Play a Game of Croquet

“This was the first time I’d set foot on an immaculate, full sized lawn (bigger than a tennis court) and mixed with people who really understood the intricacies of the game. Our coach had learnt to play croquet at university and had been a croquet champion in his youth. He was a stickler for the correct etiquette and, above all, a tactician. When you made an error of judgement (often!) he’d bellow across the lawn, ‘No, NO! Think, THINK!’ and insist on replacing the balls so that you could work out what you should have done. For him the game was as much about thinking as it was about the skills involved in getting the balls to go where you wanted them to.”

“As kids, we tried to play croquet in the sandy front yard of our southeast New Mexico home, but it was a battle more than a game. The balls bogged down in the sand and the mallet strikes sent the dirt flying in all directions along with the hoops. That was the first time I dreamed about having a real grass-covered lawn; one set aside specifically for Croquet.”

“There are lots of reasons why I love playing croquet: the lawns tend to be in beautiful settings; the satisfying ‘thwack’ as a mallet hits a ball; intriguing tactics: quaint etiquettes; civilised people; no gender discrimination; no ageism; a game uncorrupted by drugs or money; a game that assumes people are trustworthy and honest; a game where the outcome is uncertain and it is often possible to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.”