page_title: Croquet
section_title: Association
hierarchical_section_title: Croquet / Variations / Association
caption_attribution_description: English: The Big Lunch, Sandringham Park, Wetherby, West Yorkshire
context_page_description: Croquet is a sport that involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops embedded in a grass playing court.
context_section_description: Association croquet is the name of an advanced game of croquet, played at all levels up to international level. It involves four balls teamed in pairs, with both balls going through every hoop for one pair to win. The game's distinguishing feature is the "croquet" shot: when certain balls hit other balls, extra shots are allowed. The six hoops are arranged three at each end of the court, with a centre peg.
  One side takes the black and blue balls, the other takes red and yellow. At each turn, players can choose to play with either of their balls for that turn. At the start of a turn, the player plays a stroke. If the player either hits the ball through the correct hoop ("runs" the hoop), or hits another ball (a "roquet"), the turn continues.
  Following a roquet, the player picks up his or her own ball and puts it down next to the ball that it hit. The next shot is played with the two balls touching: this is the "croquet stroke" from which the game takes its name. By varying the speed and angle at which the mallet hits the striker's ball, a good player can control the final position of both balls: the horizontal angle determines how far the balls diverge in direction, while the vertical angle and the amount of follow-through determine the relative distance that the two balls travel.
  After the croquet stroke, the player plays a "continuation" stroke, during which the player may again attempt to make a roquet or run a hoop. Each of the other three balls may be roqueted once in a turn before a hoop is run, after which they become available to be roqueted again.
  The winner of the game is the team who completes the set circuit of six hoops (and then back again the other way), with both balls, and then strikes the centre peg (making a total of 13 points per ball = 26).
  Good players may make "breaks" or "runs" of several hoops in a single turn. The best players may take a ball round a full circuit in one turn. "Advanced play" (a variant of association play for expert players) gives penalties to a player who runs certain hoops in a turn, to allow the opponent a chance of getting back into the game; feats of skill such as triple peels or better, in which the partner ball (or occasionally an opponent ball) is caused to run a number of hoops in a turn by the striker's ball, help avoid these penalties.
  A handicap system ("bisques") provides less experienced players a chance of winning against more formidable opponents. Players of all ages and both sexes compete on level terms.
  The World Championships are organised by the World Croquet Federation (WCF) and usually take place every two or three years. The 2018 championships took place in Wellington, New Zealand; the winner was Paddy Chapman of New Zealand. The current Women's Association Croquet World Champion (2015) is Miranda Chapman of England. Paddy and Miranda are married.
  The Australian team won the last MacRobertson International Croquet Shield tournament, which is the major international test tour trophy in association croquet. It is contested every three to four years between Australia, Britain, the United States and New Zealand. Historically the British have been the dominant force, winning 14 out of the 22 times that the event has been held. In individual competition, the UK is often divided by subnational country (England, Scotland and Wales), while Northern Ireland joins with the republic in an All Ireland association (as it does in several other sports).
  The world's top 10 association croquet players as of February 2018 were Robert Fletcher (Australia), Reg Bamford (South Africa), Robert Fulford (England), Paddy Chapman (New Zealand), Ben Rothman (USA), Malcolm Fletcher (Australia), Jamie Burch (England), Jose Riva (Spain), Stephen Mulliner (England), Greg Bryant (New Zealand).
  Unlike most sports, men and women compete and are ranked together. Three women have won the British Open Championship: Lily Gower in 1905, Dorothy Steel in 1925, 1933, 1935 and 1936, and Hope Rotherham in 1960. While male players are in the majority at club level in the UK, the opposite is the case i
caption: Croquet being played recreationally in Wetherby, West Yorkshire.
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