2021 Useppa Beach Croquet Tournament - Thoughts by Mike Albert and Pictures by UseppaGin - Every December 30th since 1978 residents and members of the Useppa Island Club gathered to play in a 9 Wicket Tournament. Most years this drew upwards of 64 players. This year’s event was limited to 32 players because of Covid concerns. The only two times the tournament wasn’t held were 2004 when the island was recovering from a direct hit by Hurricane Charlie and last year 2020 when the pandemic shut operations down worldwide. The Service Departments spends several days leading up to the 30th raking and leveling the beach before laying out the courts. This year we played on eight courts which allowed all sixteen teams to play at the same time. Everyone played four games. Prize “Mallets” are awarded to the winners in each quadrant. This year’s final match for the championship was between Michael Carmichael and Mark Goodman against Tor Carlson and Karen Connery-Albert. The last time Karen played this tournament was thirteen years ago when her partner was once again Tor Carlson at that time halfway through the ninth grade. This year’s matchup had all the stars aligned. Tor and Karen played a beautiful game and pegged out both balls a couple of wickets ahead of Michael and Mark to be 2022 Useppa 9 Wicket Champs.