Outline of the Game

1. The sides are Blue and Black against Red and Yellow (or Green and Brown against Pink and White). Doubles or Singles can be played; in Singles the player plays both balls of his side in alternative turns. In Doubles each player plays one ball only.

2. Play progresses in strict colour order: Blue, Red, Black, Yellow (the order of colours on the peg), then back to Blue again. If second colour balls are being used, then the sequence is Green, Pink, Brown, White.

3. Each turn consists of one stroke only. There are never any extra strokes for running hoops or hitting other balls.

4. A full-sized lawn measures 35 by 28 yards, and is laid out with six hoops and a centre peg. The order and direction in which hoops are scored is shown in the diagram.

5. The game starts by playing the balls in order from a position within one yard of corner 4 (the bottom right corner, as shown in the diagram).

6. All players try in successive turns to run (i.e. pass through) Hoop 1. As soon as any player on either side completes the running of Hoop 1, then he scores that hoop point for his side, and all players move on to Hoop 2, and so on around the lawn. Thus each hoop is scored only once, for one side or the other. The side to have scored the hoop may mark this by putting a coloured clips on the crown of the hoop.

7. The peg plays no part in Golf Croquet, other than as an obstacle and a reminder of colour order.

8. The game ends as soon as one side has scored seven points. In a level play (non-handicap) game, if the scores are level at 6-6 then the 13th hoop is the deciding point.

The Turn

9. A turn consists of a single stroke. A stroke is played when the striker hits any ball with his mallet and causes it to move, or commits a fault.

10. When all balls have stopped, any ball which has left the lawn is placed on the boundary where it went off.

11. If at any time a boundary ball obstructs the playing of another ball, the boundary ball may be temporarily removed. If the replacing of a ball on the boundary is prevented by the presence of another ball which will be played first, then the ball is replaced after the obstructing ball has been played. Otherwise the obstructing ball is temporarily removed until the ball is played.

12. A ball may be jumped over a hoop or another ball.

Hoop Point

13. A ball scores a hoop point by passing through its next hoop in the order and direction shown in the diagram. This is also known as running a hoop.

14. A ball begins to run a hoop when any part of it first emerges from the back of the hoop, and finishes doing so when the whole of it finally enters the front of the hoop.

15. A ball may take more than one stroke or turn to run a hoop.

16. If a ball other than the striker’s ball is knocked through the next hoop in order, then the hoop is scored for that ball. If more than one ball completes the running of the same hoop in the same stroke, then the other ball and not the striker’s ball is deemed to have scored the point, irrespective of the actual order of the running.

17. If a ball runs two hoops in the same stroke, then both hoop points are scored.

Balls played out of sequence

18. If the wrong ball is played then:

• If a player plays a ball of his own, but in the wrong sequence, their opponent has a choice of whether to have the balls replaced where they were and have the shot replayed with the correct ball, or leave them where they finished and swap the balls over.
• If a player plays a ball belonging to his opponent, or in doubles play if a player plays his partner’s ball, then the balls are replaced and the shot is replayed by the correct player with the correct ball in sequence.

Playing for the next hoop

19. Players may take positions towards the hoop beyond the one being contested if desired, but not more than halfway (except under certain conditions – see point 21 below). Beyond the halfway point is known as being “offside”. Immediately after the hoop in order is scored, the adversary has a choice of allowing an offside ball to remain where it lies or requiring it to be placed in either one of two penalty areas.

20. The penalty areas are semi-circles of 1 yard radius with their centres being the half-way points on each of the two longest boundaries.

21. Exception to the offside rule: Balls are not required to be moved to a penalty area if they reached their position as a result of:

• hitting an adversary ball;
• an adversary’s stroke;
• scoring the previous hoop, or causing another another ball to score the hoop; or
• being struck by its partner ball which scores a point in the same stroke.

Other forms of play

Handicap Games

22. In handicap play, the stronger player gives the weaker one a head start in terms of the starting score. The exact starting score varies and is determined by a table published as part of the rules of GC. This table has been calibrated from the results of thousands of games, and is designed to provide a fair game where each player initially has a 50:50 chance of winning.

23. The winner in a handicap game is still the first player to reach a score of 7 points, although with one or both players starting on a non-zero score, the maximum number of hoops playable may be more or less than 13.

Read More

The full World Croquet Federation Rules of Golf Croquet are available here (link will open in a new window or tab).