Not Your Average Backyard Croquet Game

Oakland never ceases to surprise me and today was no exception. Strolling through the Lake Merritt gardens this evening with a friend we happened upon two gentlemen playing croquet on what I thought were the lawn bowling courts. After stopping to watch for a few minutes we were completely entranced. This was like no croquet I'd ever seen before. First of all the mallets were quite fancy. Secondly the two men were playing with four balls blue, black, red and yellow. And finally even after watching for quite a while I could make no sense whatsoever of the rules. It seemed that each player would arbitrarily strike a ball which would sometimes hit another ball, sometimes not and every once in a while he would pick up the ball and place it next to another one. Eventually one of the men came over to us and explained they were playing International Rules Croquet, which has a fairly dedicated following, and where a set of six wickets can cost up to $1,500. He didn't mention how much the mallets might be but I imagine they cost a pretty penny. In between turns he then proceeded to explain some of the rules.

There are six wickets, each ball has to go through each wicket 1-6 and back again. At the start of a turn the player strikes his ball which must either go through a wicket or hit another ball or else his turn is over. If it hits another ball he then takes his "ball in hand" and places it anywhere touching the ball that was hit. He then takes another stroke with the two balls touching. The player then takes a "continuation" stroke in which he again tries to go through a wicket or hit another ball. After a ball is hit by the ball in play it is dead and cannot be hit again until a wicket is run. If the player fails to hit another ball or run a wicket on the continuation stroke his turn is over.

It all sounds very complicated, but after watching for a while I started to get the hang of it. There is a lot of strategy involved in choosing which ball to hit, knocking your opponents ball out of position. One of the men playing told us good players can put the ball through all the hoops in one turn. The men we were watching weren't champions, but they hit the ball well. The ball is three and an eighth inches wide and the wicket is three and three sixteenth inches, so it is not trivial to run the ball through even on a close shot. According to one of the players during tournaments there is often an award for closest shot missed. The ball weighs about a pound.

A quick read of the Wikipedia page reports croquet was quite popular in Britain in the 1860's but was soon replaced by tennis. John Jacques first published rules of croquet in 1857, and the shop in London that bears his name still sells equipment today. Unlike most sports, men and women are ranked and compete together on equal terms. It certainly looked like an interesting game to watch for an afternoon. The game we watched only one wicket was run in half an hour. A professional tournament, I'm sure, moves along much faster. I liked seeing the strategies start to emerge once I had an understanding of the rules. International Rules Croquet looks like the sort of game it takes a long time to master but definitely a pleasant way to spend a few hours.