
winner: Jake, Todd, Jumpy, Morris

Then we played a second game, which makes like 3 in one month. If we're going to make a season 20 games, we should be finishing up around 2007.

our cause is true.

Overcoming the Unforseen

Who knew with all the scheduling problems the burn ban would be the central thing preventing us playing? Even with Todd knowingly skipping the day of play he suggested, the other more commited players came out and met up to pursue our love interest. Heres the single game results:

01-22-06
Game 1- Jake, Jumpy, Morris (2 Ball)
winner: Morris, Jumpy, Morris, Jumpy, Jake, Jake

I also think, if 2 ball games become more prevelant, then they should get their own scoring list. The more times we can get out and play the more games we have to make something of. I was also thinking about making something for scoring. In one post I joked about Jumpy getting a 'doublus victorious'. This type of thing could be integrated with a ranking system. You could have your raw percentage, but also credits to your name. Like in the computer versions of Risk you can get medals for doing certain things, maybe we could add something like this into our system. The problem though, is that while giving out a DV is easy since you just look at the games and see if a person won twice in a row in one night. But do we want to have a tablet recording croquets (or roquets which i dread tallying that), cross court shots, etc., but it would add in an element of telling us how a player performs.

So using a fictious player, we'll call him Todd Suckington, so Mr. Suckington has a 55% point score, and he has no DV's, 5 croquets, 24 roquets, etc. I guess the problem here is you cant really have a percentage of roquets and stuff, unless we then tally every shot taken. Geez, this sucks.

our cuase is true.

Care for a drink sir?

Well, not that I signed up to gets emails from a wine related site or anything, but I have acquired a list of some guys picks on wines under $12. Not that this would interest anyone, but I thought nothing had been posted in a bit. Heres the link, the list is at the end of his little speech http://www.wineloverspage.com/qpr/index.phtml .

And also, the stupid fire danger is continuing as we get no rain, atleast for night play. Bleh. Let me know whos open when.

Treacherous Dogs!

So, it finally happened. After so much hard work, planning, and re-planning it really happened. No, I didnt make out with anyone (sorry to get your hopes up), but we did manage to play during the DAY. Yup, it happened, no filling canisters and carrying them out, no searching for you ball or mallet after you laid it down. Just beautiful, uninterrupted play. Whats more beautiful is that Imperial Jake fell. I guess the sun set early on this empire. In this game though, it should be noted Jumpy had a legitimate excuse to leave, and we decided he therefore forfetted (sorry Jumpy). I'll let Jumpy explain his reasons if he wishes (I'll give you a hint with the title).

Heres the breakdown for today:

01-08-06
Game 1- Jake, Jumpy, Morris, Todd, Cassie
winner: Jake, Jumpy, Morris, Cassie, Todd

Game 2- Jake, Jumpy, Morris, Todd, Cassie
winner: Todd, Morris, Jake, Cassie, Jumpy

Game 2 was definately changed when Jumpy left. For the record, it was him and Morris at the 1st wicket going towards the post. When he left we decided to leave his game as playable. This allowed Todd to use it and rocket ahead. Would have Jumpy won had he not left, would Todd have won anyway (*snicker*)? Thats croquet, we dont know, ask God when you die.

If anyone has any ideas about how to do the scoring, using a system we can manage, tell us. Also, I'd still like around 6 players per game, but that again leads into possible scheduling stuff. Eh.

our cause is true.

New Season Begins!

Well, we kicked off the new season last night....results weren't really so good. If you weren't there, it wasn't close on the back half. Jake pretty much played, and everyone else watched him.

01-02-06
Game 1- Morris, Jake, Todd, Cassie, Amanda (1 Ball)
winner: Jake, Todd, Amanda, Cassie, Morris

Game 2- Morris, Jake, Todd (2 Ball)
winner: Jake, Morris, Todd

Even in the 2 ball game Jake finished first and second. Now that Im reflecting on it the morning after, I feel like I was 1) taken advantage of, or 2) did something wrong, and I should feel bad about it. Well I think both apply, one should feel bad about sucking so much.

