Lucien Aigner 1930s And little Jean has not to blush when his father gets up for his strokes. Father Jean is a 'scientific' player, who measures carefully even the most easy strokes and succeeds brilliantly the most difficult ones
Courtesy of the Lucien Aigner Estate "During my Paris days I often noted a remote corner of the Luxembourg Gardens, which outfitted with wickets, was crowded by gentlemen mostly of retirement age. They were equipped with wooden mallets, swinging at wooden balls, engaged in the noble game of croquet.
There was a solid stream of players following each other in the game, watched by a packed gallery of onlookers. The crowd became really dense after office hours late in the afternoon. The onlookers were commenting passionately on the game and at times gave up their observation post to join the players…
There is no question in my mind that croquet can be a very satisfying game for gentlemen who have never done anything more exciting during their lifetime than put down figures in a ledger or sort letters in the Post Office…
Those French gentlemen found freedom here on the croquet ground from the drudgery of their everyday livesà In a way croquet is a poor man's golf with a predatory twist. It gives an outlet for destructive instinct in man. No other game with the exception of Monopoly perhaps offers a player so much wicked pleasure, such a feeling of power for playing havoc on an opponent as does croquet…
When you win your individual game you are free to roam the landscape as a 'robber baron' as it were, to help your friends and hurt your enemies."
