Croquet

Croquet is a fun sport where players hit balls through hoops using a mallet. You can use wooden, plastic, or composite balls, and the hoops are sometimes called "wickets" in the United States. People play this game on grass courts.

The sport started in England in the 1860s, but games like it have been around since the late Middle Ages. Today, many countries enjoy different versions of croquet. Top players come from places like England, Australia, Spain, Egypt, South Africa, and the United States.

Croquet is a sport that both men and women can play. In 2018, women won two big international competitions that were open to everyone.

Variations

In croquet, players take turns hitting balls through hoops to score points. The game ends when a player or team reaches a set number of points. There are several ways to play croquet, with differences in rules, court layout, and target scores. All players, no matter their age or gender, compete together.

Two main versions are managed by the World Croquet Federation. Association croquet is played between two players or teams, each using two balls. The goal is to be the first to send both balls through all six hoops in both directions and then hit the center peg, earning up to 26 points. Players start by placing their balls on the lawn and can earn extra turns by hitting a hoop or by hitting another player’s ball, called a “roquet.”

Golf croquet, growing quickly for its simplicity, is played with two players or teams, each using two balls. The aim is to be the first to pass through hoops in order, earning points. Players start from a corner and must hit hoops in sequence. Golf croquet focuses on strategy and accuracy, with shorter games and more powerful shots.

The American six-wicket version is popular in the United States and Canada. It follows similar rules to association croquet but has unique features, such as balls being played in a fixed order and more strict boundary rules.

Nine-wicket croquet, also mainly played in the United States and Canada, uses nine hoops and up to six balls. Players move in a double-diamond pattern and can choose to help teammates by avoiding finishing early. Special rules, like “poison,” add extra strategy to the game.

International croquet

International croquet competitions are managed by the World Croquet Federation, often called the WCF. Croquet Europe is a part of the WCF that helps organize tournaments in Europe and connects clubs there.

Players can compete in club games, county tournaments, leagues, and big world championships. The sport is popular in the UK, Spain, the US, New Zealand, Australia, and Egypt, with many other countries also playing. Every four years, top countries compete in the World Team Championships for AC (the MacRobertson Shield) and GC (the Openshaw Shield). England is currently the best in AC, with Australia second and New Zealand third. The United States is fourth.

Individual World Championships happen every two or three years. The 2025 AC World Championships were held in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Reg Bamford won. The current Women’s Association Croquet World Champion from 2023 is Debbie Lines from England.

The most famous team competition in association croquet is the MacRobertson International Croquet Shield. It happens every three to four years between England, Australia, the United States, and New Zealand. England currently holds the shield after winning in 2023. The next competition will be in London in July/August 2025. In Golf Croquet World Team Championships, eight nations compete for the Openshaw Shield, with the USA currently holding it after winning in 2025.

History

The oldest document to bear the word croquet with a description of the modern game is the set of rules registered by Isaac Spratt in November 1856 with the Stationers' Company of London. This record is now in the Public Record Office. In 1868, the first croquet all-comers meet was held at Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire, and in the same year, the All England Croquet Club was formed in Wimbledon, London.

Croquet is one of many games, like pall-mall and trucco, that evolved from ground billiards. These games have been popular in Western Europe since at least the Late Middle Ages, with roots going back to classical antiquity. Early versions used arches, pegs, balls, and mallets or other sticks to hit the ball.

In the book Queen of Games: The History of Croquet, Nicky Smith presents two theories about where the modern game of croquet came from, which became popular in England in the 1860s and then spread around the world.

French origin theory

One theory is that the game came to Britain from France during the reign of Charles II of England, Scotland, and Ireland between 1660 and 1685. It was played under the name of paille-maille (also known as pall-mall), which comes from Latin words for 'ball and mallet'. This idea was mentioned in the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica from 1877.

In 1801, Joseph Strutt wrote about how pall-mall was played in England at the time. He described a game where a round ball is hit with a mallet through a high arch of iron. The player who could do this in the fewest hits, or a set number, would win. There were two arches, one at each end of the alley. Pall-mall was a popular game during the time of Charles II, and the Mall in Saint James's Park got its name from being a place where people played this game.

Irish origin theory

Another theory is that the rules of modern croquet came to Ireland in the 1850s, perhaps from Brittany, where a similar game was played on beaches. Records show a game called "crookey", similar to croquet, being played in Castlebellingham in County Louth, Ireland, in 1834. The game was then introduced to Galway in 1835 and to the Dublin suburb of Kingstown, now known as Dún Laoghaire, also in 1835. However, there are no Irish documents before 1858 that describe exactly how the game was played.

Croquet became very popular as a social game in England during the 1860s. It spread to many Anglophone countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United States. The game could be played by everyone, which was one of its attractions.

By the late 1870s, croquet was replaced by lawn tennis as the popular game. Many croquet clubs turned their lawns into tennis courts. There was a small revival in the 1890s, but croquet remained a minor sport. The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club still has a croquet lawn but does not host major tournaments anymore.

Glossary of terms

``

``

In croquet, there are many special terms to describe different moves and positions.

A ball-in-hand means you can pick up your ball and place it somewhere else, like when your ball goes off the court. A hoop is the metal U-shaped gate you must hit your ball through. You can also roquet by hitting another player’s ball to get a special turn. A rover ball has gone through all its hoops and can be removed from the game. These terms help players talk about their strategies clearly while playing croquet.

In art and literature

Croquet is often thought to be very competitive because players sometimes try to move each other’s balls to make the game harder. But good players use all their balls to set up good chances for themselves instead of just making things tough for others.

Croquet has appeared in many paintings, books, and songs. Famous artists like Winslow Homer, Édouard Manet, and Norman Rockwell have painted scenes of people playing croquet. In Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland[/w/12], the game is played with strange items like a hedgehog as a ball and a flamingo as a mallet. The game has also been used in stories by H. G. Wells and John Steinbeck, and in songs and movies too.

Clubs

There are about 200 croquet clubs in the United States that belong to the United States Croquet Association. Many colleges also have croquet clubs, including The University of Virginia, The University of Chicago, Pennsylvania State University, Bates College, SUNY New Paltz, Harvard University, and Dartmouth College. Each year, St. John's College and the US Naval Academy play a match in Annapolis, Maryland, which has become a tradition.

In England and Wales, over 200 clubs are part of Croquet England. The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon is well-known for its lawn tennis tournament and also has a croquet section. Universities and colleges there have their own clubs, with a big match each year between Oxford and Cambridge. In 2011, Oxford University's "Cuppers" tournament had over 1800 players, making it one of the largest croquet events ever.

Spain has 37 croquet clubs under the Federación Española de Croquet, and the sport is growing there, with four new clubs joining in 2024. New Zealand has 112 clubs that follow the rules set by Croquet New Zealand.