CROQUET NEWS:  Anyone for Croquet?

Croquet is making a comeback, thanks to an avid player who spotted the perfect playing ground.

7 April 2006
Cleadon Park, Sunderland, England, UK
in Sunderland Echo, Sunderland, England, UK

CROQUET ENTHUSIAST: David Turner.

David Turner, ranked 104 in the world, is striving to set up a croquet team in Sunderland after he came across a disused bowling green in Cleadon Park.

He noticed croquet needed a revival on Wearside because the best players were being forced to travel to Auckland, Belsay Hall, Middlesbrough and Tyneside for a game.

David said: "There appears to be a number of redundant bowling greens, which are the ideal place to play, so we are trying to revive croquet.

"We are trying to build a new club and currently have six people who will form the nucleus of a Sunderland club, obviously the more the better. There are no limits on the number who can join.

"It is a great form of exercise for older people because you get plenty of fresh air and the game is not too strenuous.

"If enough people join we will register the team with the National Croquet Association and then join Croquet North to enable us to enter croquet leagues.

"We can ask other local clubs in the meantime to play friendly games against the new club, which could lead to an invite into the Golf Croquet Local Championships."

A membership fee, to be agreed, will enable the club to provide equipment and insurance for the newly-established team.

Bowling greens can cost anything up to £10,000 to install and maintain and David is hoping the council will provide some financial input to maintain the lawns and protect them from vandalism.

Anyone is welcome to go along to the old bowling greens at Cleadon Park on Saturday at 1pm to join the club or find out more about the sport.

More information can be found on www.croquet.org.uk or www.croquetnorth.org.uk

All you need to know to play the game

• The opposing sides each have two balls: black and blue against red and yellow.
• A side may be one or two people i.e. singles or doubles.
• Each side plays alternately in rotation: blue, red, black, yellow.
• Each turn consists of one stroke.
• A coin toss decides who plays first, the winner of the toss plays black and blue, and blue always starts.
• The players aim to run the hoops in order from 1 to 12.
• A deciding hoop is run if the scores are equal at this point, making 13 in all.
• The opening shots are played from within one yard of the corner nearest hoop 4.
• The side that first gets a ball through hoop 1 scores that point and then all balls go for the next hoop in order.
• All players must contest the same hoop.
• A player may proceed towards the next hoop before the previous hoop is run. However, the opposing team may request that any ball which is more than halfway towards the next hoop, when the hoop is actually run, is brought back to specific half-way points.
• A ball that goes off the court is replaced on the boundary where it went off.
• If a player commits a fault as he strikes the ball (double tap; hitting another ball; edge shot) all balls are replaced in their position before the faulty stroke was made and the player loses his turn.
• If a player plays out of sequence and it is noticed before the opponent plays, the opponent may either have the balls left where they are or replaced were they were before the erroneous stoke, and the opponent then continues play with either of his balls.
• If a player plays the wrong ball, the balls are replaced in their original position or left where they lie, at the opponent's discretion, and the opponent continues play with either of his own balls.

Things you didn't know about croquet

• Croquet dates back to the 14th Century, when the French invented it and called it "paille-maille" which literally means "ball and mallet".
• King Charles II gave it the Anglican name "Pall Mall" during the 17th Century.
• In the 1830s a French doctor developed a new version of the game which became "croquet", meaning "crooked stick".
• The Wimbledon All England Croquet Club, founded in 1868, established the first standardized rules.
• Tennis soon became much more popular than croquet at Wimbledon, so the United All-England Croquet Association (now the Croquet Association) was founded in 1896 to revive the sport.
• Today there are two main types of croquet in England – golf and association.