White 'Barlow' ball. One pole is visible marked with a 'C'

Croquet balls have two directions of perpendicular milling resulting in a diamond pattern texture on the surface. The four points on the surface where this milling reduces to small circles are sometimes called poles. The properties of balls are defined in Law 3c of the Laws of Association Croquet - "A ball must be 3 ⁵/⁸" [92mm] in diameter and must weigh 16 ounces [454g]". For tournament play however there is a bounce specification, a ball size and weight tolerance and for manufacturers an approval scheme leading to Croquet Association (CA) approval.

Primary (top) and Secondary colour Dawson balls

Croquet balls come in three sets of colours:

• Primary Colours - blue, red, black and yellow
• Secondary Colours - brown, white, green and pink
• Tertiary Colours - aubergine, peach, slate and porridge!

In addition for the American market there are striped primary colours - they have a white 1.25" girdle around the ball.

Croquet balls are available for 'garden' play as well as for club and tournament play. The specifications for the latter are tightly constrained (see links above). Balls for garden use typically weigh less than 16oz and may lack any form of surface milling. The light balls will produce less damage the lighter 'garden set' mallets and some players prefer the way a lighter ball rolls on longer (garden cut) grass.

There are currently two main manufacturers of plastic moulded approved croquet balls.

• Dawson (Australia) - available in Australia, New Zealand and the USA, but not currently in the UK (although they can be obtained rapidly by mail order).  Their Dawson 2000 Mark II and newer Dawson 2000 International are both nice balls. The Australian Croquet Company, (auscroquetco@picknowl.com.au) PO Box 19, Littlehampton, SA 5250, Australia makes and supplies all Dawson products. Their agents in NSW are John Eddes, (02)95674568 - evenings only, Therese & Trevor White, Forster (065) 548073 and Nerida Taylor, (048)475014. Cost in the region of $A280/set.
• Sunshiny (Taiwan) - this is a new manufacturer whose balls have a qualified approval from the CA (the colouration of the red was the issue). It is likely that some third party resellers will buy this ball re-branded with their name. The manufacturer's contact is Richard Wu (Taiwan) sunshinyco@hotmail.com but I suspect that only bulk orders would be of intrest. See connected articles from the Croquet World Online site below. The Sunshiny CQ-16 balls are available from Oakley in 1st and 2nd colour solids and 1st colour (painted) stripes for around $170 US/set.

Willhoite (America) - these are made in small quantities in Kentucky. Their plastic "Xtreme ball" has Croquet Association approval as a Championship ball and has a good reputation. Cost ~$220/set.

Jaques (UK) - this company used to be the main world manufacturer of croquet balls, but a fire at their factory followed by commercial problems means that they no longer produce tournament standard croquet balls.

Barlow (SA) - used to produce a good plastic ball but they closed their factory in February 2008.

Articles on croquet balls from Croquet World Online

• Ball types available in America
• Price war looms over Jaques Eclipse clones
• The problem with the Championship Balls
• The Era of the Composition Balls Ends with the Demise of the Jaques "Eclipse"

For a lineage of croquet balls see here

For technical articles on ball properties see the Technical section.