Croquet

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For the Dutch food item, see Croquette.
For the Smalltalk based 3D software platform, see Croquet project.
Winslow Homer: Croquet, 1864

Croquet is a game played both as a recreational pastime and as a competitive sport which involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops embedded into the grass playing arena.

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[edit] Competitive croquet

Croquet was an event at the 1900 Summer Olympics and roque, a variation on croquet (see below), an event at the 1904 Summer Olympics. One of the best known croquet clubs is the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, originally the All England Croquet Club, which hosts the annual Wimbledon tennis championships.

There are several variations of croquet currently played, differing in the scoring systems, order of shots, and layout (particularly in social games where play must be adapted to smaller-than-standard playing courts). Two forms of the game, Association Croquet and Golf Croquet, have rules that are agreed internationally and are played in many countries around the world. More unusual variations of the game include Mondo Croquet, eXtreme Croquet, and Bicycle Croquet. Gateball, played mainly in the Far East, can also be regarded as a croquet variant.

As well as club-level games, there are regular world championships and international matches between croquet-playing countries. The sport has particularly strong followings in the UK, USA, New Zealand and Australia; every four years, these countries play the MacRobertson Shield tournament. Many other countries also play.

Croquet is popularly believed to be viciously competitive. This may derive from the fact that (unlike golf) players will often attempt to move their opponents' balls to unfavourable positions. However, purely negative play is rarely a winning strategy: successful players (in all versions other than Golf Croquet) will use all four balls to set up a break for themselves, rather than simply making life as difficult as possible for their opponents. At championship standard Association Croquet, players can often make all 26 points (13 for each ball) in two turns.

Unlike most sports, men and women compete and are ranked together. Three women have won the British Open Championship: Lily Gower in 1905, Dorothy Steel in 1925, 1933, 1935 and 1936, and Hope Rotherham in 1960. While male players are in the majority at club level in England, the opposite is the case in Australia and New Zealand. The highest-ranked female player in the world is currently (August 2008) Jenny Clarke of New Zealand[1]

[edit] Association croquet

Croquet being played at a club in the UK

Association Croquet is the proper name of the game of croquet that is most widely played throughout the world and at international level. In Association Croquet one player (or in doubles, one team) takes the black and blue balls, the other takes red and yellow. On each turn, the player can choose to play either of his balls, and must continue to play that ball for the rest of the turn. Each turn initially consists of one stroke, but the turn continues if the player either hits the ball through the correct hoop ("runs" a hoop), or hits another ball (a "roquet"). Upon hitting another ball, the player must pick up their own ball and play their next shot with the two balls touching: this is the "croquet stroke" from which the game takes its name. After the croquet stroke, the player is allowed a further "continuation" stroke, during which the player must again attempt to make a roquet or run a hoop. Each of the other three balls may be roqueted at most once until a hoop is run, at which point they become available again. The winner is the first player who, with both balls, completes a prescribed circuit of twelve hoops and then strikes the centre peg (making a total of 13 points per ball).

Good players will often make "breaks" of several hoops in a single turn, and the best players routinely take a ball round the full circuit in one turn. As long breaks became more common, "Advanced Play" (a variant of Association play for expert players) was introduced. This gives penalties to a player who runs certain hoops in the same turn. In response, feats of skill such as triple peels and even sextuple peels, in which the partner ball (or occasionally an opponent ball) is caused to run a number of hoops in a turn by the striker's ball, became more common in order to avoid the penalties.

Here is video footage[2] showing Ben Rothman, a leading player in the United States, making a break on the third turn of the game, before the yellow ball has entered the game. The sequence starts after the striker has made the second hoop, and shows him running hoops 3, 4, 5, 6, 1-back, 2-back, and 3-back before laying up in a position where his opponent will find it difficult to make a roquet. As often happens, the break ends before 4-back, because if it continued any further, yellow would be allowed to start as if a roquet had been made, by taking croquet from any other ball on the lawn.

Success in Association Croquet depends on a combination of physical skill and careful strategy, and perhaps most of all on cool assessment of risks and probabilities. A handicap system ensures that less experienced players always have a chance of winning even against formidable opponents. Players of all ages and both sexes compete on level terms.

The current (February 10, 2008) Association Croquet World Champion is Chris Clarke (GB). The world championships are organised by the WCF (World Croquet Federation) and usually take place every 2 or 3 years. The next world championships are to take place in May 2009 in Palm Beach, Florida. The Great Britain team won the last MacRobertson International Croquet Shield tournament, which is the major international test tour trophy in Association Croquet. It is contested every 3 to 4 years between Australia, GB, USA and New Zealand. Historically England/GB have been the dominant force winning 13 times out of the 19 times it has been held.

