Croquet Rules

1. Mark the full 100 by 50 ft boundary rectangle and measure it from inside edge to inside edge.
2. Keep the grass short: MCA recommends 1 inch or less, so less than an inch of the ball sits below the grass. You do not need paint: corner flags or stakes may mark the boundary instead, and where you do paint or chalk a line, the boundary is its inside edge.

Mark each wicket and stake from the measured court page.

A coin toss decides who goes first: the winning side chooses to play first and third with blue and black, or second and fourth with red and yellow. Singles players control a pair of balls; doubles players control a ball each. Start each ball with its front edge at least 3 ft from wicket 1. (MCA rulebook, Rule 6B)

Follow MCA Diagram 2: points 1–2 are the near pair; 3 the near side wicket; 4 the centre; 5 the far same-side wicket; 6–7 the far pair; 8 the turning stake; 9–10 the far pair in reverse; 11 the skipped far side wicket; 12 the centre in reverse; 13 the skipped near side wicket; 14–15 the near pair in reverse; 16 the finishing stake. Each wicket and stake counts only in that order and direction. A ball scores its wicket only once it comes to rest clear of the playing side; one that passes through and rolls back has not scored it.

Once a ball runs its last wicket, see Rovers below for its two remaining options.

MCA 2018 BASE plays the balls in the order blue, red, black, yellow, one player at a time. The player in play, the striker, gets one stroke to start a turn. If that stroke earns no bonus, the turn ends and the next colour plays; a turn also ends once the striker has no bonus stroke left or finishes the course.

Most turns in a first game are one stroke: aim at your next wicket, then hand play on.

Scoring a wicket or the turning stake earns one bonus stroke; hitting another ball, a roquet, earns two bonus strokes instead, replacing any bonus already earned. Two is the most a striker ever holds at once. (MCA rulebook, Rule 10)

A wicket earns a stroke and hitting another ball earns two, so a turn runs on for as long as you keep scoring or hitting. Two terms cover almost everything that follows: a roquet is hitting another ball with yours, and a croquet shot is a stroke you then play with your ball touching the one you hit.

For the first of the two roquet strokes, choose one of four options: play within a mallet-head, the length of the mallet's head, of the ball you hit; hold your ball with your foot or hand against it, a foot shot or hand shot; play a croquet shot in contact with it without holding your ball; or play from where your ball stopped. Then play an ordinary continuation stroke from wherever your ball ends up. (MCA rulebook, Rule 10)

Tell the other side which roquet choice you are taking before you move a ball.

After a legal MCA BASE roquet, you may play the first bonus shot from where your striker ball stopped. For example, blue hits an eligible red ball and stops facing its next wicket: blue can play from there, then use its continuation from the new resting place. If blue scores its wicket on that first bonus shot, the wicket bonus replaces the unused continuation; the bonuses do not accumulate.

Scoring two wickets in a single stroke earns two bonus shots, not one; scoring course point 7 and the turning stake together in one stroke also earns two, matching the normal two-shot cap rather than adding a third.

Choose the placement that serves your next shot before moving the striker ball. Taking contact croquet can move the other ball as well; playing from where you stopped preserves that position until the next stroke. Track which ball you have roqueted during the turn.

Under BASE, you may earn a roquet bonus off a given ball only once before you score your next wicket; hitting it again earns nothing but is not a fault, and MCA calls that ball dead to you until you score that wicket or your next turn begins. (MCA rulebook, Rule 10) That is the only deadness in BASE play; the carry-over version belongs to the Advanced rules in the variants below.

A ball more than halfway past the inner boundary edge is out; return it 9 in perpendicular to the crossing point and the turn ends. If the striker just roqueted a ball that remains in bounds, place the striker in contact with it or up to one mallet-head away. Every ball less than one mallet length from the boundary must be brought in to that margin, except a striker that still has an extra stroke. (MCA rulebook, Rule 12)

A ball not through wicket 1 and a ball already through it are dead to each other; contact restores the balls and ends the turn. (MCA rulebook, Rule 6D) Balls that have both yet to clear the first wicket may touch without a roquet; unless the striker runs its wicket, the turn ends with the balls left where they stopped.

If the mallet hits a ball other than the striker ball, the turn ends and all moved balls return. (MCA rulebook, Rule 8) Out-of-turn play has no penalty: restore moved balls and continue with the correct ball. (MCA rulebook, Rule 7)

A swing that misses your ball entirely still counts as your shot and ends your turn unless you have a bonus stroke left; if a practice swing strikes the ball, replace it and take the shot again without penalty. (MCA rulebook, Rule 8)