Off I go in search of a flat spot of grass, something not easily found in hilly western Virginia, to set up a lawn. I located an area on campus that was flat-ish enough; I then saw a maintenance man on a giant mower nearby, and $20 later, he dropped his mowing deck down an inch or two to make VT’s first croquet lawn. Hints and tips to the volunteer golf cart-taxi drivers helped with some creative routing, i.e., going by the lawn as they ferried alums about campus.
I usually carry around a few mallets, balls, and hoops in my trunk, so I had enough equipment to get started with my introduction. The day was alternatively blistering hot or threatening storms. I set up a sign, a chair, and umbrella, then waited for hordes of the curious. Sadly, I was not on the main beat, so the passersby were few, but 20 or so showed up despite the iffy weather.
As the grass was still pretty high, I could set up on hoop 1 from corner 4 only if I hit with everything I had in the bag. Knowing that it would likely take a newbie three turns to get across, I thought it best to invent a new ad-hoc game, which I dubbed Hokie Crokie, which turned out to be far more fun than regular GC.
The rules are simple: golf croquet with the roquet, croquet, and continuation opportunities made available as soon as blue hits in. This gave one a chance to set up or set a leave by using those advantages from the get-go. No one I met knew anything about ‘real’ croquet, but many could remember playing the backyard game at Grannie’s house. The rules seemed easy for newbies to understand as there were no preconceptions. They are as follows:
Hokie Crokie
Scoring and basic rules are the same as in GC, EXCEPT:
One may roquet any other BALL and receive additional shots while a hoop is being contested. Either ball may go out of bounds on that stroke without penalty (like AC); the roqueted ball is placed a ball’s width in bounds. Striker is ball-in-hand and takes croquet and continuation strokes.
Either ball going out on the croquet shot ends the turn (like AC). Once ‘dead’ on a ball, the striker may hit it again during the turn (like AC), but no additional strokes are gained. All player's should keep in mind one's 'deadness' during the hoop.
Once a hoop is scored by any ball (struck, peeled, cannoned, roqueted, etc.), the hoop is counted for that team. No continuation shot occurs, and all balls are once again “alive” and for the next hoop.
Wiring occurs only if the opponents are responsible for the position, and no part of any other ball can be hit--a true rarity. A wired striker ball may be lifted to 1’ from the peg and the shot taken from there.
Seven shots are the most any turn can have, so no other players have to sit down and watch for 30 minutes (unlike AC!). One never has to leave the lawn!
That’s about it. |