CROQUET NEWS:  Hoops of Joy at £2000 for Croquet

18 April 2006
Glasgow Croquet Club, Kelvingrove, Scotland , UK
by Cameron Simpson in The Herald, Glasgow, Scotland , UK

By day, Jonathan Kirby researches mathematical logic at Magdalen College in Oxford. Keith Aiton works as a sports psychologist. But put mallets in their hands and they are transformed into world beaters. Mr. Kirby and Mr. Aiton are at the forefront of the arcane world of Scottish croquet and ranked in the world's top 10.

The game, with its genteel image of languid aristos and vicarage garden parties, is experiencing a resurgence in Scotland.

The Scottish Croquet Association (SCA) has received £2000 in Lottery funding from sportscotland to attract new players via regional events and ''pay and play'' sessions and to help with running costs. Glasgow City Council is planning to allow more than 500 schoolchildren time off on Friday to take part in sports such as croquet.

The SCA has eight clubs in Scotland with about 22 ranked croquet players.

Rod Williams, chairman of Glasgow Croquet Club, which plays on the bowling greens at Kelvingrove beside the museum, welcomed the cash. He said: "The grant will help promote the game. It is fun and exciting. People should come along and judge for themselves. It's a game for everyone, not just stately homes."

Croquet has its genesis in seventeenth-century France when games in which a ball had to be knocked around a course of hoops or obstacles with a mallet were popular. One of them, paille maille, was played near St. James's Palace in London on land later known as Pall Mall.

Croquet became the sports craze of Victorian England with national championships at Wimbledon before the lawns there were transformed into the tennis courts of today. Clubs exist in every part of Britain and in many countries overseas.

Mr Williams said there were two forms – Association Croquet and Golf Croquet. "Golf croquet is exciting to watch while association croquet is more cerebral."

Both versions are played with four balls – red, yellow, black and blue – and can be played as singles or doubles. Red and yellow always play against blue and black.
In association croquet, the object is to get both balls round a course of 12 hoops in a set order, and finish by hitting the centre peg. In golf croquet, the first player to score seven hoops wins.

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