Complete Croquet E-Book

James Hawkins

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 361

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

In its early days in Victorian England croquet was a game for the wealthy but competition from other sports - most notably tennis - the onset of two world wars, and a century of social change forced the game to adapt. Modern croquet is an intricate game of strategy, played socially within clubs and competitively at national and international level. The object of the game - to guide two balls round a circuit of loops - has changed little over the years but tactically, croquet has become much more complex, elaborate and fascinating. Complete Croquet is a comprehensive guide for the aspiring and improving croquet player. It deals with the basic skills, and how to avoid and eradicate common problems, as well as providing an in-depth coverage of modern tactics. The author focuses on the building blocks of break play, examining in detail how each element works before bringing it all together. There is advice on how to repair a bad situation when everything has gone wrong, how to exploit a good situation when everything is going well, and how to regain the initiative when the opponent is storming ahead. Whether your interest is in developing an understanding of top-class, championship-level tactics, in improving your play at handicap level, or even in just playing at home and wanting to get a better understanding of the game, Complete Croquet will prove to be invaluable. Superbly illustrated with 195 colour photographs and diagrams.

Leseprobe

Complete Croquet

A Guide to Skills, Tactics and Strategy

James Hawkins

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2010 by

The Crowood Press Ltd

Ramsbury, Marlborough

Wiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2014

© James Hawkins 2010

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 84797 915 5

Disclaimer

The author and the publisher do not accept any responsibility in any manner whatsoever for any error or omission, or any loss, damage, injury, adverse outcome, or liability of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any of the information contained in this book, or reliance upon it. If in doubt about any aspect of croquet, readers are advised to seek professional advice.

Throughout this book ‘he’, ‘him’ and ‘his’ have been used as neutral pronouns and as such refer to both males and females.

Photograph previous page: former British Women’s Champion, Debbie Cornelius.

CONTENTS

1The Game of Croquet

2The Single Ball Shot

3The Croquet Stroke

4Classical Break Theory

5The Modern Break

6Enhancing the Break

7Outplayer Tactics

8Keeping the Innings

9Handicap Play

10Wiring

11Pegging Out

12Introducing Advanced Play

13Peeling

14Further Advanced Leaves

15The Opening

16Advanced Technique

17The Future

Glossary

Useful Contacts

Index

CHAPTER 1

THE GAME OF CROQUET

Everyone knows – or thinks they know – something about croquet, whether they have played themselves, seen it or read about it. Croquet is one of the most recognizable and distinctive of games, yet it is also one of the most misunderstood. Devotees have ranged from Leo Tolstoy to the Marx Brothers, from Winston Churchill to Bart Simpson. After 150 years of evolution and adaptation, croquet has become the dominant garden game in England, played at home by innumerable families, many of whom make up their own rules to suit their surroundings.

Two-times World Champion Chris Clarke in play.

The official game of croquet – or Association Croquet – is a game of tactics, with long sequences of strokes strung together, as in snooker, pool or billiards. It is played at international level, and in regular tournaments at clubs in many countries. Because it is a game of strategy and accuracy, there is no restriction based on age, and no bias between genders. The handicapping system allows novices and champions to meet on equal terms.

This book aims to pick apart the complexities of the tactics of croquet. It takes the reader from the basics of break play to the esoteric realm of the world-class supershot. Before delving into all that, however, you will need a brief outline of the game.

The Basics of Croquet

Croquet is a contest between two sides – Red and Yellow versus Blue and Black. It can be played as a game of doubles, but competitive croquet normally involves just two players, one of whom has the Red and Yellow balls, the other the Blue and the Black.

Each ball has to complete a course of twelve hoops in a certain order. The first side to complete the course with both balls wins. When a ball scores its hoop – or runs the hoop – it earns another shot, and when a ball hits – or roquets – one of the other balls, it earns another two shots.

The first of those two shots is the croquet stroke, in which you must place your ball in contact with the ball you have just hit, and play a shot so that both balls move. The second extra shot – the continuation stroke – is a normal one, in which an astute player will try to make another roquet or run a hoop.

Once you have made three roquets, one on each of the other balls, your turn ends. However, if you score your hoop, you earn the right for another three roquets and croquets. If you place the balls correctly, you can score several hoops in a turn, and engineer some elaborate strategies.

The circuit of twelve hoops.

