• Increase Certainty in Stroke Making
• Extra Power
• Elbow of the Lower Arm
• Smooth Flat Swing
• Over Steep Swing
• The Hit
• The Rush
• Strength when Rushing
• Making a Hoop
• Fine Takeoff or Feather-Off
• Hoop Approaches
• Points About Peeling
• Human Fraility
• Control Essential
• Rush versus Croquet
• No Reason for Failure
• Points to Consider in a Four-Ball Break

• Hoop Makers
• Variations of a Four-Ball Break
• A Further Variation of a Four-Ball Break
• Opening Turns
• An Alternative Opening
• Rushes
• Old Standard Leave
• Laying Up
• Corner Shots
• The Out Player
• Playing a Junior Player
• Peeling so that Striker's Ball Passes in Front of the Hoop
• Irish Peel
• When the Ball to be Peeled is in the Jaws
• Rover Peel
• Pegged Out Game
• Croquet Strokes

One has frequently heard experts extolling the value of a "smooth, flat swing" or criticisnig players with "too steep" a swing. How can one achive the former and avoid the latter?

Take a style in which the hands are slightly apart, the style that most of us use, and consider what happens when making an ordinary hit. The mallet is drawn backwards sufficiently to give the stroke sufficient force and then swings forward, hits the ball and follows on after it, sometimes to the limit of the reach of the arms; I am convinced that there should be as little movement of the top hand as possible until the "follow-through" portion of the movement begins, but from that point onwards the mallet should be allowed to pull both hands forward without check of any sort.

The lower hand naturally must be responsible for the backward movement but care should be taken not to grip too tightly with it or jerk the mallet back over suddenly, as this will destroy the rythm.

And that is the recipe for a "smooth, flat swing." (page 43-44)

The things to consider are:

1. The exact spot at which the striker wants the rushed ball to come to rest. (This should always be an exact spot, not "over there near that hoop".)
2. The exact spot at which the striker's ball must hit the ball to be rushed in order to send it to the right place. (page 46)
   
   

The strength of the hit can really be learned by practice and experience only, but the following points may be of value:

The Straight Rush

The Cut Rush

The stroke should be a quiet, steady swing through and the very greatest care should be taken to avoid looking at the hoop while making it.

Top Spin

Strength

Weighing the Chances

The object of this stroke is to send the striker's ball some distance while the front ball, which should rightly be called "the ball at the side", seeing that the two are lying directly across the line the striker's ball will follow, hardly moves.

Great Danger

Here is a plan for getting good position from any spot and at the same time placing the croqueted ball in a useful position, so that a rush up the lawn can be obtained after the hoop has been made.

Placing the Balls

Mallet Aiming-mark

Type of Stroke

If the Balls Are More Than Six Feet From the Hoop

It does not matter in the least the direction from which the approach is made; the above plan will always give satisfactory results if it is practised sufficiently to learn the strength required. (page 60-61)

When approaching a hoop from directly in front one naturally sends the croqueted ball past the hoop on the side that will result in the most useful position after the hoop has been made, but if the approach is from one side or the other, even slightly so, always send the croqueted ball past the nearer upright unless it is essential to do otherwise. It is surprisingly difficult to make an accurate approach when sending the croqueted ball across in front of the hoop--I have seen many a good turn come to grief because this has been attempted. (page 62)

If the ball from which croquet is to be taken is within a foot of the hoop and directly behind it, position can be obtained as follows.

Placing the Striker's Ball

Aiming the Mallet

Type of Stroke

This stroke is only possible if the striker's ball is in reasonably good position for the hoop (that is, can go through it in reverse without difficulty) when placed in the position described above, but if that is so the stroke is by no means a difficult one. (page 62-63)

A striker who goes in for peeling finishes generally tries to make the peels immediately after making the particular hoop concerned in the other direction.

The very best place from which to make the approach upon such occasions is a spot about a foot to the side of the hoop, directly in line with the two uprights. The stroke employed is a little right angle split; the balls are aimed at a spot directly in front of the hoop on the side from which the ball to be peeled must enter it and about a foot away from it; the mallet is aimed at the nearer upright. As this type of stroke will always send the balls an equal distance, if the strength is accurate for one of them, it will naturally be equally so for the other, so the striker can afford to concentrate upon placing one of them. (page 63)

If the Break is really successful these will always be quiet, controlled strokes. The making of hoops from good positions should be practiced more often than the making of them from difficult positions, but it must be remembered that the actual going through is only one of the objects of the stroke; the playing of the stroke to land the ball on an exact spot is almost as important and must be kept in mind when hoop making is practiced.

