Shropshire Magazine

From left: Brian Christmas, Henry ‘Happy’ Christmas, Graham Colclough, Helen Hudson and Barbara Edwards, at the Monkmoor Recreation Ground.

Shirley Tart takes to the lawn and finds that croquet is a dignified – and highly addictive – way to spend a summer afternoon. Pictures: Russell Davies

For people like me who in their time have variously played tennis, table tennis, netball, squash and hockey, and enjoyed skiing, riding a bike, running a bit and dabbling in golf, the time comes when a bridge course seems more sensible. Do not give in to it.

Play cards by all means if you must. But if you have enjoyed not only the physical exercise – I still get that from gardening a hillside acre and dog-walking – but also the competitive edge and challenge of sport, you really miss it. Welcome, then, to the croquet lawn.

Yes, the pastime of kings and the Mad Hatter, the national game of Egypt – and even ex-deputy PM John Prescott was known to wield the mallet – is alive and well. But to play it properly calls for much skill and experience.

Shirley can’t miss from that range . . . can she?

Don’t mess about with true aficionados or make jokes about their beloved game. And do not confuse garden- or golf croquet with association croquet, the full international version of the sport.

Garden croquet is what you may play at the back of your friend’s house or in hotel grounds. My coach Brian Christmas suggests that as far as he and the Shrewsbury Association Club are concerned, that might be fun but is not real croquet at all.

This likeable and skilful player modestly admits that he is one of five Shrewsbury club members who have world ranking. Brian dismisses the statistic by pointing out “I’m only about 690th.” But in the world, Brian, that’s brilliant.

Fellow member, Graham Colclough, from Wem, is a relative newcomer to the game but totally hooked. He says: “What we need is proper recognition without people thinking we are all toffee-nosed. It’s a marvellous sport and we would love more people, especially younger ones, to come and enjoy it. We really are ordinary people.”

The uninitiated may know more about Lewis Carroll outrageously having Alice coming across a croquet game with flamingos and hedgehogs used as mallets and balls. In my research, I also came across something called Mondo Croquet which uses bowling balls amd sledgehammers, and stages an annual world championship. The object of this one is “to get your ball through all the hoops in the proper order, hit the flags, become a zombie, and knock out all your opponents.” It will not impress serious association players.

With all of this in mind, I hardly dared ask whether Brian Christmas thought John Prescott’s antics on the lawns at Chequers had been good or bad for croquet, so I didn’t bother. But what I did quickly decide, after realising that the elegant game was not just a matter of banging a ball through a hoop, was that I would like Brian to teach me the rudiments.

There is international dispute over the origins of the game. Was it invented around 1066 in England for entertainment in the Royal Court? Or in Ireland during the 1830s and brought to England, becoming a favorite pastime of the aristocracy? You will find claims for both and many more conflicting suggestions.

The basic object is to move around a circuit of hoops, with the blue and black balls playing against the red and yellow.

But far better than just reading about it, do it. So Brian got me with the red and yellow balls and a mallet to hit one towards the first hoop, with the other soaring ahead nearer to the next one. Then Barbara Edwards from Cound stepped in to show me the art of pegging out – hitting the peg at the end of the circuit. Between Brian’s introduction and Barbara’s conclusion, there is quite a lot more!

The advice is that while you do need to learn the rules and take them seriously, progress really is made by playing. But prepare to get hooked.

Helen Hudson, who now lives on the Welsh border and works in Shrewsbury, discovered croquet when she and her husband were living in Bath and bought a garden set. She chuckles: “We couldn’t understand the rules so phoned the nearest club.” And that was that!

The Shrewsbury Club – based at the Monkmoor Recreation Centre – is marking its 25th anniversary and its founders are still among the most active members. Brian Christmas and his dad Henry – known as ‘Happy’ since he first started work as a lad – were simply inspired all those years ago when an experienced player gave a series of croquet sessions.

Happy says: “I still enjoy it but my handicap was once 12 and is now about 18, which doesn’t matter.”

Son Brian’s handicap is five, while secretary Robert Dodds, who has only been playing for about four years, plays off three-and-a-half and improving.

Shirley receiving instruction from Barbara Edwards.

The club – the other Shropshire one is at Church Stretton – has about 40 members but would love more. It happily hosts evenings or weekends for other organisations – the WI and Rotary club were recently entertained on the Shrewsbury lawns.

Members enter and stage competitions and to a man and woman thoroughly enjoy the game of croquet and everything around it.

Their traditional wooden pavilion has lots of information, copies of the Croquet Gazette, and lists of who is playing when and where. The £35-a-year subscription fee keeps the club up and running. The lawn is rented from the council who also mow it, which is a great help.

“Clubs with private lawns would have to pay much more to maintain them and their subscriptions would have to be higher,” Brian says.

The Shrewsbury members seem to have the perfect balance of taking the game seriously, playing it socially and thoroughly enjoying it.

Barbara Edwards sums up: “I still play tennis which I love. But if I had to give up tennis or croquet, it would be tennis.”

As a total novice with a book of rules and an eye on a hoop, croquet just may become my next great sporting passion as well!

• Club secretary: 01952 240231.