Equipment

It is possible to buy a children’s plastic croquet set from a supermarket for the same price as a cappuccino. Tournament-quality equipment, needless to say, has a much higher specification. Modern hoops are constructed from chunky cast iron or steel, rather than thin bent wire, as supplied in many garden sets. The clearance between hoop and ball is at most an eighth of an inch. At championship level, that clearance may be as tiny as a thirty-second of an inch. High-level tournaments have even been held where the hoops have zero clearance, with the ball having to graze both uprights in order to pass through. In such a situation, precision and pre-planning are the keys to victory.

The clearance between hoop and ball.

As the game has developed, so has the technology of equipment manufacture. Balls are made from plastic resin, with increased durability and consistency of bounce. Many top players now favour carbon-fibre mallets, whose extreme weight distribution provides some advantages over the traditional wooden design.

A Brief History of Croquet

The early days of croquet are shrouded in mystery. There is evidence dating back centuries, and possibly as far back as 800 years, of games played with balls, hoops and sticks. The oldest surviving trace is possibly the Dutch game of beugelen, which goes back at least to the mid-seventeenth century, and which lives on, played in a handful of clubs in the province of Limburg, in the southern tip of the Netherlands. Beugelen requires an indoor clay court, one large metal ring, and wooden balls, about the size of a football. There is a superficial similarity with croquet in terms of equipment, but the game has no concept of bonus shots – roquets, croquets and continuation strokes – and shares few of the playing characteristics.

Circumstantial evidence links beugelen to a slightly later game, originating in the same part of northern Europe. Documents show this game, pall mall (or paille maille, pell mell, palle-malle, or jeu de mail), being played in the French royal court, now with smaller balls and recognizable mallets. The game had spread to London by 1661, when Samuel Pepys noted that he had been ‘to St James’s Park, where I saw the Duke of York playing at Pelemele, the first time that I ever saw the sport’. The playing area was a strip of land 1,000 yards long, called ‘The Mall’. Shopkeepers lined the route, and thus was created the world’s first shopping mall.

EXTREME CROQUET

Cheap croquet sets have their place, and some individuals favour the cheapest and most disposable equipment available. Awkward childhood memories of backyard croquet games have given rise to a new phenomenon – that of ‘Extreme Croquet’ – which provides an opportunity for grown-ups to relive their youth, but usually with more alcohol.

The first documented game was in Sweden in the 1970s, where a group of friends bought a cheap croquet set and laid out the hoops in the middle of a forest. The craze seems to have spread and become more popular recently, particularly among university students in the USA. ‘Lawns’ – such as they are – may be laid out with hoops on rock outcrops, up trees, or across drainage channels. The game combines many of the finer characteristics of golf, orienteering and picnicking, but has little in common with organized croquet.

Many historians attempt to trace croquet’s ancestry back to these early games, but the evidence is scant. Enthusiasm for pall mall seems to have waned, and croquet emerged suddenly around a century later. Here was a radically different game in every aspect. It retained none of pall mall’s rules, except for the use of a mallet to hit a ball through a hoop. What is more, its origins seem to have lain, not in London or Paris, but in Ireland.

Oak carving of a mallet game (seventeenth century).

Cheltenham Croquet Club.

Jaques and Whitmore

The credit for introducing croquet to England seems to be attributable largely to John Jaques II. The Jaques family had trained as ivory-turners, and had successfully cornered the market in supplying sporting goods to Victorian England. They had introduced the Staunton chess set, and were later responsible for the invention of – among other games – Snakes and Ladders and Table Tennis. John Jaques visited Ireland in 1852, and saw a new game called Crookey being played. He brought it home and marketed it to the growing Victorian middle classes. Croquet was soon established as the latest craze.

Jaques’s early rules were rudimentary, and croquet might have fizzled out were it not for the efforts of Walter Jones Whitmore. Whitmore was not a practical man – he was a failed poet, failed novelist and failed inventor – but he did see the potential for developing the strategy of the new game. He tweaked the rules, and formulated the first guide to tactics, published in The Field magazine in 1866. In 1867, the game’s first open tournament was held in Evesham, Worcestershire, and Whitmore became croquet’s first official champion.

The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club

As the game grew in popularity, clubs started to spring up. Worthing (the earliest club) in West Sussex was founded in 1860. The game spread along England’s south coast, and around the south-west (Whitmore’s area of influence). Whitmore and others saw a need for a national centre in London, and formed a club that would become world-famous – the All England Croquet Club at Wimbledon.