The remaining strokes should also be practiced until they become a matter of routine, and again, absolute accuracy must be striven for during that practice. (page 73)

[Note - colors have been swapped from the original quote.]

In all of the Openings given so far it has been presumed that [player] B does not hit when playing his first turn with black; let us suppose that B succeeds in hitting in with black in each of the three cases given above and see what happens.

1. Blue is on the side-line opposite hoop four and black has just roqueted red having played the stroke from corner one hard enough to send black off the lawn near corner two if the roquet were not successful. In all probability red has been roqueted some yards up the lawn towards hoop two, but wherever it comes to rest B now croquets it to the spot slightly to the left of hoop two and about a yard short of that hoop, black going across the lawn as near to blue as possible in the same shot. If black arrives reasonably close to blue, B roquets that ball and arranges his two so that he will have a rush towards hoop one next turn, taking great care not to leave a good target [double] for A from the near end of baulk 1.

   If blue is not near enough for black to have a certain roquet after taking croquet from red the best plan will be to go off the lawn within a yard of blue.

If black misses, but yellow hits in his first turn.

1. When A plays his first turn with yellow in this set of circumstances blue is on the side-line opposite hoop four and black is on the yard-line in or near to corner two, while red is on the opposite side-line to blue, about ten yards from corner one. A will place yellow on the baulk-line directly in front of hoop one and shoot at red. He roquets that ball and plays a roll stroke that lands both balls near corner one. The last stroke gives one or other of the balls a perfect rush to hoop one, care being taken not to give a good target [a double] to either of the enemy balls. (page 77-78)

A, having won the toss, elects to play first and places his first ball (blue) a few feet away from the middle-of-the-lawn end of baulk 1 in the direction of hoop four. If this ball is very close to the baulk there is no danger to B to roquet it with red, place it near the side-line opposite hoop four and then hit his own ball off the side boundary ten yards from corner one, establishing by this means an orthodox Opening, and defeating the purpose of his advisary, which is to bluff him into an error of tactics. If, however, the first ball is so far away that he thinks that he might miss it, he should refuse to go for it, place his ball on corner three spot and declare that his turn has been taken.

A is now faced with the necessity of clearing the two balls in play away from the proximity of the baulks; he realized that this might become necessary before he embarked upon the Opening but he has probably practised the manoeuvre and is prepared to back himself to accomplish it. He begins by placing his ball on the end baulk-line within two feet of red (which is, of course, in corner three) and the roquet will cut that ball as far up the side-line as possible. He will not be able to gain more than a foot or two but every inch is of importance to him. He then plays a big split-pass-roll which send red in the direction of hoop two while his black travels down the lawn towards blue. If he succeeds in this difficult stroke he may be able to rush blue to hoop one and establish a three-ball break; if he does not place black near enough to blue to make it safe to shoot at that ball he will retire to corner four, or rather to a spot on the side-line about eighteen inches from that corner.

B must now shoot at blue with yellow the last ball to be put into play. If he hits it, he will leave it near hoop four while yellow goes to black near corner four; if he succeeds in getting position for a rush on that ball to hoop one he will have a break, but otherwise his best plan will be to croquet black to hoop one, on the far side of that hoop from blue, and finish his turn by retiring to near his red near hoop two.

The purpose of this opening is to trap the player of the second opening turn to an error of tactics. If B shoots at blue with red, hits it, croquets it into the middle of the lawn and retires to near corner four, A has won his gamble because all he will have to do is play black off the lawn near to red on the side-line in order to have a potential Break with that ball if yellow misses red in the last of the opening turns. It is surprising how often an inexperienced player will fall into this trap. (page 79-80)

The wise player always makes as much use of rushes as he can because by this means he avoids having to send his own ball long distances when absolute accuracy is essential. If he studies the section devoted to the making of rushes he will soon find that he can make them without trouble and so save himself many anxious moments.

Should yellow fail to control the hoop-making stroke at hoop one and pass black before coming to rest, there will be no rush towards blue or up the lawn towards hoop two, and the only thing to do will be to roquet black gently and attempt the big split-roll in order to send black to hoop three and yellow to red near hoop two. Experts can do this stroke with reasonable certainty though most of them regard it as something to be avoided if possible; many average players do not realise how difficult it is and depend upon it as the one means of establishing the break--which is one of the reasons they are not experts! It should be taken as a basic principle that these long-distance split-rolls are last resorts, not routine strokes; one does them if one has to, but never otherwise. (page 82)

The expert considers that if he has a rush towards either another ball or the first hoop he has to make, he should be able to make as many hoops as may be required. That is the goal all of us should be striving for. (page 83)

The completed Lay-up is as follows:--

Red has a rush on yellow up the side-line from about six feet from corner four; black is about six feet from hoop two, between that hoop and the side boundary, the perfect position being the spot that is wired from the near end of baulk 2. Blue is about six feet from the peg and to the right of it as one looks up the lawn from the hoop one end.

