from The Dalesman

Croquet, known as the Queen of Games, is enjoying a UK renaissance. This surge of interest ensures members of Yorkshire’s eleven clubs are in high spirits as they go into the new season, which runs from April to the end of September.

Through the hoopBy common consent, York Croquet Club boasts the county’s finest lawns. Three are in use at the club’s Scarcroft Green headquarters, south of the city centre. “Our membership has doubled in recent years, and looks set to increase further,” says chairman John Harris. “Croquet’s time has come to grow again. It’s a quintessentially English game, delightful on a summer’s day, and a game both sexes and all ages can play on equal terms. It’s strategic, relaxing and enjoyable. We have plenty of capacity and we’re on the lookout for new members.”

The origins of croquet are obscure. It seems to have been played in Ireland during the 1830s. “Where it came from before that is unknown,” says John. “It’s a real mystery.” Croquet was introduced to England in the 1850s and a club established in York circa 1870. A firm in the city, Cordeaux and Ernest, made equipment and published the rules of the game, as played at Sheriff Hutton Park. Its heyday, during which croquet parties were fashionable, was curtailed by the 1870s advent of lawn tennis. Despite a brief revival in the Edwardian era, its popularity continued to decline. Now, it seems, croquet is making a comeback.
Ready to roll
Ready to roll

The present York club was formed in 1988 and has been at Scarcroft Green since 1992. The county’s other clubs, affiliated to the Yorkshire Croquet Federation, are at Ben Rhydding, Beverley, Bishop Monkton, Brodsworth Hall, Huddersfield, Lepton, Pickering, Ripon, Sheffield and Shepley. Sheffield has two clubs, one of which has grown enormously in recent years. All stage a variety of internal and external competitions, and some play in county and regional leagues.

In the UK, the main versions of croquet are association and golf. The York club plays the former, featuring six hoops, four balls and a centre peg. Association’s name derives from the “croquet shot”, played with two balls touching. “Association Croquet is strategic and intricate, whereas golf croquet is short and sociable,” explains John. “You’re thinking ahead, trying to build breaks. It has been likened to chess, billiards and snooker, but there are aspects to the game unique to croquet.”

York Croquet Club has sixty members. It hosts sessions at Scarcroft Green on Mondays (10am-noon), Wednesdays (6.30pm-dusk), Thursdays (4pm-6pm) and Saturdays (10am-noon). Formats include singles, doubles, short lawn, full lawn, timed and untimed. To increase participation and improve skills, it offers free drop-in taster sessions on selected weekend afternoons; refresher sessions, early in the season; and, for more experienced players, weekend courses organised by the Croquet Association.

Green and pleasantRowntree Park is the venue for one of the York club’s taster sessions, which feature a simple version of the game. John describes the response as “fantastic”. He adds: “We’ve got a number of people interested in following up from these and our other sessions. We’ve had a lot of international visitors. Meeting them has been very enjoyable. Some are just intrigued by this curious English game; others have heard of croquet and are keen to find out more,” smiles John. “Some say ‘I’ve been meaning to play this game for some time’ and ‘show me how to do it’. Some really take to it and want to know more. It’s a lovely game for a summer’s day, with the sun shining, relaxed company and a game going on in front of you that you’re part of. It’s very enjoyable. I’d say to people: come and try the game, see how it feels and see if it’s for you. We’d be delighted to see you. You’d receive a very warm welcome.”

Croquet has many fine aspects, not least its handicap system. “The beginner in a short lawn game gets ten bisques, which is ten extra turns,” explains John. “In theory, they could play the world champion and there would be a match on. In practice, you play to your strengths and your ability. You can have an enjoyable game at whatever level of ability you are. Strength has nothing to do with it. Some of the shots are really delicate. The whole point is to so arrange things that all the shots are straightforward. You don’t need big, difficult, heroic shots.”

Despite members playing competitively at various levels, for the York club it is the taking part – not the winning – that counts. “We play for pleasure,” says John. “With the handicap system, we’re always happy for people to get a game in an external league. But it’s about participation and enjoyment. For us, that is more important than being determined to be top of the league at all costs.”

