Origins and Ground Billiards
Mallet and ball games are thought to have been first played in England and Europe during the
middle ages. Games would normally involve only one ball which would be struck through very wide
hoops. A Croquet-like game is believed to have been played by thirteenth century French peasants who
used crudely fashioned mallets to whack wooden balls through hoops made of willow branches. A
variety of equipment has been found indicating that, as was typical, there were no standards and a
variety of rules and types of game were in existence for several centuries. One type of game which
this author calls Ground Billiards' featured a hoop and a stick, a point being scored for each time
your ball was first through the hoop and then on to hit the stick. At some point in the 15th century
someone chose to invent an indoor variation of this played on a table which led to Billiards
and that whole family of games
Closh
Another old game in this family is Closh (also Cloish, Claish and later Clash). It is an obsolete and mysterious game but quite possibly just as critical in the understanding of game history since English references to it span the period from 1477 - 1861. It's definition is not clear. Later documents state confidently that it is almost identical to ninepins but earlier quotes mention Kayles (the old English word for Skittles) and Closh separately leading to the conclusion that they were distinct while Dutch manuscripts about 'Klos' from the 1500 & 1600s imply that balls were directed through hoops and/or rings by a large spade-like implement called a Klos-beytel. Could Closh be in fact one and the same as Ground Billiards? It would seem a reasonable confusion if the game equipment included both skittles and hoops/rings? Mystery notwithstanding, from these medieval games sprang multiple modern distinct ancestors, all of which are still played today with varying degrees of popularity including Golf, Croquet, Kolf, Crosse and Lawn Billiards.
For more information on the history of Golf, see lots of websites and books all over the place. See my Pall Mall page for an original piece on that game and it's modern ancestor Kolf. For Lawn Billiards and Croquet, read on.
Troco or Lawn Billiards
Troco, Lawn Billiards, Beugelen
There
is a third
modern game in the Mallet and Ball family. Peterson's Magazine, June, 1864 described the game of
Troco, or Lawn Billiards as follows: "It is played by any number of ladies or gentlemen, and the
object is to pass a wooden ball through an iron ring fixed on a movable pivot in the centre of a
circle, round which the players take their places. The ball is lifted from the ground by means of a
cue furnished with an iron ring at one end, and propelled or thrown forward by a simple movement of
the arm. As it is the object of the player to pass his own ball through the ring, it is equally the
object of his opponent to prevent him. This he accomplishes by means of a roquet, or canon. The game
is generally played fifty-up; one point being counted for a simple roquet, two for making or passing
through the ring, and three for roqueting and making the ring at the same stroke".
To the right and left are two pictures of Ground Billiards being played at the Freemason's arms - with great thanks to Arthur Taylor.
Lawn Billiards was played in England until the latter half of the 1900s. The last remaining court at the Freemasons Arms in Hampstead was covered over in concrete some time between 1960 and 1990. Now owned by a huge pubco, this great old pub retains the last Old English Skittles Alley [let's hope that this doesn't go the same way...] - but the club that plays there is still called the 'Hampstead Lawn Billiards and Skittles Club'. It is said that the court is still intact underneath the concrete so maybe one day it will see the light of day, again. In the meantime, a patio garden has since been laid in this location and in a nice touch, the owners saw fit to lay out the shape of the old court in the patio tiles. It's worth dropping by to see it and if the skittles club is playing (usually Tuesday nights), they can show you the old cues and balls.
Versions of Lawn Billiards were played all over
Europe - in Belgium it
is known as Beugelen. This is a picture of Beugelen being played by some old-timers, courtesy of
Arthur Taylor. One can immediately see two differences between Beugelen and the English game - the
hoop is fixed and the playing sticks are like paddles instead of rings on the end of sticks.
It would seem possible that there is some relationship between Lawn Billiards and Pall Mall but presently, this remains a mystery. The players at the Freemasons referred to their game sometimes as 'Pell Mell' or just 'Mell' and one can imagine that the final few strokes of Pall Mall wherein players attempted to scoop the ball through the hoop using spoon-like implements might have been very similar to Lawn Billiards.
