Question: What is the starting positions for the balls in croquet?
About the article "Croquet", section "Garden".

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Garden croquet is widely played in the UK.
The rules are easy to learn and the game can be played on lawns of almost any size but usually around by .
The rules are similar to those described above for Association Croquet with three major differences:
 The starting point for all balls is a spot three feet in from the boundary directly in front of hoop1.
 If a strikers ball goes off, there is no penalty, it comes back on three feet and the turn continues.
 In a croquet stroke the croqueted ball does not have to move when the strikers ball is struck.
This version of the game is easy for beginners to learn.
The main Garden Croquet Club in the UK is the Bygrave Croquet Club which is a private club with five lawns.
Other clubs also use garden croquet as an introduction to the game, notably the Hampstead Heath Croquet Club and the Watford Croquet Club.
Croquet is a sport that involves hitting plastic or wooden balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court. 
In golf croquet, a hoop is won by the first ball to go through each hoop.
Unlike association croquet, there are no additional turns for hitting other balls.
Each player takes a stroke in turn, each trying to hit a ball through the same hoop.
The sequence of play is blue, red, black, yellow.
Blue and black balls play against red and yellow.
When a hoop is won, the sequence of play continues as before.
The winner of the game is the player/team who wins the most hoops.
Golf croquet is the fastest-growing version of the game, owing largely to its simplicity and competitiveness.
There is an especially large interest with competitive success by players in Egypt.
Golf croquet is easier to learn and play, but requires strategic skills and accurate play.
In comparison with association croquet, play is faster and balls are more likely to be lifted off the ground, as seen in this video footage.
In April 2013, Reg Bamford of South Africa beat Ahmed Nasr of Egypt in the final of the Golf Croquet World Championship in Cairo, becoming the first person to simultaneously hold the title in both association croquet and golf croquet.
As of 2011, the Women's Golf Croquet World Champion was Rachel Rowe (England). 
There are several variations of croquet currently played, differing in the scoring systems, order of shots, and layout (particularly in social games where play must be adapted to smaller-than-standard playing courts).
Two forms of the game, association croquet and golf croquet, have rules that are agreed internationally and are played in many countries around the world.
The United States has its own set of rules for domestic games.
More unusual variations of the game include mondo croquet, extreme croquet, and bicycle croquet (perhaps influenced by polo).
Gateball, a sport originated in Japan under the influence of croquet, is played mainly in East and Southeast Asia and the Americas, it can also be regarded as a croquet variant.
As well as club-level games, there are regular world championships and international matches between croquet-playing countries.
The sport has particularly strong followings in the UK, US, New Zealand and Australia; every four years, these countries play the MacRobertson Shield tournament.
Many other countries also play.
The current world rankings show England in top place for association croquet, followed by Australia and New Zealand sharing second place, with the United States in fourth position; the same four countries appear in the top six of the golf croquet league table, below Egypt in top position, and with South Africa at number five.
Croquet is popularly believed to be viciously competitive.
This may derive from the fact that (unlike in golf) players will often attempt to move their opponents' balls to unfavourable positions.
However, purely negative play is rarely a winning strategy: successful players (in all versions other than golf croquet) will use all four balls to set up a break for themselves, rather than simply making the game as difficult as possible for their opponents.
At championship-standard association croquet, players can often make all 26 points (13 for each ball) in two turns.
Croquet was an event at the 1900 Summer Olympics.
Roque, an American variation on croquet, was an event at the 1904 Summer Olympics. 
The Scottish Croquet Association, formed in 1974, has responsibility for croquet in Scotland.
Notable Scottish croquet players include Compton Mackenzie.