CROQUET COACHING: Croquet Openings Explained CROQUET COACHING: Croquet Openings Explained 9 November 2006
by John Riches
Introduction
The Standard Opening
1. First Ball
2. Second Ball
3. Third Ball
4. Fourth Ball
5. Fifth Turn
Other Openings
1. The Long-Tice Con
2. The 2nd Corner Opening
3. The Come-On Challenge
4. The 4th Corner Opening
5a. The Duffer Tice
5b. The Anti-Duffer Opening
6. The Super Shot Opening
Let us start by saying that in theory there is no advantage in winning the toss. At the start of a game between two players of similar ability both players should have an equal chance of being the first to get a break established, provided they have a correct assessment of both their own and their opponent’s ability.
Most players who win the toss elect to play first, but this is based more on psychological than purely tactical considerations - a vague notion in the back of the mind that if you put your two balls together and your opponent fails to roquet on the fourth turn, you will have the innings in the fifth turn.
It is indeed true that if that all happens, the player with the innings (i.e. his balls close together to start the turn) at the start of the fifth turn - or any other turn, for that matter - must be conceded a slightly better than even chance of being able to establish a break before his opponent does. But the difference is often small, e.g. 55%-45% or 60%-40%, especially when the opponent’s balls are both in places where they will be difficult to use.
However there are many things to be considered and actions to be undertaken before that stage is reached, and the opponent can contrive to ensure that in fact there is a less than even chance of the game reaching such a position at the start of the fifth turn; and in fact he can play the opening in such a way that he is as likely as the first player to get the first established break.
Here it should be pointed out that when both players are capable of setting up and playing all-round breaks if given a reasonable opportunity (here “reasonable” will depend on the ability of the player), the making of one or more hoops without establishing a break is of little consequence. Until you have made 1-back you will still need at least two turns to finish the game; or three turns if you cannot triple peel. (If you can sextuple peel, you will need to seek advice elsewhere!) In fact, with players who triple peel, making fewer than 6 hoops in the first turn can actually reduce your chance of winning the game, as you will have made it harder for yourself to finish the game in two further turns by triple peeling, and for this reason top players will sometimes “pop” the opponent’s ball by peeling it through the first one or two hoops while also making their own first break to 4-back. It must be admitted, however, that with players who are not capable of tripling, there can be an advantage in making just one or two hoops at the start of a game, because it means that your cllips are no longer on the same hoop, which makes it easier for you to set up an “ideal leave” to maximise your chance of getting the next break established. (For a full explanation of “idea leaves” see my booklet “CRoquet: Next Break Strategy”.)
While the choice of opening tactics is to a certain extent a matter of fashion where lesser players copy whatever they have seen a top player do most recently, it is true that one method of opening the game has stood the test of time and become by far the most commonly used opening over the past hundred or so years. This is known as the “standard” opening. We shall describe it briefly here, then consider each of the moves in more detail, together with possible variants at each stage.
To a beginner the obvious way to start is by placing the first ball on A-baulk and trying to make hoop 1. It will usually not take him long to realise that this is an unwise move, and he should instead seek to put his first ball in a relatively safe position where he can join up with it in the third turn and hope that his opponent will not roquet in the fourth turn. So he looks for a place on the court which offers his opponent little chance of using his ball, and the best such place is on the east border a yard or two north or level with hoop 4. In the second and fourth turns his opponent will have to hit his two balls into play from either A-baulk or B-baulk, and this part of the court is about as far away as you can get from both baulk-lines. There is a similar place on the west border a yard or two south of hoop 2, but the position on the east border is preferred because if the opponent does happen to roquet your ball there it will be further from the hoops (1 and 2) he wants to make.
The second player has little to gain by shooting at the first ball on the east border (thoiugh that is a variant we shall consider later), and could copy the first player’s tactic by sending his ball to the corresponding maximum-distance-from-each-baulkline position on the west border. But since few players, if any, can hit roquets of this maximum 17-yard distance from baulk 50% of the time, this would involve meekly accepting the likelihood that after all four balls have been played into court the first player will have the innings and a slightly better than even chance of being the first to establish a break.
Therefore the second player wants to “entice” his opponent to NOT join his two balls together on the east border. He does this by placing the second ball somewhat closer to a baulkline, at a distance where he believes he (and also his opponent) has an even chance of being able to roquet it from a baulkline. There are various such places which we shall consider later, but the most common one is about 10 yards up the west border from the 1st corner, about level with the rover hoop. The exact distance will be determined by the second player’s estimation of his (and his opponent’s) roqueting percentages at particular distances, and this can be assessed with reasonable accuracy by repeated trials during practice sessions, though it will also depend on the court and weather conditions on any particular day. The judgment of this distance is an important one which can yield the second player either a better than even or less than even chance of establishing a break before his opponent does.
[A “tice” is a ball placed in an enticing position to encourage the opponent to shoot at it; and the length of the tice is its distance from the nearest baulkline.]
In actual fact, it has been worked out statistically that the “correct” length of the “tice” is a distance at which both you and your opponent would be expected to have a 46% chance of roqueting it. The justification for 46% rather than 50% is that the consequences of roqueting the tice are different depending on which player roquets it (on either the third or fourth turn). The second player will normally hit his tice from a position on A-baulk more or less in front of hoop 1, sending it diagonally across the west border at a precisely selected point.
