Croquet Rules: How to Play - The Complete Beginner's Guide

To play croquet, run each of your balls through six hoops in the correct order and direction, then back through the same six in reverse, then strike the central peg before your opponent does. Running a hoop earns one extra stroke, and hitting another ball, a 'roquet', earns you two more, which is how a single turn can grow into a long run round the lawn.

That is the whole game in a breath. Below is a fuller walk through the rules of garden croquet, with a nod to the association game that grew from it. We will set up the court, take a turn step by step, explain the roquet and croquet strokes that make the game tactical, cover faults and courtesies, and finish with scoring and winning. Jaques of London, founded in 1795 and the world's oldest games company, invented croquet for the British lawn and brought it to market in the nineteenth century, so we have a soft spot for getting the details right.

What you need: equipment and the court

A standard game uses four balls, coloured blue, black, red and yellow, six hoops, a central peg and a mallet for each player. Two play one colour each, or four play one ball each in pairs. You can find spares such as Sussex croquet balls and a four-colour winning peg to keep a set complete, and a heavier 16oz regulation ball if you are matching weights. Our wider garden games collection sits alongside the croquet range if you are kitting out a lawn from scratch.

A full association court is 35 by 28 yards, but most gardens use a smaller, friendly version, and that is perfectly proper. The hoops are set in a double-diamond pattern with the peg in the centre. If you want the exact measurements and a layout diagram, our guide on how to set up a croquet court walks you through it, and the governing body, the Croquet Association, publishes the official laws. The World Croquet Federation oversees the game internationally if you ever fancy following the top players.

The game has long been bound up with the open lawns of English summers, lawns of the sort cared for by the National Trust, whose grounds have hosted the game for generations. A good lawn is half the pleasure: the Royal Horticultural Society has sensible advice on keeping grass true and level, which makes for a kinder roll. For a sense of how croquet became a Victorian fixture, our piece on the oldest games company in the world tells the wider story of how Jaques, the same firm that gave chess its Staunton design in 1849, brought lawn games to British gardens.

Setting up and the order of play

Place the six hoops and the peg in the standard double-diamond. Players begin from a spot a mallet's length in front of the first corner, and balls are played into the game in the fixed sequence blue, red, black, yellow. That order matches the peg's colours, which is why a clear winning peg helps everyone remember whose turn comes next.

Here is a turn in plain steps, the way you would explain it to a child learning for the first time:

1. On your turn, strike your own ball once with the mallet face.
2. If you run the hoop you are aiming for, you score the point and earn one continuation stroke.
3. If you hit another ball (a roquet), you earn two bonus strokes and take the croquet stroke described below.
4. Keep going while you keep scoring hoops or making fresh roquets. When you stop scoring, your turn ends and play passes on.

The aim for each ball is to run all six hoops in the correct order and direction, then the same six in reverse, then strike the peg. A ball that has done all this is 'pegged out' and leaves the game. The first side to peg out both its balls wins. If you are choosing between this and a quicker variant, our comparison of croquet versus golf croquet explains how the two differ in pace and tactics.

The association croquet entry sets out the full points system, while general lawn-game tradition is well documented at the Traditional Games archive. Keep some spare 9oz Sussex balls to hand for replacements, and you will rarely be caught short on a busy afternoon.

Taking a turn: the roquet and croquet strokes

A turn begins as a single stroke, but you can earn more. Running a hoop in order earns one extra, or 'continuation', stroke. Hitting another ball with your own, a 'roquet', earns you two bonus strokes and turns an ordinary turn into something far more useful.

After a roquet you take the croquet stroke. You pick up your ball, place it touching the ball you hit, and strike your own ball so that both move. This is the heart of the game: you can send your partner ball ahead to the next hoop, or push an opponent's ball into an awkward corner. After the croquet stroke you take your continuation stroke, and if that makes another roquet, the sequence begins again. A skilled player can string these together into a 'break', running hoop after hoop in one turn.

You may roquet each other ball only once between hoops, which stops a turn going on forever. Once you run your next hoop, all balls become live again. If you want to learn how the experts plan these sequences, our piece on croquet tactics and strategy shows how a break is built. The full stroke definitions are kept in the Croquet Association laws and in the dictionary entry for roquet.

Faults, foul play and the courtesies

Croquet has a gentle code as well as a rulebook. A stroke is a fault if you push or 'shepherd' the ball rather than strike it cleanly, if you touch a ball with anything but the mallet face, or if you take a croquet stroke and your own ball fails to move. When a fault happens, the turn ends and balls are usually replaced. Honesty is part of the game's charm, and most garden disputes are settled with good humour rather than a stopwatch.

A ball driven off the court is replaced a mallet's length in from where it crossed the boundary. If a croquet stroke sends the croqueted ball off the lawn, that too has its own correction. The detail can feel fiddly at first, which is why beginners often play a relaxed version and add rules as confidence grows. Keeping a spare 12oz challenge ball handy is a small mercy when one rolls into the flowerbed.

For the formal wording, the association laws are the reference, and the wider history of British lawn games is catalogued at the Traditional Games archive. If you would like a calmer screen-free family afternoon as a whole, our guide to the best screen-free toys for children sits nicely beside a lawn game, and our round-up of the best skittles sets shows another easy way to bring the generations together on the grass.

Scoring, winning and choosing a set that lasts

Scoring is straightforward once the journey is clear. Each hoop a ball runs scores one point, and there are twelve hoop points per ball plus the peg, so a full association game runs to 26 points across a side's two balls. The first side to complete both balls, hoops then peg, wins. In a friendly garden game you can simply race to peg out, or set a time limit and count hoops scored.

The set you choose shapes the experience. Heavier, well-finished balls roll truer on grass, and a balanced mallet keeps your swing honest. A weightier 12oz challenge ball rolls with more authority on a longer lawn, while the lighter 9oz Sussex balls suit a shorter garden court. Spares such as a fresh winning peg are worth keeping in the box, and a single 16oz regulation ball is handy if you ever need to replace one to a matched weight. If you would like a steer on what to look for more generally, our guide to choosing toys that actually get played with applies just as well to a garden set built from solid wood.

You can read more about the company that brought the game to lawns across Britain in the story of the oldest games company in the world. The official points framework is set out in the association croquet rules, and independent reviews of our sets sit on Trustpilot. For more lawn and table ideas, our round-up of the best dominoes sets keeps the garden and table both well stocked, and you can browse our full board games collection for a rainy day.