The formation of the All England Croquet Club was rancorous. Whitmore’s appointment to the committee was quickly seen as a mistake, but he did not step down with much grace. Instead, he formed a rival splinter organization, the National Croquet Club. It continued for a short period, but was soon absorbed into the AECC. Whitmore continued to dissent, and went on to form a third body, the Grand National Croquet Club. With Whitmore’s early death in 1872, the GNCC folded.

Croquet had more to worry about than such internal bickering. Soon a new game had emerged to challenge croquet’s place – a game called ‘Lawn Tennis’. Tennis had several advantages – the playing area was half the size, games were shorter, and all participants were kept simultaneously active. Croquet started to fade from the public’s gaze. Wimbledon allocated some space to the upstart game, and soon rebranded itself as the ‘All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club’. By 1882, croquet had vanished almost to nothing, and was dropped from the name of the club. Although it was reinstated in the title, largely for sentimental reasons, in 1899, today only one croquet lawn remains at the game’s first headquarters.

Development

Enthusiasts saw the need to coordinate the disparate clubs that were starting around the country. The Croquet Association (CA) was established, and eventually found a permanent base at the Hurlingham Club in south-west London. The CA relocated in 2002 to Cheltenham Croquet Club, home to many of the UK’s top events.

CROQUET AT THE OLYMPICS

Croquet’s popularity had spread globally by 1900, so much so that it featured at the Paris Olympics that year. This was the first Olympic sport to include women (and one of the few, even now, to feature women competing alongside men in the same event). In many other respects, however, it was less than successful.

There were just ten competitors, nine of whom were from Paris. The sole outsider had made the journey from Belgium, but he failed to complete the first round of play. This was perhaps understandable, as the event was inconveniently held over three successive weeks, which may have explained the absence of any other visiting nations. France won all the medals, although it is not certain whether more than one pair entered the doubles event.

Publicity was poor. At least one participant went to his grave years later, still unaware that he had competed in the Olympic Games. And, over the whole event, there was just one single spectator – an elderly Englishman who travelled from Nice to watch.

Four years later, croquet, of sorts, returned to the Olympics in St Louis, USA. There was some anti-English resistance to the recognized game, so it was renamed ‘roque’, and underwent some rule changes, to make it more ‘American’.

Roque is played on an octagonal court with a hard surface. The boundaries are marked with a low concrete wall, allowing players to bounce the (rubber) balls round corners. Once again, the host nation took every single medal at the Games. By 1908, the IOC had tightened up the regulations for inclusion in the Olympics. Neither croquet nor roque has featured since.

Sadly, roque is now all but obsolete. Infighting and a dwindling interest led to the bulldozing of many roque courts in the 1950s and, as car ownership grew, many were concreted over to become parking lots. The game does live on in American literature, with mentions in both John Steinbeck’s Sweet Thursday and Stephen King’s The Shining.

Reg Bamford winning the 2005 World Championship.

British – and particularly English – croquet has blossomed over the last thirty years. Through the seven-month playing season, hundreds of tournaments across the country cater for the thousands of dedicated participants who play each week at the many clubs affiliated to the CA. This current stability comes as a welcome relief after years of hardship.

The Fall and Rise

Lawn tennis almost killed the game of croquet, but not quite. The end of the nineteenth century was a difficult period for the game, but popularity comes in waves, and croquet had bounced back by the first decade of the next century. The onset of the Great War inevitably halted the game’s expansion once again but, by the early 1920s, croquet had again resurfaced. This decade was, perhaps, the game’s heyday – these were happy post-war days when England’s burgeoning middle classes had the time and opportunity to enjoy their leisure time to the full.

It was the Second World War that represented the greatest threat to croquet, and the game barely survived. Many clubs closed, and the wartime gloom threatened to drive it to extinction. And yet croquet clung on, unloved and out of fashion.

Modern International Scene

The resurgence in croquet’s appeal can be traced back to the early 1960s. By the 1980s, croquet was attracting a generation of youngsters, among them Chris Clarke, Robert Fulford and David Maugham in the UK, and Reg Bamford in South Africa.

Croquet had been strong in Australia and New Zealand since its earliest days, and interest was growing in North America. The World Croquet Federation was created in 1986, with plans to develop the game throughout the rest of the world. The WCF now has twenty-six member countries, and the game’s reach has spread to much of mainland Europe.

Competition

World Singles Championship

The staging of the WCF World Croquet Championship has done a great deal to raise the profile of the game. Croquet remains untouched by the professional status of many sports. Players have their travel expenses financed by national associations, but there is no expectation that anyone will grow rich as a croquet player. There are no cash prizes – winners receive the handsome Wimbledon Cup, and the simple glory of victory.

