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Green Gables Croquet Club * Spring Lake, New Jersey * Founded 1957 by Suzie Linden (1913-1996)

Early Years
Green Gables began in 1957 when Suzie Linden (then Oakes) invited a few friends for a game of croquet on the lawn of her ocean front Spring Lake home, known as Green Gables.

Basic Information
A private club with 50 members, Green Gables later became a charter member of the U.S. Croquet Association. It has three championship croquet malls and has become the center of the croquet world in mid-July each year -- highly unusual for a private residence -- when Green Gables is the site of an invitational croquet tournament.

Note worthy
Green Gables Croquet Club is the oldest continuous croquet club in the United States today and one of the founding members of the United States Croquet Association. In 1977, Jack Osborn gathered representatives of the clubs on the US East Coast, to meet in to agree on a standard set of rules for croquet in the United States. This group eventually agreed on the rules and formed the USCA.

USCA Founding Clubs

 * Green Gables Croquet Club
 * New York Croquet Club
 * Palm Beach Croquet Club
 * Westhampton Mallet Club
 * Croquet Club of Bermuda
 * need sixth club

On Strategy
In the New York Times, Suzie Linden described the mental aspects of Croquet as a "combination of bilards and chess," adding, "You always have to think three moves ahead!" Suzie Linden was inducted into the Croquet Hall of Fame in 1980.