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

Croquet looks complicated from a distance. Hoops everywhere, balls flying in unexpected directions, and players muttering about roquets and continuation strokes. Watch a game for five minutes and the logic starts to emerge. Play one round yourself and it clicks into place almost entirely. Most families are playing a proper competitive game within twenty minutes of opening the box, which is more than can be said for most lawn games with this much tactical depth.

Jaques of London published the first standardised croquet rulebook in 1857, which means we have been explaining this game to beginners for longer than anyone else. Croquet England describes it as "the most strategic of all lawn games" and that characterisation is fair: once you understand how continuation strokes work, every shot becomes a decision between attack and positioning. This guide covers everything you need to set up and play your first game.

All Jaques of London croquet sets are independently tested to UKCA and CE safety standards, made with FSC-certified timber and non-toxic water-based paints, and suitable for players aged 6 and above.

What You Need: Equipment and Pitch Setup

A standard croquet set contains four mallets, four balls (blue, red, black and yellow), six hoops and a central finishing peg. Corner pegs are included in most full sets and mark the four boundary corners of the lawn, though they are optional for garden play. The colours matter: in four-player games, blue and black are partners against red and yellow.

For a full game, Croquet England recommends a rectangular lawn of at least 15 x 20 metres. That said, most family gardens work perfectly well with a scaled-down version. The official Short Croquet format, developed by Croquet England for smaller spaces and beginners, uses a pitch of just 8 x 5 metres with four hoops instead of six. The rules are identical in every other respect.

The hoops are arranged in a figure-of-six pattern: four outer hoops near the corners and two centre hoops flanking the finishing peg. The peg sits exactly in the middle of the lawn. Hoops should be pushed firmly into the ground so they are stable, with just enough width to let a ball pass through with a little resistance rather than loosely.

The height and width of the hoop gap matters more than most beginners expect. Competitive hoops allow only 3.25 inches clearance above a 3.625-inch ball. For garden play, a gap that lets a ball pass through with a small push from the mallet is ideal: tight enough to require accuracy, loose enough not to frustrate younger players.

The Object of the Game: Hoops, Roquets and the Finishing Peg

The object of croquet is to be the first player (or partnership) to hit your ball through all six hoops in the correct sequence and direction, then hit the finishing peg in the centre of the lawn. Each hoop must be run in the right order and from the right side: there is a correct direction for each hoop, and running it backwards does not count.

This is what gives croquet its strategic quality. You are not simply trying to reach the next hoop. You are positioning yourself for the hoop after that, whilst also considering how to disrupt your opponent's progress. Croquet England's Association Croquet guide describes the tactical challenge as "playing chess on a lawn with a mallet," which is a fair description once you have played a few games.

In doubles play, each partnership has two balls. The first partnership to finish both balls wins, so you need to co-ordinate your turns to get both balls through all six hoops and onto the peg. One player's ball can help the other by making roquets and croquet shots (more on this below) that advance both balls together.

Taking Your Turn: Strokes, Roquets and Croquet Shots

Each player starts their turn with a single stroke. You earn additional strokes in two ways, and understanding these is the key to unlocking the whole game. First, running a hoop: if you send your ball cleanly through the next hoop in sequence, you earn one continuation stroke. You can chain multiple hoop-running strokes in a single turn if you are well-positioned, which is how experienced players move rapidly around the lawn.

Second, making a roquet: if your ball hits any other ball on the lawn (including your partner's in doubles), you have made a roquet. A roquet earns you a croquet shot followed by one continuation stroke. For the croquet shot, you place your ball touching the one you just hit, then strike your ball: both balls move. You can angle the shot to send the other ball far away, or use it to propel your own ball towards the next hoop.

Each ball on the lawn can be roqueted once per turn. Your right to roquet each ball is reset when you run your next hoop. This creates an important rhythm: run a hoop, your roqueting rights reset, you can roquet all the other balls again and build another sequence. The World Croquet Federation describes this cycle of hoop-running and roqueting as the fundamental unit of play in all forms of the game.

If your ball leaves the court (goes out of bounds), it is placed one yard in from the boundary at the point where it crossed. Your turn ends unless you had already earned continuation strokes before the ball went out. Keeping your ball in the lawn is always better than a spectacular shot that misses and exits the boundary.

Garden Croquet vs Association Croquet: Which Rules to Use

Garden croquet is the version most families play. The rules are simplified: you can roquet each ball once per turn, the sequence is fixed and straightforward, and the lawn size can be adapted to whatever space you have. It rewards tactical thinking but is forgiving enough that younger players can contribute meaningfully without needing to understand every continuation rule.

Short Croquet is the official beginner format published by Croquet England. It uses four hoops on an 8 x 5 metre lawn, which makes it ideal for most British gardens. The rules are identical to Association Croquet in structure, so learning Short Croquet means you are ready to move to the full game without having to relearn anything. Croquet England recommends it as the starting point for all new players.

Association Croquet is the competitive version played in clubs and at national level. It adds more complex continuation rules, finer boundary regulations and a more demanding strategic framework. The World Croquet Federation publishes the international ruleset, and the Croquet Association's full rules document is available on the Croquet England website for anyone who wants to progress to club play.

For a first game with family, start with garden croquet or Short Croquet. The transition to Association rules is straightforward once the fundamental hoop-and-roquet rhythm feels natural, typically after three or four games.

Setting Up Your First Game

Set the lawn out before anyone picks up a mallet. Mark the corners loosely with pegs or garden canes if you are using a measured pitch. Push the hoops firmly into the ground: they should resist when pulled but not need hammering. Set the finishing peg in the centre, upright. The whole setup takes about ten minutes.

The standard order of play in a four-player game is blue, red, black, yellow. Blue and black are partners; red and yellow are partners. Each player takes one turn per round. If you are playing with fewer than four players, each player simply takes two balls rather than one: you play blue and black, your opponent plays red and yellow, and turns alternate between the two balls of each pair.

The NHS physical activity guidelines recommend that adults accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate activity per week. A two-hour game of croquet, which involves constant walking, bending and controlled exertion, comfortably contributes to that total whilst feeling like nothing of the sort.

Frequently Asked Questions About Playing Croquet