13. WIRING LIFT

1. LIFT If the adversary is responsible for the position of a ball of the striker's side which is wired from all other balls and not in contact with another ball, the striker may start his turn:
   1. by playing as the balls lie; or
   2. by lifting the wired ball and playing it from any unoccupied point on either baulk-line or taking croquet from a ball that it could touch in such a position.
2. RESPONSIBILITY FOR POSITION
   1. A player becomes or remains responsible for the position of any ball that:
      1. he plays; or
      2. is moved or shaken as a result of his play; or
      3. is involved in any croquet stroke or cannon that he plays, even if it does not move; or
      4. is replaced when an error committed by him is rectified; or
      5. belongs to him, in the event that he played the first stroke of a turn with an adversary's ball, or by declaring that he was leaving a ball where it lay without specifying which.
   2. However,a player does not become responsible for the position of any ball replaced to correct an interference.
3. WHEN WIRED A ball ("the relevant ball") is wired from another ball ("the target ball") if:
   1. any part of a hoop, including the jaws, or the peg would impede the direct course of any part of the relevant ball towards any part of the target ball; or
   2. any part of a hoop, excluding the jaws, or the peg would impede the swing of the mallet before its impact with the relevant ball; or
   3. any part of the relevant ball lies within the jaws of a hoop.
4. IMPEDED SWING In Law 13(c)(2), the swing is impeded if there is any part of an end face of the mallet that the striker used in the turn before the relevant ball was positioned with which he would be unable to strike the centre of the relevant ball in order to drive it freely with his normal swing towards any part of the target ball. However, the swing is not impeded merely because a hoop or the peg interferes with the striker's stance.
5. TESTING
   1. A player may ask a referee to conduct a wiring test only if he is the striker entitled to claim a lift with the relevant ball before the first stroke of the current turn. He must otherwise rely on an unaided ocular test to determine whether or not one ball is wired from another.
   2. The striker is entitled to the benefit of any doubt in an adjudication of whether one ball is wired from another.
6. CHANGE OF DECISION
   If the striker lifts a ball of his side under Law 13(a)(2):
   1. it is thereby elected as the striker's ball and he may not then play with the other ball of his side. If he does so, Law 26 applies. In addition, he is obliged to take the lift to which he is entitled and he may not then play the lifted ball from where it lay before it was lifted unless it already lay on a baulk-line.
   2. and places it on an unoccupied point on either baulk-line, whether in contact with another ball or not, he remains entitled to play it from any unoccupied point on either baulk-line until he plays a stroke.