WORLD CHAMPIONS

YearWinnerRunner-upHost venue2009Reg Bamford (RSA)Ben Rothman (USA)Palm Beach, Florida, USA2008Chris Clarke (ENG)Stephen Mulliner (ENG)Christchurch, New Zealand2005Reg Bamford (RSA)Robert Fulford (ENG)Cheltenham, England2002Robert Fulford (ENG)Toby Garrison (NZ)Wellington, New Zealand2001Reg Bamford (RSA)Robert Fulford (ENG)Hurlingham, England1997Robert Fulford (ENG)Stephen Mulliner (ENG)Bunbury, Australia1995Chris Clarke (ENG)Robert Fulford (ENG)Fontenay le Comte, France1994Robert Fulford (ENG)Chris Clarke (ENG)Carden Park, England1992Robert Fulford (ENG)John Walters (ENG)Newport, Rhode Island, USA1991John Walters (ENG)David Openshaw (ENG)Hurlingham, England1990Robert Fulford (ENG)Mark Saurin (ENG)Hurlingham, England1989Joe Hogan (NZ)Mark Avery (ENG)Hurlingham, England

The MacRobertson Shield

The MacRobertson Shield is the main international team event. The shield was donated by Sir MacPherson Robertson in 1925, and the test series is now contested by the game’s four dominant nations. The ‘Mac’ now carries a great deal of prestige, and competition for selection is fierce. Presumably, in 1925 selection was based only partially on playing ability – matches in that first year were played over the course of ten weeks, and visiting teams had to provide their own finance for the three-month campaign.

Demand for a world team championship grows. The 2010 Mac will see an English, rather than a British, team. Ireland, Scotland and Wales are developing their own standings in the world; and alongside them are strong performers from Canada, Sweden, Italy, Spain and Egypt. The future is unknowable, but it looks strong for worldwide croquet.

THE MACROBERTSON SHIELD

YearFirstSecondThirdFourthHost venue2006Great BritainAustraliaUSANew ZealandAustralia2003Great BritainAustraliaUSANew ZealandUSA2000Great BritainNew ZealandUSAAustraliaNew Zealand1996Great BritainNew ZealandAustraliaUSAGreat Britain1993Great BritainNew ZealandAustraliaUSAAustralia1990Great BritainNew ZealandAustraliaNew Zealand1986New ZealandGreat BritainAustraliaGreat Britain1982Great BritainAustraliaNew ZealandAustralia1979New ZealandGreat BritainAustraliaNew Zealand1974Great BritainNew ZealandAustraliaEngland1969EnglandNew ZealandAustraliaAustralia1963EnglandAustraliaNew ZealandNew Zealand1956EnglandNew ZealandEngland1950–1New ZealandEnglandNew Zealand1937EnglandAustraliaEngland1935AustraliaEnglandNew ZealandAustralia1930AustraliaNew ZealandAustralia1927–8AustraliaEnglandAustralia1925EnglandAustraliaEngland

The MacRobertson Shield.

CHAPTER 2

THE SINGLE BALL SHOT

Most people pick up a croquet mallet, decide what swing feels comfortable, and stick with that for the rest of their playing career. Unfortunately, what may be a natural swing is often not a very successful one. None of the game’s top players earned their status without practising and refining their swing from its raw and natural state to an unnatural, but seemingly effortless, one.

Former British Men’s Champion, Pete Trimmer.

The muscles of the elbow and shoulder are designed for heavy-duty work, while delicate movements are performed by the wrist and finger muscles. A good swing is controlled by the large muscles in the upper arm. A competent croquet player will make shoulder movements that are smooth, unified and consistent. At the same time, wrist and finger movement needs to be minimized; the tiniest involuntary twitch of a finger can represent the difference between hitting and missing, and, therefore, between winning and losing.

Grip

The key to problems with fingers is to form your hands into a consistent and comfortable grip. There are essentially only three ways of holding a croquet mallet.

The Standard Grip

This is how most players naturally pick up a mallet. The lower hand (the dominant one) holds the shaft with the palm facing forward, and the upper hand holds the top of the shaft with knuckles facing forward. Beginners often start with their hands well apart. Ideally, the two hands should be just touching, so it is advisable as you are learning to move the lower hand gradually up the shaft each time you play. Having the hands together should reduce stretching of the lower arm, which tenses one shoulder more than the other.

As you swing, both forearms should be at right-angles to the mallet. This should help straighten your backswing, and allow you to hit hard shots more effectively.