One sometimes sees red and yellow placed so that red has a rush towards hoop one; that is quite a good idea unless one is playing a first-class player but definitely not sound if the enemy is a "Tiger".

The general practice is for the adversary to move the ball near hoop two, take it to Baulk and shoot at the ball in the middle of the lawn so the position in which yellow should place the ball he wants to play the next turn is near hoop two. There is nothing complicated in this Lay-up, but the final position can be difficult to arrive at if preparations for it are left until too late. The player who leaves things until he has made the last hoop of the turn will seldom be able to fix things up properly. (page 85)

I have frequently wondered why players I have watched do not take opportunities that present themselves to wire the enemy balls when Laying-up. If care is taken to place the first ball roqueted as nearly on the wired line as possible the operation generally becomes quite an easy one, but the majority never seem to think of it.

Black has just failed at hoop two but Yellow, the other ball near the hoop, is wired from Black. Red is near hoop three and Blue is near the peg. Yellow is for four-back but Red is for hoop one, so though Yellow must be played by the side, Black being in a possible position for its hoop, the turn will consist of a Lay-up for Red rather than a scoring turn for Yellow.

Yellow shoots at Blue because to shoot at Red might result in giving Black two balls near its hoop supposing that Yellow misses and Black makes hoop two and then hits Blue in its next turn. Yellow hits Blue and so becomes entitled to continue with the Lay-up; the next stroke is a roll which places Blue just beyond hoop two and yellow close to Black and this is followed by a little roquet which knocks Black against the hoop uprights in such a way that it rebounds a few inches into an almost wired position. Yellow now takes off from Black, moving that ball the necessary inch or two to complete the wire, and comes to rest in position for a rush on Red towards the other end of the lawn. This rush is hit hard enough to send Red (the roqueted ball) off the lawn more or less beyond hoop one, and the next two strokes place Red near corner one and Yellow about four feet away so that Red has a rush towards hoop one.

When lining up the balls at the end of the turn, care should be taken to leave Yellow in a spot that will not give either enemy ball a double target, hence the instruction to leave it about four feet from Red. It is also a sound plan to leave Red at least six feet from the Boundary so that if the adversary shoots, and misses, it will be possible to roquet that ball first, croquet it out into the lawn and then proceed to make hoop one off Yellow. (page 87)

Take the most generally used layup when one ball has made nine hoops in the early stages of the game, no other ball having scored.

Red has made nine hoops and has put black near hoop two, blue near the peg, and has laid a rush for yellow up the side-line near corner four. It would be poor tactics to move blue to baulk because there would be no reasonably safe shot for that ball to take, so black is the ball to take the lift with. Unless the player of that ball is a very good shot or a gambler he will not shoot at red or yellow, so his target will be blue. If the adversary is one of the majority his best move will be to lift to baulk 1 [A baulk] and line up his shot so he will go off the lawn near corner three if he misses. If he is trying to cope with one of the small band of absolute "tops" that always seem to exist in Croquet, the best plan will be to play from the other end so that a miss will land his ball as near to corner four as possible.

With an ordinarily good player a ball in or near corner three is a bit of a menace in the early stages of his turn, but the absolute "top" feels like proposing a vote of thanks to the adversary who plays one there because it makes the opening moves of the triple peel he is scheming for easier for him.

Joining up "wide" on the yard-line is sound tactics under ordinary circumstances, but it must be used with discretion if the adversary is better than average. (page 91-92)

In both of these games the player who pegged out his adversary's ball was a long way behind when he did the pegging out, but won the game in spite of that. If that player takes the trouble to wire both of his balls from the enemy upon every possible occasion and avoids using the enemy ball at all costs unless he can establish a three-ball Break by doing so, he will generally win, provided the other side has four points to make when the ball is pegged out.

The player of the two balls must never be in a hurry to indulge in long roll-ups to the next hoop; I have seen an expert at this type of game advance from one hoop to the next by means of several turns, at the end of each of which his balls were safely wired from the enemy. The adversary had nothing to shoot at and had to lurk on the boundary fairly near to the hoop the other side was approaching in the hope that the wiring might not succeed.

Wiring tactics of this sort require practice, but certainly is possible to achieve by this means and as the games are extremely interesting to the players and exciting to the spectators, I have often thought that it is a pity they are not seen more often. (page 129-130)