Despite its popular image, croquet is not a "vicious game", in which you send your opponent scrabbling around in the shrubbery to find his (or her) ball - it is a sport requiring tactical nous, skill and finesse.
The sport is played on a lawn, or "court", measuring 35 by 28 yards (or 32 x 25.6m, for those metrically inclined). The court is set with six cast-iron hoops and a wooden peg, in the layout shown below.
The other equipment used consists of four balls, each weighing 1 lb (0.45 kg), 3 5/8" (9.2 cm) in diameter, and coloured red, yellow, blue and black. Each player has a mallet, about 3 ft (1 m) in length, with a wooden head 9-12 in (22-30 cm) long, weighing about 3 lb (1.35 kg).
The term "croquet" in fact covers two different games, known as Association Croquet and Golf Croquet. Each of the games is played either as singles - with one player playing the red and yellow balls, and the other taking the blue and black - or as doubles, with one player taking command of each ball, red and yellow being paired against blue and black.
Each sport has an effective handicapping system, which means that a complete novice can find himself, within a few weeks of taking up the sport, playing competitive matches against the country's leading players.
Each of the two games has its aficionados, but there is no reason you cannot play both.
Association croquet can be likened to a race between the two opponents; the first player (or pair) to get both balls round a prescribed course of twelve hoops and hit the peg is the winner. In each turn, a player will attempt to play a break with one ball, consisting of hitting other balls (roquets), playing strokes with two balls in contact (croquet strokes), and hitting the ball through hoops. In this way, a turn could consist of as many as ninety-one shots.
Much like snooker, while one player is playing a break, all the opponent can do is sit and wait for their turn!
For an animated introduction to association croquet, click here (this link requires the Shockwave plugin).
In golf croquet, both sides compete to be first to get one of their balls through a particular hoop. Once that has been achieved and one side has "won" the hoop, play moves on to the next hoop. The winning player or pair is the one that wins more hoops over a set course of thirteen hoops.
Unlike association croquet, there are no breaks in golf croquet - each turn consists of a single stroke. While many people think this makes golf croquet a game lacking in tactical finesse, it undoubtedly makes it a more sociable pastime, without the periods of "sitting out" which can occur in the association game.
While golf croquet has in the past been frequently used as an introduction to the game, it has recently developed as a keenly contested sport in its own right.
To see a short video clip of some
Newport members contesting a hoop at golf croquet, click here
(WARNING: this is a large file, ca. 10MB!)
To see a short video clip of some of the world's leading golf croquet players,
click here
(and see if you can spot the difference).
For more details on both golf and association croquet, see the Croquet Association website.