Croquet a fun and accessible sport that is growing in popularity all around the world. 

What makes croquet an ideal sport for everyone? 

- Low barriers to entry

- Very quick and easy to learn

- All ages can play

- Exercises both body and mind

- Great for socialising as you can chat while you play

- At competitive level, all ages and genders compete together

Croquet is not about physical ability, its a sport of skill and tactics. 

Golf Croquet is the most widely played version of croquet. It is a very sociable game, games typically take between 30 - 45 minutes. 

It involves two teams - blue and black balls versus red and yellow balls. Teams take alternating shots in the colour order; blue, red, black, yellow. The team that gets a ball through each hoop first, wins the hoops and gets a point, play then proceeds to the next hoop to be contested. Players play best of 12 hoops, if there is a tie at hoop 12, then a tie breaker at hoop 13 is played. 

A variation of Golf Croquet, called Five Hoop Croquet, is a shorter version often played at events or in more social settings. 

Association Croquet has many similarities to snooker. It is a game of break play and strategy that you never stop learning. It can be played at beginner level, with a shorter, quicker version of the game known as short croquet, right up to full international level. If you’re looking to play a more casual game of croquet, you might want to try Garden Croquet instead.

Association Croquet is based on the concept of turns with more than one shot and is similar to snooker played on grass. Association Croquet was invented in the mid-19th century. There are some rumours that snooker was invented by the Indian army soon after the monsoon rain prevented croquet play!

Playing croquet in a garden differs from playing on club lawns as the size and shape of your lawn is likely to vary, plus different qualities of grass will impact the way the game is played but the principle remain similar to other forms of croquet. 

Everyone plays individually normally up to 6 players. The aim of the game is to move your ball through all 6 of the hoops and be the first player to hit the centre peg. If you hit an opponents ball, you place your ball beside theirs and play both together, then take a continuation shot. When you run a hoop, you get an additional turn.