By the way, Jake, if youre reading this: YOU ARE KICKED OUT.

our cause is true.

Happy New Year

So the new year has come and gone. What does this mean for our fragile croquet club? With a few changes I suspect we could strengthen the club greatly. I submit the following:

1. One issue that grinds me the wrong way, is that there really arent that many games we played in the course of several months. Was everyone busy? Of course, we all were. But could we have gotten in more games (if even one at a time)? Absolutely-weekends are the clear choice, or playing earlier on several nights (I'll address this later). Bottom line-we need to get out and play more.

2. It may have been the night we played this semester, but we had a shrinking play list. We ended up with 4 regular players (plus cassie towards the end), I'd like to see this expanded. One later point will address one idea, but obivously more people (and once it teeters over 6) goes into scheduling problems etc.

3. Starting play at 10:00pm is a horrible, horrible idea. If we want to kill a night playing, then go for it. Otherwise, play should start around 7. Here we could get in 2-3 games, and you can do something the rest of the night. Nobody has a schedule where one night you cant play at 7. This would also increase the amount of people playing, and probably times we could play.

4. There should be a final game to decide who wins. I dont want to leave the stats as the weak, pre-finals last games we played.

So thats it, fight on croquet club, fight on.

our cause is true.

Of realistic statistics, standing, and proper interpetation of detail

We have all come to enjoy the gentlemens game of Croquet. Few other sports hold truth, self-control, and humility in such high regard. Truly, the sport of Croquet holds many of the virtues important to human civilization. And as any sport, there are winners and losers, and obviously there must be a way to determine who wins and who loses. What our current system does in fact is this, it determines the winners, and rewards there actions with formal victory. Our system as well acknowledges those whose performance has been less than excellent.

So we currently apply the availible points to the winner to lose in a descending fashion, this only makes sense. To determine the character of a players performance, lest memorizing ones entire history, we in turn find the percentage of availible points to a player against how many he has acquired. How is the system for our infant league more barbaric than scoring and ranking systems on the collegiate and professional levels? In football, no matter how much one team beats another, each team gets a win and lose respectively. When ranking collegiate teams, the basic rule of thumb is one's record. This is the similar way other sports teams, or players are ranked.

Let look at the month of November, where Morris and Cassie both recieved a 66.7% as their percentage ranking. Is it really a problem two players tied? Which player is better: the one who consistently gets average scores, or the one who bounces between first and sixth? Either way, the percentage reflects on average how they performed.

The argument that we dont know the details is simply false. The records are displayed of the finished games merely a few inches below this very post. Im not sure what scoring system that exists that not only tells how well a player or team has done, AND tells how well they performed. The Eagles are 6-2, but that doesnt say anything if the six wins were at the last minute, or the two losses came when a star quarterback was injured.

The only solution I can think of is somehow stratify the placing further, and have a second performance score, but that would still be an average of how a player normally would do. The point is, is that without a player reciting a series of numbers, each ranking areas of their play, the current system we have is fine.

The real question is: Do we need to solve the 75% problem? Bring everyone up to 100%? Or leave them as is? Just becuase a player played more or less games than another (within reason) does not mean those extra or missing games would have/are the good/bad games they (would) have played.

On statistics, relative standing, and attention to detail

If croquet is a game founded upon gentlemanly sportsmanship and etiquete, then an equitable and accurate scoring system is at once its foundation, and its rococo frou-frou. It should both inspire fair play and provide a recognition for achievement. In the realization of these twin goals inhere the scoring system's robustness for acknowledging each of each player's performances on the field and for accurately reporting the relative standing of each player at a given time.

The current scoring system is relatively straight-forward. At each game, a total of six points are possible. The winner of a game recieves six points; the runner up, five; the second runner up, four. Remaining points are allotted in descending order relative to the players' wicket-distances from the post. A player's score is the reported as the proportion of points won to played-game-points possible.

