CROQUET NEWS:  Roll Call

23 September 2006
Winter Park Croquet Club, Winter Park, Florida, USA
by Lisa Roberts in the Orlando Sentinel, Orlando, Florida, USA
photo by George Skene in the Orlando Sentinel, Orlando, Florida, USA

Oh, that wicket temptation!

Sally Schott makes her move during a game at the Winter Park Croquet Club.

One thing quickly becomes apparent when you watch a game of croquet played by Winter Park Croquet Club members -- this is not the game you played as a child.

Remember whacking a wooden ball through hoops stuck helter-skelter in the ground like so many bent clothes hangers? Well, this croquet, played by "American rules," involves six iron wickets -- not nine flimsy hoops -- that are barely big enough to get a ball through. And complex strategies are backed up by exact shots.

"It's like playing chess with balls," observes Maryann Juett, 79, who in 1986 helped form the club. She is resting on a bench beside the croquet court on North Park Avenue, watching George Stewart, 86, contemplate his options before taking his turn. Then, head down, he straddles his mallet and swings it like a pendulum. Thwack! The ball spins across the grass, but instead of heading toward a wicket, it skids into another ball. He takes another shot. Then another. By the time he finally ambles back to the bench, his turn has lasted about five minutes.

On the sidelines, Jack Schott, 66, and Jim Moody, 88, explain that Stewart's precise shots are part of his strategy. If newcomers fail to grasp the nuances behind the strategy -- and they mostly do -- the game is a bit like watching paint dry. "Or watching grass grow," says Archie Peck, director of the National Croquet Center in West Palm Beach. "It's about the world's worst spectator sport, unless you're a croquet player."

Dressed in traditional white, Fran Sanborn shoulders her mallet at Winter Park Croquet Club. The U.S. game uses 6 iron wickets, not 9 flimsy hoops.

Which you probably aren't. Since its founding in 1977, the United States Croquet Association, based in West Palm Beach, has grown to about 3,500 members, with dozens of sanctioned tournaments held nationwide each year. The sport, however, remains fairly obscure. Unless you're in Florida, that is. Because the state's climate allows year-round play, and because it is a haven for retirees, it has become the croquet capital of the U.S., Peck says. In Palm Beach County alone there are about 40 croquet courts -- 12 of which are at the croquet center, which is USCA headquarters.

Locally, properties such as Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee and the Portofino Bay Hotel in Orlando maintain croquet lawns. Retirement communities such as The Villages also tempt residents with croquet, and cities such as Winter Park and Mount Dora maintain courts, as do a handful of country clubs.

Unfortunately, though, the sport has a bit of a "geriatric stigma," Peck says. "It's hard to get young people to play the game and stick with it," Peck says. That may be because the younger set is into more physical sports such as tennis and golf. The Winter Park club is typical of this. Though its members are ages 25 and older, the group draws mostly from baby boomers and older. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Croquet demands eye and hand coordination, mental acuity and balance, says Moody, all of which benefit aging players.

The game improves coordination, mental acuity and balance, says Jim Moody, who has his name on his mallet.

Another off-putting factor might be the perceived snootiness of the sport, in which players dress completely in white. In reality, "we're from all walks of life," says Peck, a four-time national croquet champion who gave up a career in jai alai to take up this more sedate sport. "We have the very rich playing against the people who can't afford to pay their mortgage."

More exciting than golf?

According to the national croquet association, the sport originated in the British Isles in the 19th century, then migrated to other English-speaking countries, including the United States. But croquet suffered a setback here when, in the 1890s, Boston clergy condemned the game for the gambling and drinking associated with it. When croquet re-emerged in the 1920s, it was played by some of society's most elite members. Think The Great Gatsby.

Manufacturers later popularized a nine-wicket "toy" version of the game that was played on rough grass with inexpensive equipment. Though the more competitive six-wicket game became popular in England and Commonwealth countries such as New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, it lagged in the U.S., probably because of its complexities.

Jim Moody makes a shot during a game at Winter Park Croquet Club.

"The first time I saw it [croquet played] was in 1981 in Bermuda," says Schott, an investment manager. "I was fascinated by it, but I couldn't understand a thing." The next year, he began to identify some of the game's subtle strategies when he saw a croquet demonstration that explained play by play. He decided to try it.

Croquet players nationwide happily introduce new players to the game. Jim Harter of the Grand Haven Croquet Club in Palm Coast, says the club's prospective members get four free lessons, then two more when they join the club. "We sort of clue them in and indoctrinate them," says Harter, who used to play golf but now finds it boring compared with croquet.

"You're thinking several movements ahead -- where you want to be, where you want balls," says Jim Spoonhour, 60, an Orlando attorney and the Winter Park club's president.

"It's a slow game to learn," says Margaret Moody, 88. "But once you learn, it you get hooked."

Sally Schott makes a hit as George Stewart watches during a game at Winter Park Croquet Club.

The Winter Park club members will gladly show you how. "Just wear your whites," Juett says.

Detailed Rules Get the Ball Rolling

On the surface, American-rules croquet seems simple enough.

The game is played on a six-wicket, one-peg course. Four wickets are set on the court in a rectangle; two others are placed inside the rectangle, with a multicolored peg driven into the ground between them. A string around the wickets marks the boundary. Each team of two players must strike its balls through the course clockwise, then again counterclockwise, before hitting the peg at the end. A point is scored when a ball passes through each wicket and when it hits the peg, making 13 points per ball possible. The first team to score 26 points wins, or if time runs out before players complete the course, the team with the highest score wins. Time limits vary from 1 hour and 10 minutes to two hours.

But offensive and defensive strategies complicate the game. By striking another ball during his turn, for instance, a player can reposition the ball of his partner or a competitor to his advantage while earning extra strokes for the hit. For instance, a player might hit her partner's ball closer to a wicket or drive an opponent's ball farther from one.

As a United States Croquet Association brochure explains, "It is beyond the scope of this introduction to attempt to describe the offensive and defensive maneuvers which contribute to the strategy and tactics of the game. Often, it takes time, exposure and lots of play to figure out the sport."