Croquet

John Watson

‘One blazing sunny afternoon he finds himself for some inexplicable reason playing a game of croquet. He is a poor player up against a very good one, but he takes this as a pretext to expound a philosophy in celebration of the loser. ‘It is only we who play badly who love the Game itself,’ he tells his opponent, a man called Parkinson. ‘You love glory; you love applause; you love the earthquake voice of victory; you do not love croquet . . . You do not love croquet until you love being beaten at croquet . . .’’ .

Now the sun is shining, it’s perfect weather for a game of croquet. Hopefully those playing will have more luck than G. K. Chesterton, whose Tremendous Trifles was featured in Slightly Foxed Issue 52, with high praise from Gordon Bowker, and this jolly woodcut by one of our favourite artists, John Watson.

About the contributor

John Watson was born in Argyll and was brought up in Scotland, Australia, England, Wales and South Africa. He is now based back in Scotland – where he studied at the Edinburgh College of Art, and has worked in art education as a teacher and lecturer for over twenty five years. He is most interested in using small scale prints to evoke wider imaginative and emotional responses, and describes himself as ‘a miniaturist at heart’.