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Play Croquet!

What is croquet all about - and why should you give it a try?

Croquet: six hoops, four balls, two mallets and a patch of grass.

Sounds easy enough.

Croquet is a game of skill and strategy, angles, tactics, guile. A bit like snooker on grass. Will your balls get through the hoops and peg out before your opponent's?

Croquet offers sport, friendships, fun, competition and a whole lot more.

To see what we mean, please watch the adjacent short film. With over 200 clubs nationwide to choose from, look up your nearest club to find out more about the outdoor sport that keeps you physically and mentally fit, providing a competitive yet sociable environment.

Croquet is played on a 35 x 28 yards completely flat and closely-mown fine grass court.

Six cast-iron hoops and a peg set firmly into the ground, four balls weighing one pound (in top-class competition 1/32" smaller than a hoop), and mallets weighing around three pounds are used to play at club to international level.

There are three main variants of the game played in the UK, see the introduction to croquet:

• Golf Croquet - one stroke per turn and when a hoop is scored all players move on to the next.
• Association Croquet - score many hoop points in a single turn by playing breaks.
• Short Croquet - a simplified version of Association Croquet played on half-size lawns.
• Garden Croquet - simplified Association Croquet suitable for beginners to play in the garden.

Coming Up

What's On?

April 8-9: The Academy Coach Qualification Course (CQC) (Grades 1 & 2, GC & AC) (Course) 10: Northern Academy How to Make Twelve Hoops in One Go (Course) 11: Northern Academy It's Not All About Breaks (Course) 10-11: Cheltenham Easter Handicap (AC) Tournament (AC) 10-11: Surbiton Easter Handicap (AC) (AC) 10-13: Pendle John Beech Memorial Easter Tournament (AC) 12-13: Cheltenham Easter Advanced (AC) Tournament (AC) 12-13: Surbiton Easter Open (AC) Tournament (AC) 15: The Academy AC Developing the Advanced Game (Course) 18-19: Wycombe AC - Development Course in Advanced Play (ACDEVAP) (Course) 18: Northern Academy It's All in the Head - Getting Into the Right Mindset (Course) 19: Northern Academy Back to Basics (Course) 18-19: Cheltenham Golf Croquet A-Level Tournament (GC) 18-19: Sussex County Advanced (AC) Tournament (AC) 21: Wycombe GC - Five Plus Course (GC5PLUS) (Course) 21-22: SWCA Coach Training Course for Club-Level Coaches (Course)