The generally recommended method of determining your tice length is, each time you have a practice session, to place a ball on what you estimate might be a 50% roqueting distance from A-baulk and takes 10 shots at it. If you hit it more than 5 times, next session move it further away; and if you hit it less than 5 times, move it closer. In a match you can then place it about a yard further away than what you have decided is your 50% roqueting distance, in order to reduce the percentage to about 46%. If you wish you can also take into account the court and weather conditions, and your estimate of your opponent’s roqueting ability.
If the second player has correctly judged the length of his tice, the first player, when hitting his other ball into play in the third turn of the game, will be faced with a difficult decision. If he follows his original plan of joining up with his frst ball on the east border, his opponent will have an almost even chance of roqueting the tice; and if he does so he will have a better chance of setting up an immediate break (by sending the tice ball near hoop 2 with a wide-angle split shot as his own ball goes across the court to roquet one of the first player’s balls and rush the other to hoop 1) than the first player will have if the second player misses the tice. But if he changes his plan and shoots at the tice, he risks not having his balls together at the start of the fifth turn, and probably allowing the second player to get the innings, together with the slightly better than even chance of being the first to establish a break. If the first player thinks the tice length is a bit too long to give a 46% chance of roqueting it, then in the third turn he will hit his ball near to the first ball on the east border; but if he thinks he has a better than 46% chance of roqueting the tice, then he should shoot at it. In each case there will be things he needs to consider:
a. Joining Up with Partner
If you shoot at your partner ball you take the risk, if you miss, of finishing very close to it on the yard-line and leaving an inviting double target for your opponent in the fourth turn. This, rather than the extra 2-3 yard roqueting distance from A-baulk, is why in the standard opening the first ball is not played to a point on the east border closer to the 4th corner. By placing it further up the border you can retain the option, if the tice is a long one, of shooting at it in the third turn, knowing that (unless your shot is particularly bad) you are unlikely to finish near enough to give the opponent a really inviting double target. He will have a double target from B-baulk, but that shot will be much longer, and is less likely to be hit than if he were to shoot at the tice from A-baulk.
It is also possible to hit the third ball so that it finishes a yard or so short of the first ball and in-lawn, so as to give the first ball a rush to the tice if the opponent fails to roquet from baulk in the fourth turn. But this requires accuracy of “touch” early in the game, and there is a considerable ikelihood that you will either leave a double target from A-baulk, or you will not set yourself a worth-while rush. In addition, it leaves the opponent a “safe” shot from B-baulk into the 4th corner where you will now not have a rush to it as you would have had with both of your balls on the east border; and it foregoes the chance of roqueting your partner ball in the third turn.
If, in the third turn, you succeed in roqueting your partner ball on the east border, you have at least four choices of continuation:
(1) simply set yourself a rush to the tice, which has the disadvantages explained in the previous paragraph; but may be worthy of consideration in difficult conditions or when the tice is a very long one; or
(2) split your partner ball to hoop 2 while going to the tice, and after roqueting the tice, set up a 3-ball break by making hoop 1. This requires great confidence and the ability to play accurate shots at an early stage of the game. The opponent will hit his next ball in from a baulk-line, so if anything goes wrong with your attempt to set up the immediate break you are very likely to leave him with a relatively easy target and all balls out where he can use them; or
(3) take off to the tice, and send it into the court while trying for position to make hoop 1. This is often tried, but is rather pointless because the chance of continuing the break even if you succeed in making hoop 1 is rather low, and you are taking risks which offer you little gain if they happen to succeed.
(4) Take off to the tice, roquet it, and set up a break for next turn if your opponent fails to roquet. This can be done in two ways:
EITHER send the tice ball toward hoop 2, then return near your partner ball on the east border to give yourself a rush to that ball,
OR send the tice ball over near your partner ball on the east border and leave the ball you are playing near the peg.
This means you are threatening, if the opponent does not roquet with the fourth ball, to roquet his ball, send it to hoop 2, and take your own ball to hoop 1. Many players find there is a psychological advantage in being able to make hoop 1 from their partner ball. Some fail to consider this possibility because the idea of setting up with one of their balls near an opponent ball does not occur to them. An interesting way of achieving this position is (in the croquet shot, after roqueting the tice ball) to deliberately send the tice ball out of court a yard north of your own ball on the east border, while running your striker’s ball a few yards past the peg. It can also leave your opponent wondering what you are doing, so you should make sure that he knows you did it deliberately! This may leave a double-target from B-baulk, but it is probably no more likely to be hit than the slightly shorter shot at the ball you have left near the peg, and either shot will be hit less than 50% of the time.
b. Shooting at the Tice
The first and main consideration if you choose to shoot at the tice with the third ball is how hard to hit. You should shoot so that, if you fail to roquet, your ball will finish on the border about level with hoop 2. This can be achieved either by shooting from the 1st corner spot, or by shooting from a point a small distance along A-baulk from the 1st corner and going over the boundary if you miss.
The reason for finishing about level with hoop 2 is so that if the opponent makes a double target from A-baulk with the fourth ball he risks (if he misses and finishes in or near the 2nd corner) you roqueting his ball. You do not actually have to be sure of roqueting a ball in the 2nd corner; you just need to make him think that you might. This should cause him to shoot at his tice ball diagonally from a point on A-baulk roughly in front of hoop 1, and if he misses this shot you will shoot back down the west yard-line at his two balls, which is why you did not send your ball right into the 2nd corner This shot at his balls (usually only a single-ball target) is much safer than returning to your partner ball on the east border, even though there is the (rather remote) possibility that you could miss and finish on the 1st corner spot, and he could then contrive to rush a ball into the 1st corner and create a cannon and an easy break.
