We play croquet at Polesden Lacey each week in the summer season. Players of all standards are welcome for a friendly game but numbers are limited. An annual subscription (around £40 per head) is payable towards the cost of prebooking the Polesden Lacey pitches for the season. This year we will be renting 4 pitches.
| Contact 1: | Sue Mills |
| Contact 2: | |
| When: | Weekly, Thursdays 10.30-12.30pm in summer months |
| Where: | Polesden Lacey |
| Email: | croquet@horsleyu3a.org.uk |
A short history of croquet:
Nobody appears to know exactly how croquet started, but it is thought that the old game of pall mall may have been an influence. It seems that it was played first in Ireland in the first half of the 19th century and reached England in the 1850s.
Until The Great War (1914) it was very popular with the upper classes who gave frequent croquet parties. (Only the upper classes had the space!!! At this time "Tight croquet" (the practice of putting the foot on the ball to send your opponents ball into the bushes) was "de riguer" as it allowed young me to go into the bushes with young women to find the ball. Nowadays no such excuse is needed and Tight croquet is not allowed.
Although lawn tennis competed in popularity, the game did recover during the inter years and changes were made. Also players were not quite so ‘up market’. Again after the 2nd World War the game took time to recover and it is now played everywhere. New Zealand and Australia are great strongholds although Hurlingham is ‘the tops’.
It is a great game played in lovely surroundings and with great variety of play as every shot is different. A good knowledge of angles is a great help.
