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True to the traditions of croquet, there may never be complete agreement on how the equipment should be used, and what the “best” rules are. But we do have our opinion, and for what it’s worth, here are the “official” Toequet rules as they have evolved to this point at the National Croquet Center:

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TOEQUET is a new game now being played by many youth groups at the 10-acre National Croquet Center in West Palm Beach, the world’s newest and largest croquet facility. The equipment is manufactured and packaged by The Toequet Company of Terre Haute, Indiana, and sold at Toequet.com. Toequet equipment can be used for any version of croquet. The rules recommended here, based on the standard rules of Golf Croquet – are suitable for most individual and groups. Instead of croquet balls, the balls are soccer balls, with oversized wickets to match, made of breakaway PVC piping for safety. Instead of being struck with a mallet, the balls are propelled by being kicked. (Exception: see “Malletball” below.)

Denny Ridgway prepares to kick, while his friend Al Trackwell stands by.

THE SIDES: Blue/Green play against Red/Yellow in a two-sided game, with one or two Players on each side. Each player may kick only his or her own ball in the order of play, but the player’s ball may impact other balls.

THE TURNS: Play is always in the sequence Blue/Red/Green/Yellow (the order of the colors on the stake). There is only one kick per turn. There are no bonus kicks for scoring a wicket or sriking another player’s ball with your own ball.

STARTING THE GAME: The starting side is determined by a coin toss. The balls are kicked in proper sequence from the Starting Tee.

SCORING: Each wicket is scored by only one ball, which wins the point for its side. Wickets must be scored in the order of the course. A ball must make a complete pass through the proper wicket in order to score a point. A ball that has entered the wicket from either the playing side or the non-playing side and comes to rest in a position that does not break the plane of the non-playing side has not begun to run the wicket and in the subsequent turn may score the point. Any number of turns may be taken to complete the pass through the proper wicket in the order of the course and thus score the point. After any ball scores a wicket, play continues in sequence from where the balls lie to contest the next wicket in the order of the course.

PARTNERSHIP COMMUNICATION AND EXPEDITIOUS PLAY: Partners are allowed and encouraged to deliberate about tactics and strategy, but no turn should exceed 30 seconds.

TWO WAYS TO PLAY THE GAME: In the Basic Version, each ball must completely stop before the next ball can be played. In the Advanced or Aerobic Version, the balls must be played in the proper sequence, but the next player can kick before the previous ball has stopped moving.

FAULTS, PENALTIES, AND TOURNAMENT REFEREEING: The on-court referee regulates play of the game, and all play must stop when the referee’s whistle blows. A player may call the referee by raising both arms above the head. Kicking out of turn, interference, “push kicking” and all other fouls are penalized by replacing the balls to their positions before the foul occurred, with the fouling player losing his or her turn. Play can resume only with the double-tap whistle signal of the official referee. In the absence of a designated referee, the players referee themselves.

Interference foul: A referee may call an interference foul if a kicked ball strikes a player in motion; the kicker has the choice of accepting his/her ball’s position or kicking again from the position of all the balls at the start of the turn, as determined by the referee.

Request to stand off: A player may not attack another ball in a stationary position within eight feet of the player’s own ball without announcing his/her intention by placing hands on both shoulders. The player whose ball is being attacked must stand off to avoid any interference with the attack, and may play his/her own ball in rotation only after the attack has either succeeded or failed. A moving ball, however, (in the aerobic version of the game) may be attacked without warning. Similarly, a player intending to score a wicket may request the next player to stand off until the wicket is either scored or missed if the next player is within eight feet of either the wicket or the ball of the current player.

MALLETBALL

Playing the identical rules, strike the Toequet balls with regulation mallets, and you have “Malletball” - an entertaining novelty game well suited to large-scale exhibitions. The three-pound mallets typically used in the organized sport of croquet are correctly weighted to interact effectively with the soccer balls used in Toequet, and fairly accurate shots can be made by a good player. Malletball can be played satisfactorily and with enjoyment on long grass surfaces where other forms of croquet would not work very well. By using these magnified elements of the game, it’s easy to demonstrate and teach the game to novices – even gatherings of several hundred people.

[Written by Bob Alman, National Croquet Center, West Palm Beach, Florida, 561-478-2300 CroquetNational.com, BobAlman@AOL.com. Buy Toequet and Malletball equipment at The Pro Shop at the National Croquet Center, or online from The Toequet Company.]