As an example, for the month of November there were 8 games played, of which Cassie played 3. This gave her a total of 18 points possible. She won 12 of those 18 points, or 66.7% of them. Maybe that means she placed first, second, and last. Maybe second, second, and fifth. Or third, third, and third. We don't know the details. Only that she earned a D's worth of points.

Now consider Morris's November performance. Morris played 8 of the 8 games played, giving him a total of 42 points possible. He won 32 of those points, or (again) 66.7% of them. He could have won five of those games, placed fifth for one, and bollux'd up the rest of them. Maybe he played consistently, placing third for each game (not bad). The point is, again, that we don't know the details. Was Morris a consistent contender? Or was Morris taking artistic liscence, using croquet as his medium for a sardonic and sarcastic satire of Todd's penchant for peak-and-pit performance?

The only way we could possibly know the difference between Cassie's performance and Morris's (we know) is if we had recorded (we have) the order in which each posted for each game. Without that information, we don't know if it is the case that Cassie performed better than Morris overall, consistently improving her game and rising in the ranks (she did). We don't know if Morris was on-again off-again (he was).

The point is, gentlemen, that the current scoring system does not give an accurate snapshot of a player's play.

It is for these reasons that I cordially solicit alternative scoring system proposals. Proposals should be posted here. Please describe the system in detail, and argue the relative merits of the proposed system over the current one.

For Honor and For Victory!

Current Stats! (theres some shifting by the way)

I decided to take a break before I plunge myself at my last, horrible final. So I ran the current numbers for December, and then ran those into the current overall stats.

December:
Cassie: 15/18= 83.3% (75%)
Jake: 13/18= 72.2% (75%)
Jumpy: 18/18= 100% (75%)***
Morris: 17/24= 70.8% (100%)
Todd: 11/24= 45.8% (100%)***

***Not misprints

And overall, take a peek down and compare how people have moved up and down-

Cassie: 39/54= 72.2% (45%)
Jake: 71/84= 84.5% (70%)
Jumpy: 74/90= 82.2% (75%)
Morris: 77/120= 64.2% (100%)
Todd: 79/114= 69.3% (95%)

So there is where everyone is at right now. One issue is if we have 4 players you are garanteed to get 3 points. So if we have 5 or 6 players these next few games it should get really interesting. Clearly, no one has a commanding lead, so the games should get interesting.

Also, I was talking to Todd about standing and what not, what if we did something like calculate everyone's score against 75% or something to just make a flat score. Would this warp the numbers or would it make the scores more defined? Let me know what you guys think.

p.s. I also decided Im going to make a trophy (it'll look nice i promise) for the winner. Does anyone have any ideas on prizes, or what we could do for a end-of-season-start-of new-season event?

Emancipation

Im posting preemptively about when people can play in the following week. I for one will end my two-pots-of-coffee-per-day marathon officially at 5:00 pm on Thursday. So when is good for everyone else? Plus, theres the possibility of paintball?
Post when you can so I dont have to call everyone, then be crushed when one person says the best time for everyone else is the official cuddle time with their girlfriend they've penciled in.

Is it only Tuesday? The worst is yet to come......

More December!

The two games in the wreckage of the planned day playing weekend....

12-11-05
Game 1- Morris, Jake, Todd, Cassie (1 ball, 4 players)
winner: Cassie, Morris, Jake, Todd

Game 2- Morris, Todd, Cassie, Jumpy (1 ball, 4 players)
winner: Jumpy, Morris, Cassie, Todd

there.

Saturday: Battle of the Bulge

From the heading you are probably wondering: what do you ever mean-saturday is what? My esteemed colleagues, the movement of this past Thursday's play to Saturday day presents us with several firsts and other important items. First off, Saturday will be the first time we will play during the daylight. Now I know what many of you are thinking, day-what? As we have traditionally been creatures of the night, nocturnal obsessive-complusives that wander in shadow with colored mallets, Saturday will be the first time in the new season (longer than that actually) that you will see your rival without firelight illuminating his face. Think of it, for the first time, you will be able to see all the balls and wickets in their true colors.

