Despite an official letter from the New South Wales Association to Croquet Australia appealing to the national body to reject the new Laws, all the major national associations have agreed in principle to the proposed Revisions. In the Southern hemisphere, the Revised Laws will most probably take effect at the beginning of their playing season on September 1. The Rules Committee of the USCA has struggled with similar issues for almost as long as the International Laws Revision Committee, but with less sweeping results. The chairman of the USCA Rules Committee, former national champion and retired veterinarian Jim Hughes, acknowledges himself to be the protector of the status quo and defender of the rules. In contrast to the comparatively open process of the ILRC, Hughes has not participated in open debate and has in fact declined to respond to or in some cases even acknowledge questions and criticism from USCA members on specific rules issues.
Online technology can provide benefits to readers unavailable in print media.
The key-word search engine is the best example of this, augmenting the index and providing in many cases quick access to information readers with printed versions could find only by thumbing through the entire volume. The index and glossary in the old edition are both reasonably well done. Players seldom even read the sections on etiquette and custom or the rules provided for Golf Croquet or Nine-Wicket Croquet. The criticism leveled at Mulliner and the ILRC has been intense. The certainty that opening up the process and inviting the scrutiny of Olsen, Riches, and other critics has helped to produce a 6th Edition of the Laws much better than it otherwise would have been.