If, in the third turn, you shoot at the tice and hit it, then your choices are the same as in (3) and (4) above, where you had roqueted your own ball on the east border and taken off to the tice ball. The best alternative for most players is once again to set up for your next turn by giving yourself a rush to a ball near the peg.
In the fourth turn of the game the second player will play his second ball into the court. The general rule is that he should take the shot he is most llikely to hit. This will often be a shot from the 1st corner spot at the tice, or else if the first player has shot at the tice and missed, he will shoot at the tice from a position in front of hoop 1 as we have seen above. Occasionally the opponent’s balls will offer him a double target from either A-baulk or B-baulk, but he will only shoot at it if he is very confident of hitting it, since if he makes a roquet on an opponent ball he will have more work to do to set up a break than if he shoots at the tice and hits it.
If he hits the tice, then he should be prepared to play a big wide-angle split shot which sends the tice ball somewhere into court near hoop 2 while his own ball goes across the lawn to the two opponent balls on the east border. This is not a difficult shot, but needs regular practice. It should be played with a flat, roquet-type swing and aimed at a point at least one yard to the left (north) of the centre peg (!). The strength will depend on the speed of the lawn. There is some risk in playing this shot, but it should be only a slight risk and the pay-off for a successful shot is great - an almost certain all-round break. Do not hold back and risk falling short in order to ensure that your ball does not go out; play it confidently with the intention of getting right over to the opponent’s balls. You must be prepared to write off the one time in 20 or so that your ball may actually go out, as a small price to pay for the other 19 times when you got (or should have got) the break established.
It is interesting that many players in lower grades use the Standard Opening although if they hit the tice they have no intention of playing this wide-angle split shot to set up a break for themselves. Instead they take off to the opponent’s balls. This greatly reduces their chance of getting the first break from about 80-85% to something like 55-60%, and is poor tactics. If they were never going to make a serious attempt to set up an immediate break, then they should have used a different opening and put the tice somewhere else.
We will now suppose that no roquets have been made in the first four turns. The first player’s two balls are within a yard of each other on the east border, and the second player has missed his tice, with the fourth ball finishing in the 2nd corner.
If the conditions are very difficult the first player may now decide to simply set himself a rush to hoop 1 and/or the tice ball. In doing this he should try to wire the rush from both opponent balls, since if he leaves it open to either of the opponent’s balls then that ball should shoot at the rush on the next turn. If he succeeds in wiring the rush, then the opponent must shoot from the 2nd corner back through the tice. Any of these shots by the opponent will be relatively safe shots for him, in that you have given him a chance to roquet without having a good chance of setting up a break yourself if he misses. Allowing the opponent such “safe” shots is not the way to win most croquet games. That is why you should set the rush only in difficult conditions which make the opponent’s chance of roqueting very low.
Otherwise, you should play the fifth turn as follows: play the ball nearest to the 4th corner and cut-rush your partner ball to the north boundary in front of hoop 3. Do not (as some misguided people do) leave it in the lawn near hoop 3 to load that hoop. It is a common mistake in many situations to load hoops too far ahead and too early.
Then play a fine take-off to the ball in the 2nd corner, moving the croqueted ball no more than six inches (15 cm) from the yard-line. roquet the opponent’s ball in the corner and pass-roll it out 2-3 yards past hoop 2 as you go to the tice ball. This pass-roll is another shot that should be practised regularly, and should involve little or no risk when played with the correct action. Some players like to aim the croqueted ball at hoop 2 so that it will hit the hoop if it looks like going too far into court, but this should not be necessary. Nor is it necessary to try to get a rush on the tice to hoop 1. That would be nice if it happened, but the risk is too great. Some players claim that with plenty of practice they have learnt to get the rush most times, but it seems they would have done better to put the time into practising the approach to hoop 1 from the tice position. Some prefer to take off from the ball in the second corner instead of attempting the long pass-roll, and that option makes a little (but not much) more sense if they have left their partner ball out at hoop 3 instead of on or near the north border; but in any case they are failing to take a very slight risk which has a big pay-off in terms of greatly increasing their chance of getting a break set up in either this turn or their next turn. Such timid tactical play does not win many games at any level.
After playing the pass-roll and roqueting the tice, you play an approach shot to hoop 1. If you can make the hoop you will have an all-round break set up. Load hoop 3 with the ball from hoop 1 as you go to the ball at hoop 2, and after making hoop 2 you can leave that ball anywhere in court and take off to your partner ball on the north border.
If you cannot make hoop 1, or do not want to risk it from the position you have reached, then you have a good alternative: simply hit your ball out of court about a yard to the right (east) of the partner ball you have left near the north border. This gives you a very strong “leave” in which you are threatening to play the same ball again, rush your partner ball to the opponent ball at hoop 2, and rush that ball to hoop 1 with at least a 3-ball break established.