The world's top 10 Association Croquet players as of 27 December 2008 were Chris Clarke (England), Robert Fulford (England), Reg Bamford (South Africa), Rutger Beijderwellen (Netherlands), David Maugham (England), Samir Patel (England), Paddy Chapman (New Zealand), Ian Lines (England), Keith Aiton (Scotland), and Aaron Westerby (New Zealand)[3].

The governing body in Britain is The Croquet Association, which has been the driving force of the development of the game. The laws and tournament regulations are now maintained by the International Laws Committee, established by the croquet associations of England and Wales (CA), Australia (ACA), New Zealand (CNZ) and the United States (USCA).

[edit] Golf croquet

In Golf Croquet each player takes turns trying to hit a ball through the same hoop, the winner being the player who manages to hit the ball through the most hoops first. Golf Croquet has the advantage of being easier to learn and play, but its critics claim that the lack of croquet strokes in the game means that it is less intellectually demanding. There are other variations popular in other croquet-playing nations.

Golf Croquet is the fastest-growing version of the game[4], owing largely to its simplicity and fierce competitiveness. Egyptian players overwhelmingly dominate the game[5]. In comparison with Association Croquet, play is faster and balls are much more likely to be lifted off the ground, as seen in this video footage[6].

The current (March 6, 2008) Golf Croquet World Champion is Mohammed Nasr (Egypt).

[edit] American six-wicket croquet

The "American rules" version of croquet -- another six-wicket-layout game -- is the dominant version of the game in the United States and is also widely played in Canada and is governed by the United States Croquet Association. Its genesis is mostly in Association Croquet, but it differs in a number of important ways that reflect the home-grown traditions of American "backyard" croquet. Two of the most notable differences are that the balls are always played in the same sequence (blue, red, black, yellow) throughout the game, and that a ball's "deadness" on other balls is carried over from turn to turn until the ball has been "cleared" by scoring its next hoop. Tactics are simplified on the one hand by the strict sequence of play, and complicated on the other hand by the continuation of deadness. A further difference is the more restrictive boundary line rules of American-rules croquet. In the American-rules game, roqueting a ball out of bounds or running a hoop out of bounds causes the turn to end, and balls that go out of bounds are replaced only nine inches from the boundary rather than a yard as in Association Croquet. "Attacking" balls on the boundary line to bring them into play is thus far more challenging than in order.

[edit] Croquet terms

  • Backward ball
The ball of a side that has scored fewer hoops (compare with 'forward ball').
  • Ball in hand
The term when the striker can pick up a ball to change its position, for example:
  1. any ball when it leaves the court has to be replaced on the yard-line
  2. the striker’s ball after making a roquet must be placed in contact with the roqueted ball
  3. the striker’s ball when the striker is entitled to a lift.
  • Ball in play
A ball after it has been played into the game, which is not a ball in hand or pegged out.
  • Baulk
An imaginary line on which a ball is placed for its first shot in the game, or when taking a lift. The A-baulk coincides with the western half of the yard line along the south boundary; the B-baulk occupies the eastern half of the north boundary yard line.
  • Bisque, half-bisque
A bisque is a free turn in a handicap match. A half-bisque is a restricted handicap turn in which no point may be scored.
  • Break down
To end a turn by making a mistake.
  • Continuation stroke
Either the bonus stroke played after running a hoop in order or the second bonus stroke played after making a roquet.
  • Double-banking
Playing two games on one croquet lawn at once. One game uses the secondary colours: green and brown versus pink and white.
  • Double tap
A fault in which the mallet makes more than one audible sound when it strikes the ball.
  • Forward ball
The ball of a side that has scored more hoops (compare with 'backward ball').
  • Hoop
Metal U-shaped gate pushed into ground. (Also called a 'wicket' in the US).
  • Leave
The position of the balls after a successful break, in which the striker is able to leave the balls placed so as to make life as difficult as possible for the opponent.
  • Lift
A turn in which the player is entitled to remove the ball from its current position and play instead from either baulk line. A lift is permitted when a ball has been placed by the opponent in a position where it is wired from all other balls, and also in advanced play when the opponent has completed a break that includes hoops 1-back or 4-back.
  • Object ball
A ball which is going to be rushed.
  • Peg out
To cause a rover ball to strike the peg and conclude its active involvement in the game.
  • Peel
To send a ball other than the striker’s ball through its target hoop.
  • Primary colours or First colours
The main croquet ball colours used which are blue, red, black and yellow (in order of play). Blue and black, and red and yellow, are played by the same player or pair.
  • Push
A fault when the mallet pushes the striker’s ball, rather than making a clean strike.
  • Roquet
(Second syllable rhymes with "play") When the striker’s ball hits a ball that he is entitled to then take a croquet shot with. At the start of a turn, the striker is entitled to roquet all the other three balls once. Once the striker's ball goes through its target hoop, it is again entitled to roquet the other balls once.
  • Rover ball
A ball that has run all twelve hoops and can be pegged out.
  • Rover hoop
The last hoop, indicated by a red top bar. The first hoop has a blue top.
  • Run a hoop
To send the striker’s ball through a hoop. If the hoop is the hoop in order for the striker’s ball, the striker earns a bonus stroke.
  • Rush
A roquet when the roqueted ball is sent to a specific position on the court, such as the next hoop for the striker’s ball or close to a ball that the striker wishes to roquet next.
  • Scatter shot
A continuation stroke used to hit a ball which may not be roqueted in order to send it to a less dangerous position.
  • Secondary colours or second colours (Also known as Alternate colours)
The colours of the balls used in the second game played on the same court in double-banking, green, pink, brown and white (in order of play). Green and brown, and pink and white, are played by the same player or pair.
  • Sextuple peel (SXP)
To peel the partner ball through its last six hoops in the course of a single turn. Very few players have achieved this feat, but it is being seen increasingly at championship level.
  • Tice
A ball sent to a location that will entice an opponent to shoot at it but miss.
  • Triple peel (TP)
To send a ball other than the striker’s ball through its last three hoops, and then peg it out. See also Triple Peel on Opponent (TPO). The significance of this manoevre is that in advanced play, making a break that includes the tenth hoop (called 4-back) is penalized by granting the oppenent a lift (entitling him to take the next shot from either baulk line). Therefore many breaks stop voluntarily with three hoops and the peg still to run.
  • Wired
When a hoop or the peg impedes the path of a striker's ball, or the swing of the mallet. A player will often endeavour to finish a turn with the opponent's balls wired from each other.
  • Yard line
An imaginary line one yard from the boundary. Balls that go off the boundary are generally replaced on the yard line (but if this happens on a croquet stroke, the turn ends).