Croquet
Contrary to most text books, the modern game of Croquet probably is not an evolution of Paille Maille. It might be the descendant of the early Ground Billiards and/or Closh games but such an assertion would be conjecture because the ancestry of the game prior to its arrival in Ireland from Europe or Asia is completely unclear. It seems to be undisputed, however, that a game called Crookey was played in Ireland from the 1830's and, according to David Pritchard, the author of the most authoritative text on the subject, it arrived in England around 1851 where it quickly became popular. Had the game been on general sale already in 1851, it would have appeared at the Great Exhibition of 1851 but it did not. The earliest evidence for the game in England is a copyright registration made by Isaac Spratt in 1856 for the "Rules of the New Game of Croquet". It was apparently a late registration because on the form he states that the rules were first published 2nd August 1853.
The game was particularly popular with women, because it was the first outdoor sport which could be played by both sexes on an equal footing. Widespread popularity soon grew once Croquet equipment and sets started to be made by various makers, most successfully in the long term, the aggressive London sporting goods manufacturer, John Jaques & Sons. Croquet clubs appeared; the first in Eastbourne, around 1860, and in particular, the Wimbledon All England Croquet Club (1868) which had a vision of becoming the national ruling body (later this became the Wimbledon All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club). The rules were first codified by Walter Whitmore-Jones at Chastleton house in 1864. An eccentric enthusiast for the game, he bears a lot of the credit for turning the game into the enjoyable and long-lasting sport that it has become. Unfortunately, in an early example of sporting politics, splits occurred, Walter Whitmore-Jones was ejected from the organisation, alternative organisations appeared, and at the same time, the up-and-coming game of Lawn Tennis started to eclipse Croquet. The Wimbledon Club even dropped Croquet from its name and the mallet sport seemed for a while as if it would might end up being no more than a passing fad. But it hung on, in large part due to the fact that it was one of the few outdoor sports for ladies and because Whitmore-Jones' rules had made it suitable for serious players as well as for casual social events.
Outside Britain, spearheaded by Australia and New Zealand, Croquet spread quickly to the British colonies. By 1870, the game had reached virtually all of the British colonies and its popularity grew, following the earlier trend of being especially popular with women. Around this time, the game was denounced from the pulpits of the day, and play was actually banned at some sporting clubs. None-the-less, the Croquet Association was formed in 1896 and croquet was played at the 1900 Paris Olympics but in a French style to the point that hardly anyone who wasn't French entered!
Today, Croquet is played competitively in over twenty countries, the major ones in the 1990s being Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the USA. In Australia, for example, there are nearly 7,000 registered players which is a similar number to Olympic sports such as boxing and rowing.
In the USA, 3 forms of the game are played. International Association croquet vies with "American rules" which uses the same lawn and equipment but has a few rule variations. In particular, the classic 'Many of the best competitors play both versions. In addition there are some garden sets for playing Backyard Croquet which is played with 9 hoops and 2 pegs.
Many other countries play croquet or their versions of it. France hosted the 1995 World Croquet Federation Championships, Japan plays Croquet along with a similar game called Gateball, Egypt plays a simpler form of Association croquet. In Russia, Tolstoy had a Croquet lawn in his Moscow garden and astronauts are reported to have played for relaxation upon their return from space. Finally, China possesses many Croquet players from different age groups - a picture in the Illustrated London news of 1938 showed Revolutionary guards playing the game!
Where to Buy
Many retailers offer Croquet equipment. Masters Traditional Games has a large range of croquet sets and croquet equipment.
Rules
A full description and rules of The International Game, the American Game and the American Garden game can be obtained for free from Masters Traditional Games.
Links
The World Croquet Federation set up in 1986 with 12 founder members and a further 8 members having joined since.
The Croquet Association of the UK
The United States Croquet Association / Croquet Australia
The Kolf Web Museum / Ancient Golf - a fascinating website about the ancient bat and ball games that led to the modern forms of Golf, Croquet etc.