Croquet at Mill Hill

Croquet has been played as a summer sport at Mill Hill since 2005. This historic game has been played in Britain since the 14th century, and by 1900 had become an Olympic event. One of the longest established croquet clubs is the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club (originally just the All England Croquet Club) which is most famous for hosting the Wimbledon tennis championships.

Variations of the game are played throughout the world – including Association Croquet and some more unusual forms. “Bicycle croquet” was invented in Austria and revived in 1997, while Xtreme Croquet is played in “challenging terrain including trees, roots, hills, sand, mud and moving water”.

Many academic institutions have a strong tradition of croquet including Bates College and Harvard University, which both have thriving croquet clubs. The US Naval Academy stages an annual croquet match against St John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland.

Croquet has featured in many artistic and literary forms, including the match in Alice In Wonderland with a hedgehog instead of a ball and flamingos for mallets.