Croquet

Playing croquet always dresses up a party no matter where it’s played. To me, the name itself evokes images of well dressed party-goers playing in front of a massive “cottage” on a large manicured lawn sloping to the sea. I retain this image despite the fact that I logged most of my croquet hours playing behind my grandparents house in Greenville, PA on their lawn sloping to a shared back alley. Croquet seems perfect for Classics but I think a few other types might be into it.

The game is either from England or Ireland. In England, it seems to be similar to a game called Pall Mall played as early as the 1600s during the reign of King Charles II. But, then there was also a game played in Ireland called “Crookey” and the most renowned maker of croquet sets, John Jacques of Jacques of London, said he heard of the game first from Ireland. Leave it to the English to try to steal the thunder from the Irish. Sigh. The French claim to have invented it too. Plus, I’m sure if I mentioned this to my Chinese father-in-law, he’d tell me it began as a Chinese game.

Regardless of it’s exact origins, the game became extremely popular in the 1800’s with clubs set up for play. But eventually Tennis started to take hold even in places like the All-England club at Wimbledon where they turned some of their croquet courts into tennis courts. Croquet was eventually relegated to its minor status today. Just think of how exciting Wimbledon COULD have been! The rules are fairly straightforward but setting up the field seemed a bit more complex than I thought so I’ve included this link as they had a visual plus all of the rules for backyard play.

I picked one of today’s images because the set reminded me of the old fashioned croquet set that my grandparents have. Perfect for Classics who like to keep things old school. But, for the other types who are less sticklers about formality, there are Melissa & Doug sets for kids or the animal croquet set. I see Organics buying the latter two for kids. (Which actually Organic mom did for her grandkids, who then lined them all up in a row, so the much easier to get the ball through!) Smarts and Classics would likely be more into the old school set, no matter the age of the kids. Then Eddie Bauer has a set with rectangular mallets. They’re old school with a modern twist and I thought this might catch a few Funs’ eyes. Finally, there’s the Rolls Royce of croquet sets, which are manufactured by Jacques of London. One of their high-end sets goes for just north of $1200. Only really wealthy Smarts who are obsessed with croquet and like also have a putting green on their property will probably purchase these.