The opponent, faced with this leave, is almost compelled to move the ball at hoop 1, even if your balls offer him some sort of double target for his ball at hoop 2; but you should have tried to ensure that he has only a single-ball target by hitting your ball out carefully to a position you had noted after playing the fine take-off from your partner ball earlier in the turn. If he shoots with his ball from hoop 1 at your balls on the north border, he will give you an immediate rush to hoop 1, with his other ball waiting at hoop 2. If he (foolishly) hits away into (say) the 4th corner, then you should be able to set up at least an immediate 3-ball break by using his other ball. So he will most likely shoot at his partner ball - a 20-yard shot which he knows will give you an easy 4-ball break if it is missed. After he misses his partner ball and finishes on the north border behind hoop 2, the safest way for you to continue is to (cut-)rush your partner ball along the north yard-line to the ball your opponent has just played, take off behind it and rush that ball out close to his other ball in front of hoop 2, then rush that ball to hoop 1. It is often easy enough to wire the ball you are leaving at hoop 2 from your partner ball, or else leave it about 4 yards in front of hoop 2, so that if you again cannot make hoop 1 you can return to your partner ball on the north yard-line and dare him to either attempt a tice-distance (50%) roquet which would leave you a ball at hoop 1, or a longer roquet which will again give you the fourth ball to use.
This whole method of playing the fifth turn is so strong that it is surprising it has not been more universally written about, adopted and taught. Few players, even at the top level, seem to know about it in sufficient detail to fully maximise their chances of establishing a break before their opponent does.
This opening is an attempt to “con” the opponent into depriving himself of his rightful 50% chance in the opening. It works far more often than it should because the opponents often simply fail to think. In actual fact, if he reacts correctly, the opponent’s chances could even be slightly better than in the standard opening.
In this opening the first player hits his first ball to the middle of the WEST border, about level with the peg. It resembles a very long (16-yard) tice, and is desgined to lure the opponent into regarding it as just that. An unwary opponent is very likely to reason, “He has put his ball where I was intending to go, so I will put mine where he should have gone, thereby creating the situation that would have arisen if I had won the toss and hit in first”, and in the second turn he will hit his first ball across just behing hoop 4 to the east border.
Now, however, the first player in the third turn does not join his second ball with his first on the west border; instead he shoots at the opponent’s ball on the east border, or else hits his ball out a yard to the right (south) of that ball.
This means that in the fourth turn the second player is faced with a situation similar to the one that would have resulted from a standard opening, except that the “tice” is a much longer one than he would have had if he had put it there himself! His chance of roqueting the tice should now be noticeably less than 46%.
Note that the first player no longer has a rush to the north border if the tice is missed, unless he had hit his ball out to the right of the opponent ball instead of attempting to roquet it. Foregoing the chance to roquet, and if successful, set up a stronger position, is something that will not appeal to all players, but perhaps they believe that the satisfaction of having succeeded in tricking the opponent into reducing his chance of roqueting the tice will make up for this.
In any case, if the first player elects to use this opening, he risks the opponent actually doing some thinking before hitting his first ball into play (this is admittedly no great risk with most croquet players), in which case he will not put it in the position we have described on the east border.
Instead, he should hit his ball in from B-baulk to a tice position on the east border about level with the penultimate hoop - just as long or short as he chooses. In fact, this is always where he should put the tice if the first player has neither gone to the east border nor covered the 4th corner (i.e. put the first ball where it could roquet a ball in the 4th corner). The second player would do this in the Standard Opening if he could, but the first player prevents him from “laying a B-baulk tice” by placing the first ball so that a B-baulk tice would give him a double target and allow him to finish near his partner ball if in the third turn he misses the tice - thus he would get an extra chance of roqueting the tice in addition to what he would normally expect to get in the Standard Opening.
After the second player has laid the B-baulk tice, the first player in the third turn can either shoot at his own long tice on the west border, or from B-baulk at the opponent’s tice, but either way he is likely to give the opponent a double-target to shoot at in the fourth turn, or allow the opponent to shoot diagonally from the border in front of hoop 3 at the B-baulk tice, leaving the first player in the fifth turn having to make a fairly long roquet instead of having the innings after no roquets have been hit in the first four turns.
This opening can take two forms:
a. In the first turn the first player places his ball at the western end of B-baulk and hits it carefully out over the west border about a foot (30 cm) south of the 2nd corner spot. The idea is that if the opponent shoots at it from B-baulk he has little to gain if he hits it; and if he misses it he is very likely to leave a double-target for the first player in the third turn. If the second player lays a normal A-baulk tice, then the first player in the third turn can shoot down through it to his own ball in the 2nd corner. If the second player hits his ball near the 4th corner, the first player can shoot from near the east end of A-baulk at his ball near the 2nd corner. He is not really expecting to make the 33-yard roquet, but to finish in the corner with his balls a foot apart (too wide to be a really inviting double target) and with a simple cut-rush to either hoop 1 or hoop 2 to set up a break in the 5th turn if in the fourth turn the opponent fails to roquet his own partner ball on the east border. Or if the opponent shoots at the balls in the 2nd corner and misses, the first player in the fifth turn will be able to make a cannon in the 2nd corner, and if he has practised this cannon he should have a reasonable chance of an immediate break, with the opportunity of setting a fairly strong leave if things go wrong.
