The game is played between two sides, one taking the blue and black balls and the other the red and yellow. (There are also alternate colours, green and brown against pink and white, which can be used to allow a second game to be played on the same court without causing confusion.) The court is laid out with six hoops and a central peg. The object for each side is to strike both its balls through all the hoops in both directions in a standard order and then against the peg. The first side to achieve this wins the game.
The sides take turns alternately. A turn continues as long as the player continues to play successful strokes. (The idea is similar to that of a break in snooker.) When the striker's ball hits another ball (this is called a roquet), two more strokes are allowed. The first of these is a croquet stroke, played by placing the striker's ball against the roqueted ball and hitting it so that both balls move. This is followed by a continuation stroke, in which the player will typically attempt to roquet another ball or to run a hoop. On going through a hoop in due order, a continuation stroke is allowed. The striker's ball may roquet and take croquet from each of the other three balls only once between successive hoops within a turn.
Croquet can be played as a singles or a doubles game. In singles, each player takes two balls; in doubles, each of the two players on a side has one of the balls and must play with that ball throughout the game. In either case, each side can choose which ball to play at the beginning of a turn but must then continue playing that ball throughout the turn.
A handicap system allows players of different standards to compete. The weaker player is allowed a number of bisques, which are extra turns; a bisque can be taken at the end of any turn, but only with the same ball that has just been played.
Because it is a game of skill rather than of strength or speed, croquet can be played on equal terms by men and women and by players of all ages. It has attractions both in the intricacy of the tactics involved in building a break for one's own side and denying hoops to the opposing side and in the aesthetic pleasure of the multicoloured balls, the well-tended lawn and - in the Edinburgh club - the splendid setting at Lauriston Castle with its view over the Firth of Forth.
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Fergus McInnes
(Fergus.McInnes@ed.ac.uk)