The standard grip (left-hander shown).

The Irish Grip

This was popularized in the early twentieth century by three Irish players, Cyril Corbally, Duff Matthews and Leslie O’Callaghan. Both hands grip the shaft with the palms facing forward. Again, the hands should be held close together, and many players have their hands slightly overlapping, as with a golf grip. The hands are held slightly lower, and many devotees favour a mallet shaft that is slightly (just a couple of inches) shorter.

As you bend your wrists back, there is a tendency for the wrists to twist inwards (to pronate), which results in a crooked backswing for many Irish-grip players. This can be resolved in several ways. Many players forego a large backswing, playing many shots as a gentle poke. When you need to play a hard shot, stand half a step further away from the ball as you hit it. That provides you with more room on the backswing before the wrists pronate.

Alternatively, you can just learn to live with the crookedness. Robert Fulford, five times World Champion and arguably the greatest ever player of the game, has a swing that turns markedly to the left on the backswing. Timing your follow-through may require a greater degree of natural coordination, so his natural style may be a difficult one to mimic.

The Irish grip (right-handed).

Stephen Mulliner’s Irish grip has a small backswing.

The Solomon Grip

The Solomon grip was conceived in the 1950s by John Solomon, who dominated the British game until the 1970s. Both hands grip the shaft with the knuckles pointing forwards. This may be more successful with a slightly longer mallet – it is often the swing adopted by children who find either of the other two grips uncomfortable on a mallet that is too tall for them.

I am no great fan of the Solomon grip. For me, there is not enough support for the back of the mallet shaft, which wobbles in my hands at the point of impact with the ball. Maybe my fingers are too short or too weak to grip adequately. It may be possible to resolve this worry by having one or both thumbs raised. Try placing a thumb on the top of the mallet, rather than wrapping it round the side of the shaft. With the length of the thumb-bone resting against the back of the shaft, you may be able to brace your shots.

In spite of my doubts, the Solomon grip has a number of fans in the top flight of the game.

The Solomon grip (left-handed).

John Solomon in play at Southwick.

Training Your Grip

It is crucially important that your grip is consistent whenever you play. There is no other way but to program the position of your hands into your memory. Every time you pick up your mallet, your hands should adopt a comfortable position. But, it is possible to train yourself to do this, even when you do not have a mallet near by.

Take a couple of sheets of A4 paper, or one sheet of newspaper folded in two, and roll them into a long tube. You want the tube to be about the same thickness as your mallet shaft – do not be tempted to use a cardboard tube, as its diameter will be too thick. Hold the tube as if it is your mallet. Experiment until you find a grip that is comfortable.

Stand up and look down. You should be able to see the floor through the tube. Swing the tube backwards and forwards, as if you were playing a shot. Throughout the swing, you should still be able to look through the tube and see the floor. Practise this routine for a couple of minutes a day, and you should become more and more confident of your grip and your swing.

The advantage of this practice technique is that it does not require any equipment. It is ideal as a winter routine, as you need not even step outside. Try it standing astride a line on the floor – the edge of the carpet, or a gap between tiles in the kitchen. Do your swing, and make sure that line remains visible through the tube.

In reality, this exercise is not replicating your swing 100 per cent faithfully – your elbows and wrists will extend slightly at the back of the swing and tense as you follow through. However, it will help you to affirm your grip, as well as coordinating your shoulder movements. It forces you to keep your fingers and wrists still, basing your swing around your elbows and shoulders.

A paper tube makes a useful grip trainer.

Shoulders and Legs

Style

In croquet’s early days, most players played side-style, with the shoulders facing square on to the direction of the shot, and the mallet swung to one side of the body (the right side for a right-hander). The style is problematic in a number of ways. The right arm is held straight, while the left is stretched across the chest. That makes it difficult to coordinate the motion of the two arms – one side of the body is tensed, and there is a tendency to swing crookedly, right to left, on each shot. The left arm provides little in the way of power, making long, firm shots inaccurate, if not impossible. What is more, the player’s eyes are one foot to the left of the line of travel. The cure for this would be for the player to lean all their weight on the right side, which, in turn, creates major problems with balance. Unless you have a compelling reason to play side-style, it is not advisable to do so.

Side style.

Stance

Beginners often stand with their legs straight and their feet very wide apart, presumably because they feel that this stance lessens the risk of the mallet hitting the ankles.

