Four-ball arrangement from Croquet: As played by the Newport Croquet Club (1865)
The number of players can expand or contract as need be. With three or five players, a team can alternate turns and play any one of their own balls in a turn.
Set the stakes so that they're eighteen inches above the ground; the wickets should be ten inches high and four inches wide.
After laying out the course, set the boundaries, which can be as official as tape or string or as casual as a row of hedges or the invisible line between two trees.
Color determines the order of play, based on the top-to-bottom colors on the stakes: Blue, Red, Black, and Yellow. If six balls are being played, the two other colors, Orange and Green, follow.
To choose sides, either decide how players will best team up beforehand, or have all the players hit their balls to the starting stake; the balls nearest the stake and farthest away will be partners. The middle balls can team up.
The ball that lands nearest the stake has the choice of playing first or second.
Four-ball arrangement from Croquet: As played by the Newport Croquet Club (1865)
Eight-ball arrangement from Croquet: As played by the Newport Croquet Club (1865)
A mallet cannot strike another's ball.
There's no penalty for a ball played out of turn. It's just returned to its previous position.
If a player hits another player's ball through a wicket or causes it to hit a stake, the wicket or stake is scored, but the other player isn't awarded any bonus strokes for it.
If a player hits two other balls with one stroke and his ball bounces or rolls back and touches the first of the two hit, his turn is over.
A ball that passes through a wicket but rolls back has notscored the wicket.
A player is allowed one stroke at the beginning of a turn. The first player (Blue) places his ball midway between the stake and the first wicket and tries to pass it through wickets #1 and #2.
If he passes through wicket #1 only, he wins a bonus stroke, also known as a "continuation shot."
If he passes through both wickets, he wins two bonus strokes-- he gets to go again twice in this turn. This is the only time in the game that a player gets two consecutive bonus strokes in a turn.
If a player makes two wickets in one stroke, he's only entitled to one stroke for the last wicket he went through.
If a player makes a wicket and his ball hits another ball with the same stroke, he's entitled to two strokes for hitting the ball (not three because he also made a wicket).
If a ball hits another ball and then goes through its target wicket, the player is entitled to one stroke for the wicket.
When all the players have had a first turn-- Blue through Yellow or Green-- each side is allowed to play any of its balls in any given turn.
The first player/team to come back to hit the starting stake wins. The game continues until everyone has finished the course.
The ball has to be hit with the end (or "face") of the mallet.
The ball must be hit-- not shoved.
You can use one or two hands to swing the mallet, but two is best: either swing the mallet forward between your legs, forward along your side, or standing sideways as in golf.
Hitting another ball with the ball that's in play is called "roqueting," which awards the player two bonus strokes that give him four options: He can take two bonus strokes from where his ball lands; he can place his own ball a single mallet head's length away from the ball he just hit-- in any direction he chooses-- and take his two bonus strokes from there; he can put his ball next to the ball hit, then hit his own ball so that it moves both balls in a desired direction (which leaves him one more bonus shot); or he can place his own ball next to and touching the hit ball, then-- placing his foot on his own ball-- strike it with his mallet so that his own ball doesn't move, but the other ball does. (This also leaves him one more bonus stroke.)
Once a player roquets a ball, he's "dead" on it, that is, he can't strike it again until he goes through a wicket or hits the turning stake (not by accident, but as part of his turn).
Balls sent out of bounds should be placed one mallet length (about 36 inches) from the boundary back within the playing field at approximately the point it went out of bounds. In tournament play, balls that fall within a mallet of the boundary at the end of a turn are moved back from the boundary by the length of one mallet.
Scoring is optional. If a game has a time limit, the winner can be determined by counting points: 16 points for each ball (one for each wicket and stake).
A ball scores a wicket only if it comes to rest clear of the playing side of the wicket. Its placement can be checked by moving the mallet directly down along the wicket. If the ball moves, it didn't pass completely though.
One-Ball Croquet (aka Cutthroat Croquet) is played as a singles game, one ball per player. The winner is the player who advances her ball around the court first. All the other basic rules apply, including the layout of the course and the bonus strokes earned for hitting opponent balls and scoring wickets.
Poisonbut it can eliminate any other ball from the game just by hitting it. A poison ball can be eliminated, too, if an opponent ball hits it, or if it fully passes through any wicket in any direction. When all the players are eliminated, the final player left on the field is the winner.
In Miniature Croquet, you set up a random course in your backyard with makeshift ramps, chutes, and bridges and play the game like miniature golf. Then invite all the neighborhood kids over for a game.