KSQ#208 Archie Burchfield-Croquet Champion Multi-Cache

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Hidden : 9/6/2012
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Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:


archiesign

Growing up playing croquet, it's hard to imagine that I'd settle in a small country town on the same road where a former world champion croquet player was from. The story of Archie Burchfield is quite amazing so I wanted to share it with you. I apologize if it is a bit lengthy, but it is a special story that I think you will enjoy reading.

GG0409_Croquet_08_700

Archie Burchfield grew up in Stamping Ground, Kentucky and began playing croquet in 1961 and practiced until late in the night. In 1962 he won his first district tournament. By 1977, Archie had won several state championships in both singles and doubles. In 1982 Archie helped a trucker friend named Don Crupper deliver twenty-two tons of lettuce to Pompano Beach, Florida in a semi tractor-trailer. After they dropped off the lettuce, he talked Crupper into driving him up to the club outside Palm Beach where Prince Charles played polo. Archie pulled his two 18-inch mallets he made by hand in Kentucky out and walked across the road to the gate, where the guard told them they couldn't enter because they were not members and they weren't dressed in all white. Once he mentioned that he knew Jack Osborn, the founder and president of the U.S. Croquet Association, he was let in to hit some balls around the croquet court. After a while, Teddy Prentis, one of North America's top tournament competitors and teaching instructor at the club, came over and told the Kentuckians that they didn't stand right, didn't shoot right and that their short mallets weren't worth ten cents. He challenged Archie and Crupper to a match against himself and his fiancee, in which in Archie's words they beat Prentis "to death" in singles. Then the two men from Stamping Ground got back in the lettuce truck and drove home to Kentucky.

Back home in Stamping Ground, Archie couldn't resist calling Jack Osborn and tell him that he went down to Palm Beach and if Teddy Prentis was the best croquet player they had, there's no need for him to come up to Kentucky to play on a clay court because he beat him in Palm Beach on grass. Archie purchased some white attire and met Osborn at the Bon Vivant Country Club outside Chicago. Osborn won at the singles match, but Archie defeated him in doubles.

In the 1982 Nationals, Burchfield found himself facing Osborn once again in the title match for the national title along with Archie's son Mark, who had filled in at the last minute for Archie's partner and had no experience on grass at all. It all came down to the last shot of the ball and the Kentuckians won the national title.

After claiming the national title, Archie and Mark Burchfield became overnight celebrities. Stories appeared about them in the New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, USA Today and People. Archie even made appearances on The Pat Sajak Show and Charles Kuralt's On the Road.

He went on to win the national doubles title again in 1987, one international title, two national club-team championships and numerous regional titles. He also became one of America's most popular ambassadors for the game of croquet. He continued to play on clay and won 16 Kentucky state titles in singles and seen in doubles. In 1995 he was inducted into the U.S. Croquet Hall of Fame. He died suddenly in February 2005. Ironically, his son Mark, who filled in for his doubles partner when he won the national title in 1982, never played in another tournament again. The listed coordinates will bring you to the Burchfield Family plot. Archie Burchfield's plot remains unmarked, except for the croquet wicket with Kentucky etched across the top of it. For the final stage, complete the following: N38 15.ABC W084 40.DEF. The stone to the left of the Burchfield plot marked Centers contains the name of a woman named Lillie.

ABC = Year of Lillie's Birth - 1335

DEF = Year of Lillie's Death - 1477

Please only hunt during daylight hours and be respectful of your surroundings. BYOP.

I hope you enjoyed reading about Archie Burchfield.

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