A wide stance forces you to straighten your legs and therefore tenses the calf muscles. That in turn tenses the back, and creates unnecessary tension in the shoulders. If your body is not relaxed, your swing will not be. In the normal course of the day you would find such a stance uncomfortable, so it is not recommended when you are playing croquet.

The important thing is to stand so that you are relaxed. Whether you play croquet to win, or whether you play for the simple enjoyment of the game, no swing should make you feel uncomfortable.

A wide style increases tension in the muscles.

Centre style (left-handed).

NB: The illustrations of stance here and in Chapter 3 show the author, who is left-handed. Copying my stance exactly may be uncomfortable, so readers are invited to experiment with their own style.

Some players advocate standing with one foot slightly ahead of the other. I think it hardly matters. The important aspect of stance is that your shoulders should be square to the direction of the shot. Placing one foot far forward might spoil that alignment. Modern fashions favour keeping the feet together and almost level, but Chapter 3 explains how that stance should be varied for other shots.

Problems often arise when players stand too close or too far from the ball. For most standard-grip players, the mallet will hit the ball full on when your toes are level with the bottom of the mallet shaft. If you stand closer, you will hit down on to the ball; if you are further away, you will hit up. Irish-grip players may prefer to stand so that their toes are level with the back edge, or heel, of the mallet.

Casting

Casting, or practice-swinging, is the subject of much debate. There seems to be a generational divide among players. Much as it offends the aesthetic sensibilities of established players, casting has become widespread among the new crop.

Previously, most players would take aim, adopt their stance and ground the mallet; placing the mallet on the floor before taking the shot helps to steady the swing. After grounding, they would then start the backswing, and hit the ball.

Nowadays, many (but by no means all) players hold the mallet above the ball, repeatedly swinging the mallet up to the horizontal. It is said that this helps to check the alignment with the target, as well as ensuring that the swing is consistent. Some multi-swingers claim to cast precisely four times, and some will swing at least twenty times before their actual stroke. Once they are satisfied with the line, they drop their shoulders and elbows, and play the shot. That gives a smooth transition between practice swing and the genuine swing.

Jenny Clarke casting the mallet before hitting.

Players argue that it helps with relaxing their swing and gauging the pace of a shot. I am a caster, and I think it makes me hit straighter. But there seems to be no real consensus either way. The only advice I can offer is to do what feels right.

REG BAMFORD AND THE SWING TRAINER

In the late 1980s, the English player Eric Solomon advocated the use of a swing trainer, to teach muscles a repetitive routine for a perfect swing. Few people adopted the suggestion until 2001, when South African Reg Bamford chose to employ the technique – to devastating effect.

Bamford commissioned John Hobbs, a British mallet-maker, to construct a trainer from two plywood sheets fixed in parallel, so that the mallet could swing between them. Each evening, Bamford would practise swinging along the groove, narrowing the gap until there was less than a millimetre’s clearance between the mallet and each sheet.

Reg Bamford practising with a swing trainer.

After two weeks of this routine, spectators watched Bamford shoot balls at the centre peg on one of the lawns at Surbiton Croquet Club. Of sixty-four balls shot at the peg from 42ft (over 12m) away, Bamford scored sixty-three hits. Moreover, each hit rebounded by the same amount, and in the same direction.

Bamford, already a world-class shot, had perfected a way of training his swing to be absolutely consistent. Using this training method, he became World Champion in 2001, and top-class croquet entered the era of the supershot.

Curing a Twitchy Swing

Most players go through phases during which all their shots seem to miss. Often they feel themselves missing consistently by the same amount on the same side. Something feels wrong, but it is hard to diagnose the problem precisely.

The cause is often muscle tension. If you are not relaxed, one shoulder – or one foot, or one wrist – may be stiffer than the other. You may not notice it yourself, but you could be leaning a tiny bit to one side, and not swinging evenly at the ball. Tension in your upper body often arises from tension in your legs. If you are tense and uncomfortable before you have started swinging the mallet, you will probably miss. Many players have certain rituals that they follow before taking a shot – do not be afraid to loosen yourself up by performing some quick neck exercises, or flexing your fingers, or jumping up and down on the spot. Once you have taken your stance for the stroke, try rebalancing yourself by quickly doing one of the following exercises:

•wiggle your toes;

•tense and relax each foot in turn;

•‘pedal on the spot’ – alternately lift each heel off the ground, slightly bending and straightening your knees.

You can do each of these without altering your position. As soon as you lift your feet off the ground, you have disturbed the aiming line you have chosen, so it is worth taking aim again.