Once again, the correct answer for the second player was to set a B-baulk tice, after which it will be apparent that the first player has not gained anything by comparison with his chances in the Standard Opening, and may well have slightly reduced his chances. If the first player gives himself the rush in the 2nd corner, and the second player in the fourth turn misses his B-baulk tice and finishes in the 4th corner, then the first player has a good chance of making hoop 1, but less chance than in a Standard Opening of establishing a break in the fifth turn. His best procedure (at anything below international level) is probably to try to make hoop 1 with a rush toward the B-baulk tice, and put that ball at hoop 1 while going to the ball in the 4th corner. Then he can send that opponent ball to hoop 2 while returning to set up a rush parallel to the east border with the ball he has just played (and which is now for hoop 2) having a cut-rush to hoop 3 and his partner ball (for hoop 1) a cut-rush to the south border, so that he is threatening to play at least a 3-ball break in his next turn whichever ball the opponent moves.
b. There is also a variant of the Standard Opening where the second player, instead of laying a normal A-baulk tice, hits it from A-baulk all the way up the court and over the north border 1-2 yards east of the 2nd corner. This represents a tice of about 11-12 yards from the west end of B-baulk. The problem here is that if the first player joins up on the east border, the second player is almost forced to shoot at his opponent’s balls, since shooting at his own tice gives him less chance than if it were a normal A-baulk tice: if he hits it, he will not be able to load hoop 2 as he goes to his opponent’s balls on the east border, so his own chance of a break in the fourth turn will be less than normal; and if he misses it, the first player has an easier task than normal in setting up a break in the fifth turn.
This opening is not to be taken too seriously, although in terms of the percentages it is not so much different from the Standard Opening. It is similar in approach to a boxer dropping his gloves, sticking his chin out, and saying, “Come on, hit me!”. It is normally used (in accord with the boxing analogy) only by players who consider themselves much better players (or at least better roqueters) than their opponents.
The first player hits his first ball to a position where it can be fairly easily roqueted by the second player. The usual place, on the rare occasions when this opening is used, is one yard east of the eastern end of A-baulk. The opponent is then forced to roquet it and has to work out what to do next. His options are similar to those when he succeeds in roqueting the first ball anywhere else on the lawn (more often on the east border in the Standard Opening). They are -
a. roll both balls in near the peg and wire them from each other across the peg. This forces the first player in the third turn to hit his other ball also near the peg without attempting a roquet, so that he will be able to use it to roquet one of the two balls already there if the opponent does not roquet in the fourth turn. He is forced to do this if he wants to retain at least an even chance of getting the first break, since he cannot shoot through one of the balls near the peg toward the other baulk, and if he attempts to roquet and stay near one of the balls he risks presenting the opponent with a double target in the fourth turn.
Hitting away somewhere (e.g. to the 2nd or 4th corner) allows his opponent at least two chances to roquet before the first player will be likely to gain control of the situation.
For example, if the first player hits his second ball to a tice position, or to the middle of the east or west border, the second player in the fourth turn can either shoot through it into a corner, or better still shoot from the other end through one of the balls near the peg at such as angle as to finish on the baulk-line nearest to the tice, about 2-3 yards from the 1st or 3rd corner. This “covering the double” tactic means that if in the fifth turn the first player plays his ball near the peg and joins his partner ball in the tice position, he risks offering his opponent a very inviting double target in the 6th turn.
b. Send one ball to a short B-baulk tice position (there is no need to have it right on the yard-line) and then hit his own ball out in the 1st corner. This amounts to a further “come-on” challenge in reply to his opponent’s effort. The first player then has to decide between either -
(1) taking croquet from the ball in the 1st corner and trying to make hoop 1 with little to gain if he is successful and his opponent waiting with a baulk-line shot if he is not; or
(2) playing a huge pass-roll to get the ball out of the 1st corner and away from the baulk-line while going to the B-baulk tice ball, again with little chance of contnuing the break; (The second player has in effect said, “OK, I hit you as you challenged me to; now let’s see if you can play the big pass-roll under pressure”. Unless the lawn is quite fast and he is a very skillful player, his chance of playing this shot successfully and achieving a good leave will be somewhat less than 50%.) or -
(3) shooting from B-baulk at the B-baulk tice while leaving the ball on the 1st corner spot for the opponent to use if he misses. If he hits the tice he will have some chance, though not an easy one, of establishing an immediate break. If he elects to take the shot at the B-baulk tice he should hit hard, with the idea of rushing it well down the court to a position from which it will be easier for him to send it to hoop 2 while going to the ball in the 1st corner. Staying near the tice ball if he misses would be too risky in this situation.
c. Perhaps the safest option for the second player in answer to the “Come-on Challenge” is to send the first player’s ball near the east border and then hit his own ball out to a normal tice position. This converts things back to a Standard Opening. However he needs to consider that if the opponent’s ball is not on the yard-line the first player in the third turn may be able to hit out behind it and give himself a useful rush to the tice, though in doing this he would be foregoing a chance to roquet and perhaps risking leaving a double target for the second player in the fourth turn. It may be advisable for the second player to try to put the opponent’s ball where it is wired from the east end of A-baulk by hoop 4.
Another opening that can be considered a verson of the “Come-on Challenge” is for the first player to hit his first ball 2-3 yards behind hoop 1, intending in his next turn to shoot at his opponent’s ball wherever it goes, with the hope of establishing a 3-ball break in the third turn. If the second player roquets this shortish tice ball, he is faced with the options (a-c) explained in the previous section. But besides shooting at the ball behind hoop 1 he also has other options, e.g. -
(1) he can lay a longish B-baulk tice. Then, if in the third turn the first player takes the shorter shot from A-baulk at his own ball, he will have little chance of setting up a break; and if he misses it he will have given the innings away with his balls far apart and it will also be dangerous to join up his balls in his next turn. If the first player shoots at the longer B-baulk tice and hits it, he will have a good chance of an immediate break (which is why it should be a long tice, to reduce his chance below 50%); but if he misses it the second player can either shoot at the short tice from A-baulk or shoot diagonally at his own longer B-baulk tice so that if he fails to roquet it the first player in the fifth turn will need to move his ball from behind hoop 1 but will have no safe shot available with it.
