ELLSWORTH – When the rain began to pour outside the Woodlawn Museum on Sunday afternoon, nobody went inside.

Some sought refuge under tents and some opened umbrellas, but no one ran for the house at the first Maine and New Hampshire State Croquet Championship.

Nearly 20 players participated in the event, held on the museum’s newly installed championship-size croquet lawn.

The sport is “a lot different” from the backyard croquet most people know, said Fred Beck of Brooksville, who has been playing for the past five years.

Croquet may be played in singles and doubles, and players use wooden mallets to hit balls through hoops, called wickets, in a certain order. Games are timed, lasting 75 minutes.

Three flights of players, beginner to professional, competed in the U.S. Croquet Association-sanctioned tournament. Play began Thursday and lasted through the weekend.

“The game is 50 percent technique and 50 percent strategy,” said Beck, who described the sport as a combination of chess, golf and pool.

Competitors had onlookers hold umbrellas for them as they made their shots in the rain.

Mental toughness and overcoming obstacles are important for success.

“Once you get frustrated, it gets hard to make wickets,” said Perry Matson, chairman of the Ellsworth Croquet Committee. “You have to stay positive while you are shooting.”

The lawn was funded by an anonymous donor in the fall of 2006 and opened to the public last July, according to Matson, the tournament champion for the A flight singles.

The B flight singles winner was Randall McGregor of Topsham, N.H., and the C flight singles winner was Charles Alexander, whose hometown was not available.

Jamie Boulette of Oakland took first place in doubles, where two separate games take place simultaneously. The player with the most points among the four players at the end of 75 minutes is the winner.

People of all ages are welcome to come and play at the museum, Matson said.

“What’s great about croquet is that it’s a game you can play well into your years,” Matson said.

According to Matson, the sport’s popularity is on the rise. The museum has seen an increase in paid members for the croquet club from 30 last year to 42 this year.

A smaller lawn is scheduled to open in Sorrento on July 1, according to Sturgis Haskins, a member of Sorrento’s croquet club.

A lawn also is being built in Brunswick, Haskins said, though none is expected to be as finely kept as the one in Ellsworth.

“This is probably the finest [croquet] lawns in New England,” said Haskins.

The USCA has nearly 300 clubs and 3,000 members, and sanctions hundreds of local, regional, national and international tournaments each year, according to the association’s Web site.

The Ellsworth club is looking forward to the sport’s growth and to many years of tournament play.

“We might have a bigger tournament next year, but we can’t have a better one,” said tournament director Larry Stettner.

The lawn is open from 8:30 am to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1-4 p.m. Sunday. For information, contact the Woodlawn Museum at 667-8671.

mdabrieo@bangordailynews.net

664-0524