If none of that works, and you are still missing, you may have a problem with your grip. The tiniest of twitches in a finger can cause your mallet to twist imperceptibly. It is not enough for you to notice, but it can make you miss a crucial shot. With most croquet grips, the most likely cause is a tiny squeeze of the thumb, or tension in the tendon that joins your third and fourth fingers. The following rebalancing exercise may help with this:

•Hold your mallet above the ball, and slightly loosen your grip.

•Spin your mallet in your hands, so that the opposite end-face is pointing forwards.

•Feel the swing of the mallet, and tighten your grip back to normal.

•Loosen your grip, and rotate the mallet again.

•Keep ungripping the mallet and re-applying your grip, until your fingers adopt a comfortable and familiar position.

If that does you no good, then the problem probably lies elsewhere. Concentrate on the shot itself – as long as you have aimed correctly, and as long as your swing is straight, then all you have to worry about is making a clean contact between the mallet and the ball. Keep your head down, focus on the ball, relax and hit.

Aiming

Stalking the Ball

Once you have acquired a straight swing, you need to determine where to point your body. If you stand close to your ball, you often cannot see whether you are facing in the right direction. The habit that all players need to adopt is to stalk the ball before each shot. Stand several yards back from your ball, and walk towards it, along the line of the shot. By standing back, you can see whether your ball is in line with its target. Walk along that line, and your body will continue to face forwards. If your shoulders face in the right direction, your swing should be directly towards the target.

This is one technique that is almost impossible to teach – some people are better natural judges than others. However, there are a few tips that might improve your aiming.

Crouching

It is hard to see whether the balls are aligned, particularly with long shots. Suppose you are playing Red, and you want to roquet Black. Your mallet is close up, Red is in the middle distance, and Black is in the far distance. The angles are such that you cannot see everything at the same time. Crouch down, holding your mallet in its correct grip, but with its head resting on the ground in front of you. This lets you look along the length of the mallet to the Red to the Black, and have all three in your field of vision at once.

Robert Fulford crouches to get a better view.

ILLEGAL ASSISTANCE

Some years before I started playing croquet, there was a player in the north of England who employed an ingenious – but illegal – means of aiming his long shots.

Apparently, he played with a mallet to which he had fixed the polished brass gun-sight of an antique rifle. Before each shot, he would bend down, line up the target through the telescopic sight, and then take his stance and play the shot. By all accounts, it did him no good. He had a terrible swing, and missed everything. And, with each shot he played, he would stab himself in the thigh with the gun-sight.

The Parallax View

From a distance, you might think that your body, the Red ball and the Black ball are aligned. If so, then moving slightly left or right will cause everything to move out of alignment. Look along the line of Red and Black, and very gently rock towards your right foot, back to your left foot, and then back into equilibrium. Alternatively, if you prefer, slightly tilt your head right and then left. You should see the following:

•balls aligned;

•Red missing on the left;

•Red missing on the right;

•balls aligned again.

If that is what you see, then your body is aligned correctly.

Draw a Dotted Line

Look at the mallet, your ball, and the target. Mallet – ball – target – mallet – ball – target. With a long shot, your eyes are jumping from one point of focus to the next. Try moving your eyes gradually from one to the next. Focus on your mallet, and follow an imaginary dotted line to your ball. Continue the line, and focus on each dot in turn, right up to the target ball.

These principles might help you orient yourself correctly before the shot. But remember – if you are not pointing the right way, do not settle for shuffling your feet until you find the right line. Stop, stalk the shot again, and check your alignment.

There is no shot in croquet that is so short that it does not need careful aim. However, once you have learned to swing straight and aim straight, you then only need to concentrate on hitting your ball cleanly.

Hoop-Running

Going through a hoop – running or making the hoop – is, pretty obviously, a fundamental skill of the game. Most coaches draw a distinction between straight hoops and angled hoops, and adopt a different aiming technique. With tournament hoops set firmly in the ground, the clearance between ball and hoop is very small. However you play the shot, your attempt at a hoop will almost certainly reach one upright, or wire, of the hoop before the other. If your ball hits the near wire, it will not go through.

Aiming a Hoop Shot

Imagine a length of drainpipe the exact diameter of a croquet ball. Aim your hoop shots so that this imaginary drainpipe runs from your ball towards the hoop, just missing the near wire. Many players stalk their hoop shots, lining the edge of their ball with the inner edge of the upright. Instead, stalk the shot along the line of the imaginary channel. No matter how straight or acutely angled your position, this principle will still apply.

