ELLSWORTH — The Woodlawn Croquet Club and some of its members will be bidding to defend their 2009 championships when they return to the National Croquet Center in West Palm Beach, Fla., next weekend for the National Club Team Championships March 17-21.

Woodlawn will be represented in the doubles competition by four duos: Perry Mattson of Surry and Randall McAndrews of Seal Harbor; Charles Alexander and Tim McCormick, both of Ellsworth; Sturgis Haskins of Sorrento and Jeanne Fernald of Somesville; and Elaine Dow of Ellsworth and Judy Carroll of Pretty Marsh.

Mattson and McAndrews were the Second Flight doubles winners and McCormick and Alexander were the Fourth Flight champions last year when the Woodlawn club won the Lyons Trophy symbolizing the Division II national title.

A second part of Croquet Week will be the Golf Croquet Championships March 14-16.

Championship croquet, in which the club team championships will be played, uses six wickets and is played on 100-foot grass courts, laser-leveled and mowed to a sixteenth of an inch, like putting greens.

Four balls are used and in doubles play each player has one ball.

Because players get an extra shot for clearing a wicket and two extra shots for hitting another ball, long breaks are common with players using most or all four balls and clearing as many as 12 wickets in one turn.

Golf croquet is a simpler version of the game in which extra shots are not awarded for clearing hoops or hitting other balls.

The strategy is to set up at wickets and clear them or knock the opponent’s ball out of position.

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