Another equally important point, Saturday will probably be one of the last meetings of play for the season. Here, push comes to shove. Saturday is to our croquet season as to Napoleons Waterloo, the Allies D-Day, Germany's Battle of the Bulge, and yes, the Greeks Battle of Thermopylae. If I have lost you, Saturday is important for each player to secure their victory. So Morris, doesnt really have the points to do that, but he will be their as the rogue agent. For Todd, Jake, and Jumpy, the games (atleast 2-maybe 3 or 4!?) coming are going to make or break you.

And finally, Saturday presents a flaw in the season. If we could have been playing Saturday or Sunday in the day before why didn't we? Those missing weekend games would have definately made the stats more conclusive. Really, we could have nearly doubled the play, just meeting for an hour on either or both days. Having numbers from 28 games rather than 16 would have shown far more depth for each players ability.

See you around 1:30-ish (for Todd that means trying to get there at 11:00 am)

Its cold

After a serious discussion, we have decided to suspend play Thursday night for Saturday day. Trying to play in 10 degree weather would only produce a very cold (and probably poorly played) one game. See you on Sat, let me know a good time for everyone.

The Breakdown

Here I calculated what the percentages are. They are broken down into monthly and total winners.

October
Morris- 21/36= 58.3%
Todd- 32/36= 88.9%
Jake- 32/36= 88.9%
Jumpy- 10/12= 83.3%***
Cassie- 07/12= 58.3%***

***played 2 of 6 games

November

Morris- 32/48= 66.7%
Loftin- 31/42= 73.8%
Jake- 17/18= 94.4%***
Jumpy- 34/48= 70.8%
Cassie- 12/18= 66.7%***
J-Doh- 21/42= 50%

***played 3 of 8 games

Totals

Cassie***- 24/36= 66.7% (37.5% play standing)
J-Doh***- 21/42= 50% (43.8%)
Todd- 68/90= 75.6% (93.8%)
Morris- 60/96= 62.5% (100%)
Jumpy- 56/72= 77.8% (75%)
Jake***- 58/66= 87.8% (68.8%)

*has not played 75% of games

So there is the calculated percentages. Go crazy on the speculation. If anyone wants to rerun the numbers to double check me, go for it.

December

yup.

12-01-05
Game 1- Morris, Jake, Jumpy, Todd (1 ball, 4 players)
winner: Jumpy, Jake, Morris, Todd

Game 2- Morris, Jake, Jumpy, Todd, Cassie (1 ball, 5 players)
winner: Jumpy, Cassie, Jake, Morris, Todd

November Stat's

Here is the Thanksgiving month of November.

11-03-05
Game 1- Morris, Todd, Jumpy, Jake, J-Doh (1 ball, 5 players)
winner: Jake, Todd, J-Doh, Morris, Jumpy

Game 2- Morris, Jake, Jumpy, J-Doh (1 ball, 4 players)
winner: J-Doh, Jake, Jumpy, Morris

11-10-05
Game1- Morris, Jake, Todd, Jumpy, Jenny, Leah, Mark (1 ball, 7 players)
winner: Jake, Jumpy, Morris, Jenny, Leah, Todd

Game 2- Morris, Todd, Jumpy, J-Doh (1 ball, 4 players)
winner: Morris, Jumpy, Todd, J-Doh

11-17-05
Game 1- Morris, Jumpy, Todd, Leah, J-Doh, Shaq, Zack (1 ball, 7 players)
winner: Todd, Jumpy, Morris, Leah, J-Doh, Zack

Game 2- Morris, Jumpy, Todd, Cassie, J-Doh (1 ball, 5 players)
winner: Todd, Cassie, J-Doh, Jumpy, Morris

11-22-05
Game 1- Morris, Jumpy, Todd, Cassie, J-Doh, Jeremy (1 ball, 6 players)
winner: Jumpy, Morris, Cassie, Todd, Jeremy, J-Doh

Game 2- Morris, Todd, Jumpy, Cassie, J-Doh, Jeremy (1 ball, 6 players)
winner: Todd, Morris, Jumpy, Cassie, Jeremy, J-Doh