rules to play croquet

If an opponent causes a ball to be blocked from scoring its wicket by a dead ball s for two consecutive turns, the blocked ball becomes alive on the blocking ball s . The opponent must be responsible for the block, not the side claiming a block. A block must be confirmed by the blocking side in order to be counted as a block, in order to avoid disputes. In addition, the proposed wicket shot that is claimed to be blocked must be possible to make to count as a block.

A rover may hit all balls once per turn; however, once the rover is dead on a ball s , it must go through any wicket in any direction to clear its deadness on that ball s . The rover does not get an additional bonus shot after going through this clearing wicket.

A poison ball is one that has scored all the wickets but hasnt hit the finishing stake. A poison ball may hit any opponent ball and have it removed from the game. Conversely, if an opponent ball hits a poison ball, the poison ball is removed from the game. If a poison ball fully passes through any wicket in any direction, it is removed from the game. A poison ball does not earn bonus shots for hitting other balls.

When a timed match has expired, each ball gets a last turn. If a ball has played its last stroke of the turn and is still rolling on the court when time expires, it will get another turn. If the losing side has played its last turns, the winning side may not play its last turn aka last ball last turn may not play . If the score is tied after the last turn round, the ball closest to its contested wicket gets an extra point for the win. A tournament director may choose to use multiple last turns rounds ideally, no more than two rounds .

If you want to play a longer game then you can choose the 26 point game. In this version each side tries to score 12 hoop points for each ball and the 2 peg points. The first six hoop points are as in the basic garden croquet then the hoops are played in the reverse direction see diagram B . The position of the red topped hoop If used is moved so that it denotes the final hoop . This version is the one used for most major Association Croquet Championships.The game played under basic Garden Croquet Rules is sometimes called 14 Point Croquet.

As your game progresses you may want to use the starting rule for Association Croquet. In this version you can choose to start from either end of the lawn. Between Corner 1 and the mid point at one end of the lawn and between Corner 3 and the mid point at the other end of the lawn. This allows for more variety of tactics at the start of the game.

If you are playing a game between players of different ability, it is possible to use a handicap system. With this, the weaker player is awarded a number of extra turns, which may be used at any point during the game following a normal turn. In the extra turn, the player must continue to strike the same ball he was using in the preceding turn. The number of extra turns required may be set after some experimentation to give the fairest chance to both sides. Extra turns are often marked with white sticks at the edge of the lawn, which are pulled out as each extra turn is used, but any markers will do.

You can earn extra shots in two ways.
By scoring the next hoop in order, earning one extra shot, or
By striking your ball so that it hits one of the other three balls, earning two extra shots.

If one of your hoops has a blue top then this should go in position 1 and is the first hoop and the one with the red top denotes the final hoop and goes in position 6. The order and direction of scoring the hoops is shown in the diagram.Each ball must score the six hoops in the right order as shown and then score the peg point. A side wins by scoring the six hoops for both balls and the two peg points before the opposing side.

If any ball goes off the lawn it is replaced a metre in from the edge where it went off the lawn and play continues without any penalty. If at the end of a turn, a ball lies within one metre of the boundary, it is moved into the lawn so that it is one metre from the boundary.