HIBISCUS COLUMN
disciplines into a contest that ends on the hour. By then, a winning pair should have pegged out, a&er ge8ng two balls through six hoops. The rules ensure that no‐one sits court‐side watching others create four‐ball breaks, the most common deterrent for poten6al AC recruits. The balls are hit in colour order, star6ng with blue one yard in front of hoop one. Go through to progress to hoop 2; miss and your ball is off the court un6l your next turn, when the star6ng distance is reduced to 18 inches. In any turn, the player can roquet and croquet the other three balls once, but no more, even if they run a hoop. The striker’s ball doesn’t have to move the croquet ball in a take‐off; nor does the oppo ball have to stay on the lawn, though using a foot to propel it is forbidden: far too crude for our regulated age. As a post‐war child, I played by these rules, giving up the game for the next 59 years, when we moved into Bath in 1960. A year later, the Croquet Associa6on published the first edi6on of The Laws of Associa6on Croquet; the 7th edi6on, which came out in 2021, fine‐tuned its dense content into the interna6onal format used today. In May, 2025, the KWIK command
from CqE arrived at Blewbury CC. Eager to please, the Commi7ee got together for a workshop to learn how to do it, then invited villagers and members to take part in complimentary tutored games. The response was underwhelming, but the tac6cs required to use the rules profitably gradually triggered interest. What it wasn’t was quick…a&er 90 minutes, one ball pegged out, but the other three were s6ll figh6ng it out for hoop 2. Useful? Enjoyable? We Blewburians are not qui7ers, so I'll give you an update a&er our inaugural in‐house pairs tournament, on August Bank Holiday Monday. Given a stretch of turf, six lengths of bent metal and a striped pole, how many variants can you play? Pirates for starters. And then….. Although Wimbledon has long gone, thoughts may linger on medical 6meout variants. One dis6nguished low handicapper smiled broadly as she recalled a croquet match against Jonathan Toye, Norfolk’s celebrated one‐armed, one‐legged vic6m of a motorcycle accident. "He couldn't hit a thing", she explained, "then he asked me if I'd mind if we stopped the clock so he could change the sock on his ar6ficial leg. When he came back, he couldn't miss". What next, Novak?
MINTY CLINCH Travelling Croquet Journalist Telling the Croquet stories as they unfold
Imagine country house gardens between the world wars, lawns me6culously cut by mowers drawn by ponies. With eligible men in short supply following the Somme and Spanish flu, posh girls in flapper frocks welcomed the vicar and the doctor to cucumber sandwiches and croquet. Unlike the ambiance, the game was unrelen6ngly vicious. A&er a roquet, you put your foot on your striker ball to rocket the oppo into the herbaceous border. Or the fishpond. Recently, Croquet England searched the archives for a hybrid that might persuade newcomers to pursue AC rather than, or at worst as well as, GC. And there it was. A century later, they’ve called it KWIK, a name that I’m told must be wri7en in cursive script, making it illegible but not easily confused with a global tyre replacement brand. It reminds Americans of 6 wicket; for Brits, it combines elements from both
TUNNEL OF TIME CROQUET ON CAMERA – GET INVOLVED! Got a phone in your pocket? Then you’ve got everything you need to help promote croquet! Don’t worry if you’re not a video whiz — just have a go! If you need help with sound or edi6ng, we can support
you and we’ll add the finishing touches, like logos and intros.
We’re looking for short, fun videos (around 30 to 90 seconds) that show off the game we all love — from clever hoop tac6cs to fast‐paced mallet ba7les, or just a great moment on the lawn. It’s all about showing how croquet is ac6ve, sociable, and full of surprises.
Know someone in TV or media who might want to help? Even be7er — send them our way! Let’s make croquet more visible, more fun, and more now.
Get in touch with the Marke6ng Commi7ee for more informa6on: mike.prince@croquetengland.org.uk Lights… camera… hoop run!
www.croquetengland.org.uk | 4
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator