What is Croquet?
- There are two main variations - Association Croquet (AC) and Golf Croquet (GC)
- They both involve knocking 4 balls around a "court" which is an area of 28 x 35 yards on a lawn.
- There are 6 hoops, only 1/16 of an inch wider than a ball (and sometimes narrower for competition) and a centre-peg
- The balls are struck with a mallet - which can be a combination of wood, metal, plastic and carbon fibre
What we love about Croquet
- It's Fun
- Sociable - especially GC and doubles
- You don't need to be sporty
- Men and Women compete on equal terms
- Young and Old can play together
- Learners can compete with old hands thanks to handicapping scheme
- You can take it as seriously as you want
- Enjoy the weather
- Internal Leagues and Competitions
- External Competitions against other local(ish) teams
- A nationwide calendar of competitions for the ambitious
- You can play all year round
Association Croquet
- The traditional form of the game
- Basics are fairly simple, but there's a pretty steep learning curve
- One turn can consist of many shots
- Great satisfaction from the craft of break-building
- The basis of intermediate AC is the 4-ball-break
- Advanced croquet adds "lifts" and "leaves" as well as "peeling"
- It can take a few hours to play a game of full AC
- Short Croquet is much quicker - anything from 30 to 60 mins
Golf Croquet
- Easy to learn
- Hard to master
- Players take turns, each of one shot only
- Quick to play a game
- Mostly about accuracy, but tactics also count
- The most popular form of the game at our club
Croquet's governing body in the UK is The Croquet Association - now Croquet England