(2) he can hit his ball out over the east border about a foot north of the 4th corner spot. This dares the first player to continue with his intention of shooting at it, which would risk leaving an easy double target for the second player in the fourth turn if the roquet is not made, in addition to the option of shooting from A-baulk at the short tice.
(3) he could instead hit his ball out over the west border a foot south of the 2nd corner spot with the same idea, but this also gives the first player a long double target in the third turn and seems to have no advantage over option (2).
This opening can take two forms:
a. We have already seen that it is possible for the first player to hit his first ball to the east border much closer to the 4th corner than in the Standard Opening - e.g. a foot or two from the 4th corner spot. This makes it dangerous for the second player, in his first turn, to shoot at the ball which is already in play. There would in any case be little to gain by hitting it, and a miss would be very likely to leave an easy double target for the first player in the third turn. It also prevents the second player from laying a B-baulk tice; but of course he can simply lay the usual A-baulk tice at whatever length he chooses, and then the first player in the third turn will be taking a serious risk if he shoots at his own ball, for the same reasons. Since the second player knows his opponent will have to shoot at his tice, he can make it longer than usual, intending (after his opponent has shot through it toward the 2nd corner) to shoot at the tice ball diagonally from in front of hoop 1, and in order to gain the innings the first player in the fifth turn will have to hit a roquet back down the west yard-line without having a good chance of setting up a break if he succeeds in roqueting.
b. A quite dfferent opening, with new and different challenges, is seen if the first player hits his first ball from B-baulk all the way down the court and out over the south border about 2 feet west of the 4th corner spot (a shot which needs practice). This offers the second player the chance of a 12-yard roquet in his first turn, but he would not have a lot to gain if he hits it. As we have seen earlier, his best continuation may be to convert the situation back to a normal Standard Opening. He would also be taking the risk that if he misses on the left (in-lawn) side, he is likely to give an easy double target on his opponent’s next turn. Again the B-baulk tice is not a good option for the second player because the 4th corner has been covered, so he will usually lay a normal A-baulk tice, or possibly a “Duffer tice” as examined in the next section. In either case the first player will usually hit his second ball into the 4th corner without trying to roquet, thus setting up a cut-rush to hoop 1 and/or the tice ball (he also had the option of shooting at the tice if it was a short one, with the same chances as in the Standard Opening). Then, after the first player has given himself the rush out of the 4th corner, the second player has two choices:
(1) he can shoot at his tice, and if he roquets it he will be no better off than if he had roqueted the tice in the Standard Opening. If he misses the tice the first player has a slightly better than normal chance of using his rush to set up a break in the fifth turn.
(2) he can shoot at the opponent’s balls. This involves some risk in that a miss will almost certainly allow the first player in the fifth turn to create a cannon in the 4th corner, and provided he has practised this cannon he should be able to set up an immediate break by sending the roqueted ball to hoop 2 while simultaneously rushing the other ball to hoop 1. There is a chance that if the second player makes the roquet he might also happen to have a cannon, but he is unlikely to have practised this cannon which seldom arises unless you deliberately play for it as in this particular opening.
If the second player shoots with his first ball at the first ball and misses into the corner (so as not to leave a double target), then in the third turn the first player could try to roquet his first ball, but this way there is less chance of creating the cannon and more chance of leaving a double target for the second player in the fourth turn. Therefore he should not shoot, but send his second ball into the court about 5 yards due north of hoop 4. Then he threatens in his next turn to (at least) roquet the opponent ball in the 4th corner, and send it to hoop 2 while getting a rush on his partner ball to hoop 1. The second player now has three options:
(1) shoot at the 12-yard roquet from A-baulk into the 4th corner. Hitting it will give him a good chance of setting up an immediate break, but missing it will make it even easier for the first player to set up a break by again creating a cannon in the 4th corner, but this time playing it as a “promotion cannon” by lining up the three balls in an almost straight line to hoop 1 and hitting it so as to send the front ball to hoop 1 without having roqueted it, while the striker’s ball goes to his partner ball which he had carefully placed about 5 yards in front of hoop 4. Then he can split his partner ball to hoop 2 while going to the unused ball at hoop 1. This “promotion canon” also needs practice because with the full weight of two balls in front of it the striker’s balls can tend to fall well short of where you expect it to go, and can also come out at a much wider angle.
(2) shoot at the ball 5 yards in front of hoop 4. This is a slightly longer shot, but not much safer than shooting at the balls in the 4th corner. If he hits it he will need to create a cannon in the 4th corner (and know how to play it) in order to give himself the best chance of setting up an immediate break. If he misses and finishes on the east border about level with the peg, the first player in the fifth turn will roquet the opponent’s ball in the 4th corner and send it to hoop 2 while going EITHER to the ball on the east border, which he will send into court while getting a rush on his partner ball to hoop 1; OR to get an immedtae rush on his partner ball to hoop 1, OR (probably best) to get a rush on his partner ball to the ball on the east border. Then he will rush that ball to hoop 1, and if unsuccessful he will have a very strong leave with the opponent’s balls at hoops 1 and 2. It is important than he should have contrived to leave his partner ball about 2-3 feet from the yard-line so that if necessary he can hit out near it and set up a rush to the ball at hoop 2 (or to the border behind hoop 2 where the opponent’s ball from hoop 1 is likely to be) for his next turn.