[edit] Art and literature

The Croquet Game, Édouard Manet, 1873.
  • Winslow Homer, Édouard Manet, Louise Abbéma and Pierre Bonnard all have paintings titled The Croquet Game.
  • Norman Rockwell often depicted the game, including in his painting Croquet.
  • A favorite subject of Edward Gorey, a croquet reference often appeared in the first illustration of his books. The Epiplectic Bicycle opens with two illustrations of the main characters playing with croquet mallets.
  • H. G. Wells wrote The Croquet Player, which uses croquet as a metaphor for the way in which man confronts the very problem of his own existence.
  • Lewis Carroll featured a surreal version of the game in the popular children's novel Alice in Wonderland, A hedgehog was used as the ball, a flamingo the mallet, and playing cards as the wickets.
  • In the Thursday Next series of novels, notably Something Rotten, Jasper Fforde depicts an alternative world in which croquet is a brutal mass spectator sport. In the final of the Superhoop '88, Thursday Next leads the Swindon Mallets to victory over their arch-rivals, the Reading Whackers, by engaging the services of a group of Neanderthals, thereby saving the world from imminent destruction.

[edit] Politics

On 25 May 2006, the then British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was photographed by the The Mail on Sunday playing croquet at his official residence, Dorneywood. [1] Following shortly after a sexual scandal [2] that had forced Prescott to resign his ministerial responsibilities while retaining his salary and privileges [3], the incident was portrayed as evidence that Prescott had little real responsibility for running the country during the absence of the Prime Minister. Shortly afterwards, Prescott announced that he would no longer make use of the Dorneywood residence.

It was also reported that the incident led to a 300% increase in sales of croquet equipment at ASDA [4], while the TV Five announced that they would be running a series featuring croquet matches played at country houses pitting "rich" against "poor" players. [5]

[edit] American Croquet clubs

About 200 croquet clubs across the United States are members of the United States Croquet Association[7]. USCA-affiliated clubs in major US cities include the New York, Chicago, Beverly Hills, Denver, San Francisco, Oakland Houston, Boston, Detroit, Louisville, and Portland (Oregon) Croquet Clubs.

Many colleges have croquet clubs, as well, such as Bates College and Harvard University. Notably, St. John's College and the U.S. Naval Academy engage in a yearly match in Annapolis, Maryland. Both schools also compete at the collegiate level, and the rivalry continues to be an Annapolis tradition.

See, for example:

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.croquetrecords.com/rank/currentworld.htm
  2. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEawcH3zpzI
  3. ^ http://butedock.demon.co.uk/
  4. ^ http://www.croquet.org.uk/ca/survey/2007/CA_Survey_Report-2007.pdf
  5. ^ http://www.croquet.org.uk/news/newsdb.asp?NewsID=2766
  6. ^ http://golfcroquet.blip.tv/#1106765
  7. ^ http://www.croquetamerica.com/usca/directory/clubs/

[edit] External links

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