Hunting around the Internet and social media for events around Peterborough I came across a few associations that I didn’t realise existed one was archaeology and the other was croquet! Peterborough has its own croquet club, well I never, so of course I had to investigate….
This was back in February this year, so I contacted Debbie to ask her about it and when it started. I was invited to their Open Day at Central Park to have a nosey at what they do and offer.
I dragged my husband along with me (pulling of face) and met up with Sue and Janet on Saturday 10th May (located near the bowling green and birds aviaries are.)
Plenty of information was at hand and we got invited to have a game of Golf Croquet, not that I knew there were two types, I’d just presumed you grabbed your ‘stick’ (flamingo or not – you’ll understand if you’ve watched Alice in Wonderland) and hit the ball through the hoop, however it’s a little more entailed than that. We played as a three to start, so Sue could get us used to what to do. You can play as teams of two or individually.
So here are a few rules of the game: You start from the corner on the croquet lawn and you go in colour order of your ball; usually, blue, red, black & yellow. As the main colour balls had gone, we had another set of colours, again with the order you have to play depending on your colour. I was brown so followed green and pink and then white followed me!
Firstly, you have to get way of holding your mallet (stick), hand at waist level and then the other hand whatever makes you feel comfortable as you’ve got to hit it from between your legs forwards. You hit your ball towards a hoop from a certain side, the other players follow. You score a point if you get your ball through the hoop, no matter how many moves you take to get there. However, players can hit you out of the way with their ball, jump over you going through the hoop, hit you from the other side of the hoop backwards… a bit like pool or bowls. In fact, if you’re good at pool and snooker, you’ll probably be good at this. Once a player is through the hoop, you then move on to the next one. There are 6 hoops to get through in total.
Ian joined us when he arrived for the afternoon; so we were then two teams, so it got a bit more serious then. We played for around 30 minutes with tactics coming out from these two seasoned players and ended up, I think, with about 3 points. You win when one team has accumulated 7 points, so it could be a long game!
Sue has been playing for a few months and is really enjoying it, whereas Ian has been playing for around 5 years and is full of thoughtful tactics. They come for the playing, the getting out, the chatting and meeting with fellow players and friends. They meet three times a week; Wednesday, Friday & Sunday; 2pm to 4pm. Most play for fun, but some are members are extremely competitive and take their game to tournament level.
If you want to join, there’s no minimum age, although these meetings are for adults, the membership is reduced this year at just £44.10 for the season – May to September. The club provides all the equipment unless you want to go with your own, and obviously, you need to play in flat shoes and bring some type of sun coverage (hat) so you don’t get sunburnt through the summer.
I think it’s a great way for anyone to get out and be active in the fresh air, keeps the old ‘noddle’ working and make new friends. There’s no much bending either as the ball basically stays on the ground all the way round. If I was retired I’m pretty sure my husband would be joining as he actually liked his time playing! WOW! Big smile on his face now…maybe because he won a couple of points!!! LOL
If you want more information, visit their website at peterboroughcroquetclub.weebly.com or call 07436 583716
