CROQUET COACHING: Croquet Endings

1 March 2005
Coaching Seminar, Hobart, Tasmania
by John Riches

Guidelines only, depending on ability of both players, amount of time remaining, how score will count, etc. They are intended for club players who can make breaks, not for international players.

1. Do not give contact.
2. If the opponent gives you contact, set the lawn up to guarantee a break in your next turn if he misses a long roquet. Do not try for a low percentage immediate break.
3. Don’t make 4-back until your partner has made 1-back. It is more mportant to set up well for the partner, which you will not be able to do if you have given a lift.
4. If your clips are on (say) penultimate and 2-back, first take the forward ball to the peg (unless you are confident of doing the double peel).
5. Don’t peg out an opponent ball if his other clip is past 4-back.
6. Remember that if you peg out a ball, you no longer get advanced lifts.
7. Peg out an opponent ball if the number of hoops you have to make with your other ball will be less than half the number he has to make.
8. Peg out both balls if you will be more than 5 hoops ahead in the 2-ball ending.
9. With 2 balls in a 3-ball ending, take an opportunity to play a 3-ball break rather than trying to continually wire your balls from the opponent’s ball.
10. With 2 balls in a 3-ball ending, rush to where you can wire you balls rather than making a long roll to your hoop with nothing set up ahead.
11. If your opponent’s single ball is for the peg, set up on the opposite side.
12. With the single ball in a 3-ball ending, shoot at anything that will give you a 3-ball break if you hit it (unless perhaps it is a very long shot and a miss will give him a 3-ball break and he still has to make 1-back and give you a lift).
13. With the single ball in a 3-ball ending, if the opponent’s ball are apart, then shoot at his peg ball.
14. In a 2-ball ending, if you are both for the same hoop, don’t try to creep in too close while staying on opposite sides of the hoop wired from each other.
15. In all 3-ball or 2-ball endings, keep track of the score and don’t forget lifts.
16. Know the rules pertaining to turns after the bell.
17. Remember that the “bell” turn ends when the ball is struck in the last stroke of the turn, and each player must always get to hit at least one ball after the bell goes.
18. If you are ahead in thje first turn after the bell, and the opponent will have to play his backward ball in order to catch up, you can set up next to his forward ball.
19. If you are behind when the bell goes, then in your turn after the bell you must play the ball which will allow you to win the game.
20. If scores are level after each player has played a turn after the bell, all you have to do is score one more point. You can take off to the peg and peg a ball out. Or take off to a hoop and run it or sit in front. Do not roll to the hoop because you will not need a ball to roquet after you make the hoop.