CROQUET NEWS: Newcomers Get a Grip on Croquet Shots, Rules

4 May 2006
The Villages Croquet Club, The Villages, Florida, USA
story by Jill Sherman in Daily Sun, The Villages, Florida, USA
photo by Bob Fowler in Daily Sun, The Villages, Florida, USA

From left, Ray Dacey, instructor, teaches croquet to Linda Parker, Lee Gregory, Chris and Gwen Robinson, Jean and Joe Flake, Jane Baugh and Dick Thompson at a beginners croquet clinic held on Monday behind the Rio Grande family pool.

Stand pigeon-toed and refrain from flexing your muscles; you may just become an awesome croquet player.

Ray Dacey, chief instructor for The Villages Croquet Club, familiarized residents with croquet guidelines and equipment Monday at the courts located behind the Rio Grande family pool.

Among other snippets of information doled out during the beginner shot clinic, men and women learned that only a moderate tap with the mallet is needed to send the ball rolling toward a wicket.

“It doesn’t take a lot of arm strength,” Dacey said, noting that a little effort will take the ball a long way.

Using arm or shoulder muscles to hit the ball is not necessary and, in fact, becomes tiring, Dacey said.

Since croquet players swing the mallet out from between their feet to hit the ball, a pigeon-toed stance is the best stance to take. If one foot is pointed straight ahead and the other is pointed outward, the player will tend to hit the ball toward the outward-pointed foot and, consequently, away from the wicket. Standing pigeon-toed eliminates this potential problem, Dacey said.

The notion of learning to play croquet appealed to the eight people — dressed in the traditional white clothing — who took part in lessons.

“I’m hoping it will be a lot of fun,” Jean Flake said.

While croquet is an amusing game of skill, it also has quite a list of regulations.

Dacey armed his students with some croquet shots and basic rules before turning them loose for a round of short-court golf croquet.

“You won’t be able to remember this, ”Dacey said of the many guidelines, “but you’ll hear it over and over again and it will sink in.”