Croquet

The origins of Croquet are unclear, it may have been played in the Middle Ages, and possibly even have passed down from ancient times. The first mention of Croquet, however, is in the ‘Field’ in 1858, which mentions meetings of the Co. Meath Croquet Cracks. The players were mostly young and met at each others houses, and one player, George Annesley Pollock of Oatlands and Newcastle, Co. Meath, laid out the rules under the pseudonym “corncrake” and called them “The Rules of the Oatlands Club” – the first Croquet Rules in the World. [Ref: 1]

It is game played on a lawn with two players or four, and two balls, which each player hits with a mallet, attempting to get it through hoops inserted into the lawn. There are versions, one where players have to get around the course in as few attempts as possible, scored like Golf with the lowest score winning, and another version, scored in sets, with each player counting a score for each hoop they pass through before the other player. In the second version the highest score wins, in other words the player who won the most hoops.

References

[1] Croquet Ireland (2019) A History of Croquet in Ireland [Internet] Available from: http://croquetireland.com/node/4 [Accessed 29 May 2020]