As the new season stretches into the distance, Yorkshire’s croquet community is eager to capitalise on the game’s welcome if long overdue rebirth. “We’re very passionate about croquet,” says John, “so we want to do our bit to help it grow and develop. I feel the game is ready for a big surge forward.”

The Dalesman, April 2016

Anyone for croquet? Wimbledon may be starting on Monday, but there’s another lawn game that’s just as ace. Press reporter MAXINE GORDON checks out the rising appeal of croquet

PRISTINE greens, perfect lines and players dressed in white – you’d be forgiven for thinking we’d turned up at SW19 for the start of the All England Club Championships. But no; we are in the heart of York, at Scarcroft Green, home to the city’s croquet club. If you thought croquet was more Downton Abbey than South Bank, be prepared to ditch your prejudices.

Maxine Gordon from The Press tries the game at York Croquet Club. Photo: The PressThe sport is having its moment. “Participation in sport was all set to grow after the Olympics, but in most sports it has declined. Croquet is slowly growing across the UK.” So says John Harris, who took up the game 12 years ago and is now chairman of York Croquet Club.

Membership is up almost 50 per cent in a year, from about 30 to 45. And it’s continuing to build, thanks to series of short, introductory courses run by the club this year.

There are two types of croquet, explains John: social, where players take it in turns to strike the ball through hoops, and strategic, where players can earn extra shots and plan their offence by plotting advance moves, much like chess. The latter is played – and taught at the Scarcroft site – and club members regularly compete in leagues, pitting their skills against rivals across the city, Yorkshire and the North.

It’s perfect croquet weather when I meet John for a taster session. The sun is out and the lawns look inviting. Next to us, a couple are playing: the man relaxing in a deckchair while his wife sizes up her shot and swings the mallet like a pro.

First things first; John teaches me the grip. I’m right handed, so my left hand holds the top the mallet, knuckles pointed outwards at “11 o’clock”. My right hand hugs the handle beneath. He then encourages me to stand astride the ball and slightly behind it, so that if I swing forward, using my shoulders rather than my wrist, I should strike the ball. “It’s like a pendulum motion,” he adds helpfully.

We’re soon on the lawns and knocking balls here, there and everywhere. I manage to punch a couple through two hoops and feel surprisingly satisfied. John shows me some other shots, particular to the strategic game, where the idea is to hit the ball just so that it and its adjacent one split and fire off into different directions.

I tell John that a colleague’s brother once played croquet internationally and described the game as “civilised murder”. He laughs in recognition of the description, and says: “It depends how very serious you are about the game, any sport can be like that. Our experience here is that people play for pleasure. They enjoy each other’s company and the social side of the club.”

The game, he says, has two big advantages over other sports. Firstly there is a handicap system, giving extra shots to the less experienced player in a match, and secondly as it is about brain not brawn, men and women can play on equal footing. John says: “In theory, a beginner could play the world champion and they should be able to have an enjoyable game.”

And the sport is really one for all. The York club has players aged from nine to ninety.

The club also has the advantage of having some of the finest lawns in Yorkshire, carefully maintained by City of York Council, with the grass mown three times a week. “The quality of the lawns means we have been able to get the Croquet Association of Britain to run national courses here,” says John, who is an accredited coach.

Robert and Lesley Harris were the couple playing on the lawn next to us. They are from Harrogate and play bowls and social croquet at a club in Ripon. They’ve just completed the strategic croquet course at Scarcroft with John – and are hooked.

“It’s like a game of chess,” says Robert, who adds he wished he’d taken up the game years ago. “If you start this game young you could go right to the top.” Another appeal, says Lesley, is that even if you are several points behind in a match, you can still turn it around. “Your fortunes can change at any time.”

And despite its image of being a sport only for a summer’s day, John says they play in the wet too. In winter they can even practise indoors at a facility in Bishop Burton. Members also meet up through winter to play board games – to help their strategic thinking.

But as John stands in the middle of the manicured lawn, mallet in hand, a smile on his face and wearing a hat to protect his head from the June sun, he concedes that croquet was designed for days like these. “The game is at its best on a lovely summer day.”

The Press, June 2015