You may be amazed to know about the number of people who play croquet. The sport is quite popular in many countries. You can play croquet just as a pastime or as a competitive sport. The sport involves plastic or wooden balls with a mallet. The balls have to be hit through hoops which are specially embedded into a grass arena. The game is thought to have originated in France. The game was during its early day’s played in the French countryside. The period during which the game originated was somewhere during the middle ages. The game then spread to the United Kingdom during the 14th century. The modern game of croquet was probably invented in Ireland. You can still find many people who play croquet in Ireland and United Kingdom.
The modern game of croquet is influenced by other sports such as golf and cricket. The English royalty were known to play croquet as a pastime. This is how the game also spread to former British colonies. There are many who play croquet in countries such as France, Australia, Canada and the United States of America. Though not a sport, which has a mass following, croquet has its own loyal following. Croquet was among the several sports event during the 1900 Olympic Games. Roque which is a variant of the sport was a part of the 1904 Olympics.
There are many popular croquet clubs that you can find spread throughout the world. The All England Croquet Club is one. In fact it is now known as the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. This is the club which hosts the prestigious Wimbledon Championships for tennis. Even though there are many who still play croquet in the old traditional way there are many others who play croquet and its several variants. There is a variant known as golf croquet. Apart from a busy playing calendar, those who play croquet professionally are busy with championships which take place between croquet playing nations. One such tournament is the Mac Robertson Shield tournament. Major participants in such tournaments include Australia, United States of America and New Zealand.
These professional tournaments see a very high level of competition. There are separate championships which go on for the variants of the sport too. There are separate tournaments which take place for golf croquet. Although purists claim that this variant is less intellectually demanding, its simplicity is what is driving it up the popularity chart.
Many of the people who play croquet in some form or the other also play Mondo croquet. This type of variant is played over a larger playing arena. Then there is something known as the ‘xtreme ‘croquet. The terrain in this type of variant is much more demanding with sand, mud, hills and trees being part of the entire arena. These days you can also find a lot of people who play croquet also playing another variant known as the bicycle croquet. You can find a lot of useful information on all these variants of croquet by visiting dedicated online sources. You can also find a lot of valuable information on the history and evolution of croquet through various parts of the world. In fact most of the variants have their own championships. You can find detailed information on these events by visiting online sources.