(3) shoot from B-baulk, making a triple target out of the three balls already in play. This may sound like a good option, but in fact it probably involves a greater risk than either of the other two options, and is seldom taken.
First, the name of this opening requires explanation. It was named after its inventor, a Mr Duff Matthews who lived in England about 100 years ago and enjoyed the nickname of “Duffer”. The name is not intended in any way to suggest that there is anything wrong with this quite respectable opening which should give the second player about the same chance of being the first to establish a break as a normal A-baulk tice. Like the 4th corner opening, it is seen by some people as a choice of gamblers, but (again like the 4th corner opening) this reputation seems unwarranted as there is no apparent reason why a player who uses the Duffer tice is conceding his opponent any better chance than if he had set a normal A-baulk tice, unless perhaps you are playing against one of the top few players in the world.
After the first player has hit his first ball to the east border, the second player can set a “Duffer tice” by playing his ball from near the west end of B-baulk. He places it on the baulk-line on an extended line from hoop 1 through hoop 6, and hits it toward hoop 6 so as to stop about one yard short of hoop 6 (i.e. north of, or behind the hoop). His idea is that hoop 6 will interfere with any attempt to use the tice ball in setting up a break by rushing it to hoop 1.
He reasons that he himself will not want to rush the tice ball to hoop 1, but the first player probably will if in the next turn he roquets his partner ball on the east border.
The tice is also placed so that if the first player in the third turn shoots at it, he will need to hit it in order to avoid either finishing near the opposite baulk-line or leaving an inviting double target. If the first player joins his partner ball on the east border without roqueting it, the second player will shoot at the short (8-9 yard) Duffer tice with probably a beter than even chance of roqueting it and setting up an immediate break.
So how can the first player answer this challenge? The obvious way is by “biting the bullet” and shooting at the short Duffer tice, expecting to hit it more often than he will miss it. The problem with this is that after roqueting the tice he will have little chance of using his partner ball on the east border to set up a break, so he will have to be satisfied with setting up for his next turn with the opponent ball left near the peg and a rush set to it from the east border. This is a good leave, but is it worth risking the shot at the Duffer tice for? It depends, of course, on the roqueting percentages of both players, as well as the playing conditions.
What alternatives are there for the first player? He has four:
(1) He can shoot at his partner ball from A-baulk and hope that his opponent will not roquet the Duffer tice. With competent players this is likely to involve conceding the opponent a better chance than he gets in the Standard Opening.
(2) He can shoot from B-baulk at his partner ball, finishing in the 4th corner. Then, if the second player rtoquets the Duffer tice he will be unlikely to succeed in setting up an immediate break, but should have little difficulty in setting up a very strong leave with his own balls near the east border and the first player’s balls at hoops 1 and 2. On the other hand, the first player’s balls are sufficiently close together (8-9 yards) to make it risky for the second player in the fourth turn to shoot gently at his tice and stay near it; while shooting hard at it and missing will hand the advantge to the first player.
(3) He can simply hit his ball to the west border near the 2nd corner. This makes it difficult for the opponent to set up an immediate break if he roquets his own Duffer tice in the fourth turn (although he should be able to set a strong leave for his next turn); and if he misses the tice and goes through to the south border, then the first player in the fifth turn will have a shot through the tice ball to finish near his partner ball.
(4) The most common answer is for the first player in the third turn to shoot at the Duffer tice from the 3rd corner spot, so that if he misses he will finish on the west border, roughly in a normal (longish) tice position. This creates a position offering approximately equal chances of being the first to establish a break. The second player in the fourth turn is more or less compelled to shoot gently at the Duffer tice, and if he roquets it he will have to play some accurate shots to set up an immediate break and is unlikely to have a good leave if he does not succeed. If he misses the tice he leaves his two balls out in the lawn, allowing the ball on the west border a “free” shot at them, with the first player having a reasonable chance of setting up an immediate break if he roquets one of the opponent’s balls, while if he misses and finishes on the north border the second player will still have only a remote chance of setting up a break before allowing the first player yet another chance to roquet.
Some players have tried using a longer Duffer tice by hitting the ball from the western end of B-baulk to a position just past hoop 6, finishing about 2 yards from hoop 6 in the direction of hoop 1. This makes it a bit harder for the first player if he shoots at it from the 3rd corner spot, and his ball is likely to finish closer to A-baulk if this shot is missed. However it also slightly reduces the chance of the second player roqueting the tice himself in the fourth turn if the first player in the third turn has joined his partner ball on the east border; and if the tice is missed in the fourth turn the ball will finish closer to hoop 1 where the opponent can use it nore easily.
At one stage about 10 years ago some of the world’s top players sought to find a way of discouraging the second player from using a Duffer tice. (This in itself was a testimony to the effectiveness of Mr Matthews’ idea.) Instead of hitting the first ball of the game to the usual position on the east border, they hit it to a position almost level with the peg and 1-2 yards in-lawn from the east border. This meant that they were threatening to shoot at a Duffer tice in the third turn with a better chance of setting up an immediate break if they hit it, as there would now be room for them to take off fairly safely and try to get a rush on their partner ball to hoop 1, setting up (perhaps with a bit of luck) an immediate 3-ball break. The idea was not so much that they would have to do this, but that the opponent would think they MIGHT do it, and so would be deterred from setting a Duffer tice.
