Croquet << kroh KAY >> is a popular outdoor lawn game in which the players use mallets to hit balls through narrow arches. The arches are called wickets in the United States and hoops in the rest of the world.
Croquet was developed in England in the mid-1800’s. Today, millions of people play nine-wicket, or backyard croquet, with lightweight, inexpensive equipment. A much smaller number of players throughout the world play six-wicket Association Croquet, promoted by the World Croquet Federation. The United States Croquet Association sanctions tournaments for both the six-wicket and nine-wicket versions of the game.
The court and equipment.
A standard croquet court for Association Croquet measures 105 feet (32 meters) long and 84 feet (26 meters) wide. Each side uses mallets weighing about 3 pounds (1.4 kilograms). The four 1-pound (0.5-kilogram) balls are colored blue, red, black, and yellow. There may be two additional balls, colored green and orange. Six iron or aluminum wickets, measuring about 12 inches (20 centimeters) above the ground, are firmly driven into the standard court, which is designed to be flat and fast. The grass is mown to a height less than 1/4 inch (6 millimeters). In Association Croquet, a peg or stake in the center of the court is the final point to be scored in a game by a ball of the winning side.
In nine-wicket or backyard croquet, the standard court measures 50 by 100 feet (15 by 30 meters). The court is arranged in a double-diamond pattern, with nine wickets plus two stakes, called the turning stake and finishing stake. A player scores a point each time a ball passes through a wicket or hits a stake.
The game.
Most Association Croquet games have two sides playing with four balls, two on each side. In singles, one player plays both balls. In doubles, each player plays a single ball.
Players get only one stroke per turn unless they earn extra strokes. One extra stroke is earned by scoring a wicket in the order of the course. Two extra strokes are gained by hitting another ball, either the partner’s ball or the opponent’s ball. Players can execute the first of the two extra strokes by placing their ball against the ball that was struck and then hitting their own ball to make both balls move. They are then entitled to an additional continuation stroke. By skillfully moving the balls around the court and making use of extra earned strokes, an expert player may score many wickets in a single turn.
