Hartland, Maine – A little too seriously, it appears.  On Monday night, Andrew T. Fox, 31, was playing croquet with his wife and sixteen-year-old stepson outside their mobile home.   As game play was in progress, Fox and his stepson had a disagreement about rules, and a physical fight ensued.

I’m gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that the first rule of croquet should be that you never knock stepdad’s ball out when he’s holding the mallet.  That goes double if the wickets are placed within ten feet of a single-wide, but that’s just me.  No offense to the croquet-playing trailer dwellers among us who would not stoop to assault over a rules infraction.

Anyway.   Fox’s wife, Lisa, called police from a neighbor’s home to report that Fox had become violent during the game and punched her son in the head.  When police arrived, Fox ran inside and locked himself in the mobile home’s bathroom.   He told deputies that he had weapons with him, and that if they tried to advance on the home, they’d “find out” exactly what kind of weapons.  I suppose it’s too much to call the sheriff and ask if one of the weapons was a croquet mallet.

After some negotiation, Fox exited the residence and surrendered to deputies – but not before setting fire to the interior of the trailer.  On his way out, Fox lit up some papers in the home and left them to burn, causing a fire which was not seen until Fox was being taken into custody shortly thereafter.  The fire department did put out the fire, but not before extensive damage was done to the inside of the home. One source reports that family pets were also injured or killed.

Fox was taken to the Somerset County Jail in Skowhegan, where he is charged with arson, domestic violence terrorizing, and domestic assault.  He is being held on $5,000 cash bail.  If anyone finds a picture of this sports fan, I’d love to post it.