However this allowed the second player two other options:
(1) he could, of course, still lay a normal A-baulk tice, which should serve to maintain the balance; or
(2) he could shoot from B-baulk through the first ball so that if he missed he would finish on the east border just north of the 4th corner spot. Then it would be risky for the first player in the third turn to shoot from A-baulk at his opponent’s ball near the 4th corner because of the likelihood of leaving a double target (with a ball far enough in the lawn to be usuable); while shooting from B-baulk to stay near his partner ball or at the long double target into the 4th corner will offer little realistic chance of a break if a roquet is made, and will allow the second player in the fourth turn a double or triple target from one of the baulk-lines if it is missed.
As far as I know the “Anti-Duffer Opening” has been largely abandoned, I assume because of this last possible answer.
This opening has been used by some of the world’s top players in recent years, and now is being (unfortunately) copied by some of those at lower levels of play. It has not been in use long enough for all of the percentages to be given thorough trials in competitive play, so the folowing explanation should be regarded as somewhat tentative.
This opening was developed in response to the realisation that the roqueting ability of a few top players, together with improvements in lawn conditions, mallets and balls, meant that it was becoming difficult to find any place on the court to put a ball where you could be confident that the opponent will have a less than 50% chance of roqueting it.
One might expect this realisation, if true, would result in the winner of the toss electing to hit in second rather than first, so that all the balls would be in play when he hit his second ball into the game with a better than 50% chance of roqueting; but that does not seem to have happened. Instead, the top players have decided that they need to still play first, but increase their chance of making a break in the third turn. The reasoning is that if the second player roquets in his first turn he is unlikely to make many hoops with only two balls in play (although on occasion some players have gone right around). If the first player can roquet in the third turn he can go to 4-back with a 3-ball break. Then, when the opponent roquets with the fourth ball, he can
EITHER triple peel your ball and peg it out (an option considered to offer a better than even chance of winning after the tpo has been completed, but you must also take into consideration the chance of completing the triple without mishap, and the opponent, who can take contact, establishig a 3-ball break with his single ball), Some players believe that if you do the tpo you should peg out both balls, and if possible have peeld your partner ball through one or two hoops as well;
OR go to 4-back himself and set up, in which case (assuming that you also have at least an even chance of hitting the lift shot) you should get first chance at the triple peel.
As the first player, the way in which you can contrive to increase your chance of making a 3-ball break in the third turn is to hit your first ball into play to a position about 4 yards from the peg in the direction of hoop 1. Then you are threatening to roquet the opponent’s first ball wherever it goes and use the ball near the peg to set up an immediate 3-ball break (which is not without some risk because the second player will be able to play from baulk if at any stage you cannot continue the break).
The second player then has the following options:
1. He can attempt to roquet the “Super Shot tice”, but if he hits through to border he will finish rather close to B-baulk. Sometimes it is possible for him to shoot from the east end of A-baulk and finish near the 2nd corner. However if he makes the roquet he has little to gain unless he intends to attempt a 2-ball break. His best is probably to send the opponent’s ball near the west border about level with hoop 6, then hit his own ball out on the east border to a long B-baulk tice position. That at least makes it difficult for the first player to establish a 3-ball break if he should roquet either ball in the third turn.
Some players deliberately put the first “Super Shot” ball far enough from the peg to encourage the second player to take this shot and finish on the north border about 2-3 feet from the 2nd corner, since they are confident that they will roquet the opponent’s ball in the 2nd corner from B-baulk if it misses. By ensuring that he will finish near the 2nd corner on the north border rather than the west border, he makes it less likely that his own shot in the third turn at the opponent ball will leave a double target for the 4th turn if that is also missed. Others place the first ball nearer the peg in order to discourage any shot at it.
A gentle shot with the second ball will of course risk leaving a double target (though a risky one) for the first player in the third turn. Those who choose to do this usually shoot from the first corner spot at the first ball, running 3-4 yards past it if they miss it, and are willing to let the first player risk shooting at the (longer) double target, with the risk of finishing near the other baulk or leaving three balls in the middle of the lawn.
2. He can lay a (presumably long) B-baulk tice which is slightly better than an A-baulk tice in this situation. The first player will then shoot through the B-baulk tice into the 4th corner, having given himself, if his estimate of the percentages is correct, a better than even chance of roqueting the tice and establishing an immediate 3-ball break.
3. He can hit his ball out on the east border near the 4th corner, where he might think it will be slightly harder for the first player to set up a break in the third turn if he roquets it, and there is a risk of leaving a double target for the fourth turn if he misses. The exact position on the east border should be carefully chosen so that if the first player in the third turn roquets this ball he will find hoop 4 interfering with an attempt to get a rush on the supershot ball to hoop 1. A similar alternative is to hit it out on the west border near the 2nd corner and dare the “supershot” opponent to shoot at it.
This probably does not exhaust the possibilities in the “Super Shot Opening”, and further refinements can be expected, but it is sufficient to say that if you use this opening and leave your first ball near the peg where it can easily be used, you need to be confident of roqueting and using it before your opponent does. Thus it is well named: you do indeed need to be a “super shot”.