When this method is put into practice, it is remarkable what angles of hoop can be run. In theory, any hoop is runnable if your ball can hit the far wire and bounce inwards into the hoop, rather than outwards away from it. Look at the hoop from the far side – if you can see more than half the ball between the uprights, then you might have a chance. With a bit of clever technique, experts can score when the angle is as sharp as 60 degrees. You will have to wait, as that is a topic for a later chapter.

Visualize a channel between the ball and the hoop.

Acutely angled hoops are theoretically possible if most of the ball is visible from the other side.

The Stroke

The first rule of hoop-running is not to jab at the hoop. Imagine you are threading a needle, or that the mallet is a giant paintbrush. Ideally, you want a smooth stroke with some follow-through.

Jabbing has two negative effects: first, it stops the ball from spinning forwards, and second, it amplifies any crookedness in your swing. Following through, on the other hand, evens out that crookedness. It is hard to swing badly if you keep your mallet travelling along the line of aim.

As the angle of a hoop tightens, your ball will hit the far upright more fully. This will absorb much of the energy of the ball, so angled hoops need to be hit much more firmly.

The Fan of Success

Straight, close hoops are much easier to run than long, angled ones. The more you practise, the more you will feel comfortable with difficult hoops. One practice routine involves the ‘fan of success’.

To follow this routine, you visualize a fan on the ground in front of the hoop. This represents the area from which you are comfortable scoring. Initially, you will be happy with short and straight shots, and will be less confident of long or angled hoops. As you get more experienced, your fan of success should become bigger and wider. In the context of a game, you should make yourself aware of what your optimum position is, so you can position your ball to guarantee scoring. When you are very close to the hoop, scoring should be easy, provided that your shot is dead straight; long and straight is generally much easier than close and angled. For comfort, you should try and place your ball as close to the middle of your fan as possible.

The ‘fan of success’.

Hitting Another Ball

Roqueting each of the other balls extends your turn from one stroke to seven. Running a hoop resets your allocation of roquets, and, in theory, grants you up to ninety-one successive shots. The ability to roquet is, therefore, crucial. As always, a long follow-through will straighten your swing. Play each shot smoothly and, as with hoops, avoid jabbing.

GOLF CROQUET

Golf Croquet was originally conceived as a simplified game for those unprepared for the subtleties of Association Croquet. Each turn comprises one shot, and there are no roquets, croquets or continuation shots.

Golf Croquet had a dedicated following among British servicemen in officers’ clubs in Cairo during the war. By the 1990s, the Egyptians had adopted Golf Croquet as their national game, improving the rules to suit a more adventurous playing style.

Egyptian golfers have an awesome hoop-running ability, regularly crashing through hoops from twenty yards. Some players favour deliberately leaving themselves severely angled and at an eight-yard distance; they claim (with some justification) that the angle helps them bounce through, and have a better chance of scoring two hoops in one stroke.

This spectacular game attracts a loyal following in Egypt. It is played at night on floodlit lawns, and often has extensive television coverage. So far, Egyptians have yet to make a serious mark on the Association game, where the range of stroke play is wider. Only the top handful of Association players – including Reg Bamford and Robert Fulford – have come close to overcoming their astonishing firepower.

Rushing

You will often want to do more than just roquet another ball. You will often want to roquet it to an exact position. This is called a rush.

In a normal roquet, you just have to concentrate on getting your ball (Red) to hit the other ball (Yellow). In a rush, you also need to think about strength and direction.

David Maugham plays a rush.

Dolly Rush The dolly rush is an easy, straight rush. Red and Yellow are no more than a foot or two apart, and pointing in a direct line towards where you want to go. The angle of the mallet is vital, so you need to be aware of the positioning of your feet. Your feet should be positioned as for any normal shot, so that the mallet is flat at the moment of impact. If you stand too close, the mallet will be hitting downwards on to your ball, which will cause Red to spin more; you will lose energy as the balls impact, and there is a danger that Red will bounce in the air and skim the top of Yellow, or even jump clean over it.

CLIPS

As the game progresses, it is often hard to keep up with which hoops have been scored by which balls. Coloured clips are placed on the hoops to indicate the next hoop. Clips on the crown indicate the outward journey (Hoops 1 to 6), and clips on the side the return journey (1-back to Rover).

The clip positions, or clippage, will often lead you into attacking or defensive strategies.

Clips on a hoop.

Standing too far away from Red is a less serious error. You will hit Red at the start of the follow-through. It will make