The Croquet Court or Lawn
The standard croquet court measures 35 yards (32m) by 28 Yards (25.6m). The hoop layout and order in which the hoops are run is shown in the digram on the right.
The opposing sides each have two balls: Blue and Black against Red and Yellow. Each side may be one or two people (i.e. singles or doubles). Each side plays alternately in rotation: blue, red, black, yellow, as shown by the sequence of colours from the top of the centre peg.
Each turn consists of one stroke only: no extra stoke is gained by running a hoop or hitting another ball. To start the game, toss a coin. The winner of the toss plays blue and black, and blue always starts.
The opening strokes are played from within one yard of Corner IV (nearest hoop 4), and the players aim to run the hoops in order from 1 to 12. The winner is the first to reach 7 points. A deciding hoop (hoop 3 again) is run if the scores are equal after 12 hoops, making 13 in all.
To score a point, a ball must run completely through the hoop in the correct direction. It may run the hoop in more than one turn, or be knocked through by another ball. If a ball should go through two hoops in order in the same stroke, both points are scored.
The side that first gets a ball through Hoop 1 scores that point and then all balls go for the next hoop in order (i.e. hoop 2). All players contest the same hoop. A player may play towards the next hoop before the previous hoop is run. However, subject to certain exceptions set out in the detailed Rules, the opponents may ask that any ball more than halfway towards the next hoop when the current hoop is actually run, is brought back to a penalty area halfway down the east or west boundaries.
A ball that goes off the court is replaced on the boundary where it went off.
Guide to Golf Croquet Tactics
Of particular importance is the ability to hit straight either in order to make hoops or knock other balls away.
The objective is to get through a hoop before the opponent does and two basic strategies used to achieve this are to: knock the opponent balls away if they are in a good hoop running position, and put your ball between the opponent’s ball and the hoop or between the oponents ball and your other ball if it is in a good position.
A useful shot when blocked is the jump shot, where, by hitting down on a ball, a player makes it jump forwards – usually over an opponent’s ball, or to make a difficult hoop (i.e. from an acute side angle).
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