Traditions

Larry Stettner proudly points to the Claremont Hotel’s croquet board, where he and three other family members were listed as winners each year since 1997.

To many in Southwest Harbor, one week a year is sufficient to fulfill their croquet fancy. That’s in early August, when the lawn at the Claremont Hotel fills for its tournament as it has each year since 1977.

But Larry Stettner, three times the singles winner at the Claremont, has to have more.

Now 63 and retired, Stettner and his wife Francine moved permanently to Southwest Harbor in 1996—largely for the croquet.

They built a croquet court in their yard in Manset, so practice isn’t a problem. After playing his first game at the Claremont in 1986, and getting serious only in 1992, Stettner now ranks among the country’s top 50 or so players.

These days, the retired Wayne State University professor of psychology travels several times a year to ranking tournaments around the country. Serious croquet players, like himself, aren’t many in number, so the game on the national level is as social as it is skilled. Everybody knows each other, he says.

Once every year or two, in September, Stettner enjoys hosting Mount Desert Island’s version of a national croquet tournament. A few dozen players fly in from numerous states and Canada to play “the Big Lobster.”

That’s the informal name for the tournament, which is as much about enjoying a lobster dinner at the Claremont, as hitting balls through wickets near the water.

But the tournament that everyone in town knows about is the Claremont’s annual one in August. Maybe 35 or 40 players gather, and it takes four or five days before final matches.

Spectators love it.

After winning his first two titles in 1997 and 1998, Stettner sat out and just watched. He wanted to encourage his California nephew, Ben Rothman, to play and win.

That’s what Rothman, now just 18, did. He won back-to-back titles in 1999 and 2000.

Knowing that no one had ever won three Claremont titles in a row, Stettner knew he had to play again in 2001—if only to keep his own nephew from establishing such a record.

The 2001 finale went to Stettner, as uncle beat nephew.

“I had a very lucky comeback,” Stettner said. “I just hit a ball by the skin of the paint. But in 2002 (last August), he beat me again. And that’s where it stands.”

Now comes another Stettner protégé, Michael Quarters—Larry’s grandson. Just 15, and visiting each summer from Michigan. Quarters has been the younger half of the winning doubles team (with Rothman) for the last two summers at the Claremont.

Young Quarters has also tied for third place, after Rothman and Stettner, the last two years in singles play.

“One of these years, Michael’s going to knock me off, too,” Stettner said.

The family members from away are fitting right into Southwest Harbor summers. The tournament is always the family’s high point, however.

Stettner remembers well back to 1984 when, as a summer visitor, he first spotted a note in the Sawyer’s Market window, announcing the tournament’s final for that afternoon.

Intrigued, he went to watch, loving the atmosphere of all the spectators peering down from the Claremont’s porches.

He entered for the first time in 1986.

“I knew nothing about strategy,” he said. “I used to get beat, then think about it all winter. Usually in February I’d realize, ‘Now I know what I will do next year!’

“So I got serious, and gradually learned the game. I finally won [at the Claremont] in 1996.”

Now, Stettner gets his picture in the paper for winning. And, others take notice, too.

“I’m not even sure who they are, but they all know me and ask how I’m doing,” he said. “They just know I’m the croquet man.”