CROQUET NEWS:  600-Year-Old Game of Croquet Continues to Evolve

27 July 2006
Athens, Alabama, USA
by Mary Anne Zollar in The Huntsville Times, Huntsville, Alabama, USA
photo by photographer

Ah, croquet - it conjures up green lawns, lemonade, sun hats and childhood.

Who could guess this gentle game was outlawed in Boston for being associated with gambling, drinking and unsavory behavior?

Croquet, the elegant pastime whose equipment shares shelf space with badminton and lawn darts in dad's garage, inspired fervor bordering on anarchy in late 19th-century America.

It's a game that has gone in and out of fashion ever since, but most everyone has played at one time or another. Croquet enthusiast Sid Johnston of Athens adores the game and has been a constant ambassador for the sport for 70 years.

"I think it's a great social game and the equipment is not that expensive," said Johnston, a retiree from NASA and United Space Boosters Inc. "All ages and both sexes can play together because it requires skill more than brute strength."

Johnston adds that croquet is a combination of chess and billiards - chess because of the strategy required and billiards because of similar geometry.

The venerable game has been around for at least 600 years, historians reckon. Originally called paille maille, the game had its origins in the south of France.

"Some French shepherds got bored watching the flock and started knocking rocks around with their crooks," Johnston said. "To make it challenging, they took willow limbs and bent them over in the ground to form arches."

Hence, the first crude wickets.

Extreme croquet

Traditional croquet too tame for you? Try the game adopted by the San Francisco Extreme Croquet Club:

Wickets are set up according to traditional figure eight configuration; however, terrain is sought that presents interesting challenges - trees, roots, hills, sand, mud or moving water.

When one ball strikes another, the striker may choose to continue play with the strikee's ball.

Bonus points are awarded for passing through the second story of a wicket (i.e., a jump shot).

A player may strike the ball with any part of a mallet, even billiards-style with the handle.

The first player through the second wicket determines the direction of play for the remaining wickets.

As each player reaches the starting post after clearing all wickets (traditionally called a rover), he is "poison" and must declare his status to all players.

Passing through a wicket out of order is punished by sending the ball back to the previous post.

Roqueting another player's beer adds a bonus stroke.

Small children and dogs are legal obstacles, and if they interfere with the ball's placement, the player must "play the ball where it lies."