This section gives a selection of questions on which to practice your knowledge of the Laws. There are no answers given at the moment.

• Introduction
• Questions on the Laws
  • Simple
  • Medium
  • Difficult

Introduction

To play croquet properly it is essential that you know the rules thoroughly. Knowledge of the Laws is always a benefit and can work very much to your advantage in play.

This course is intended to give students a thorough knowledge of the Laws of International Croquet. Students will need a copy of the Laws (6th Edition) and ideally a copy of the Official Rulings on the Laws of Croquet (ORLC). Both are available from the Croquet Association (CA).

The questions have been picked up from many sources including tattered photocopies from clubs and the Internet discussion groups. Any faults in the document are mine - please point them out. This is an unofficial document and the views are mine alone.

The Laws are complicated. This is clear since there is a real need for the ORLC - its wisdom however should be implicit in the Laws.

Some actions are allowed because they are not forbidden in the Laws! Occasionally you will try to find the rule which allows you to do something only to fail to find it.

QUESTIONS ON THE LAWS

When answering the questions you should write down your answer and the Law numbers of the Laws or Regulations involved.

You should consider

• whether you are empowered to act, e.g. you can only intervene in certain circumstances when you are not a referee on call.
• whether you have all the information.
• whether the limit of claims has passed.

SIMPLE QUESTIONS

1. Advanced Play. In a single turn a player peels his forward ball through 1-back before running 1-back with his striker's ball and then goes on to run 4-back. Does he concede a contact or a lift at the end of the turn?
2. If a player who is eligible to peg out his ball jumps it towards the peg and he strikes solely the peg extension (the clip holder), has he pegged out his ball?
3. Red roquets Black. In the croquet stroke Black goes off the lawn and Red ends up in the yard-line area with a perfect rush on Blue. After placing Black on the yard-line, your opponent indicates that they wish to take a bisque. Can they play Red from where it lies?
4. Handicap Doubles. Your partner triple peels one of your opponents out and subsequently completes a double peel on you. The opponents claim that as this is the 5th peel it is not allowed. Are they correct?
5. Red is pegging out Black in a croquet stroke. Black rebounds off the peg and interferes with Red. What happens if:
   1. Both players agree that Red would have hit the peg.
   2. That Red was clearly diverted from its course towards another ball.
   3. Red might have gone off if it had not been diverted.
6. Red runs a hoop and hits Blue which is five inches clear of the hoop in the same stroke. This causes Red to rebound back into the hoop. Was the hoop scored and the roquet made?
7. Red fails to run a hoop and bounces off the wire near Blue. Under the impression he has one more stroke he hits Red off into a corner. His opponent says "you have taken a bisque".
   1. Is this correct?
   2. Could a spectator intervene?
8. Red takes croquet from Black, does a bad shot and is impeded by Black from roqueting Blue. The striker decides to do a scatter shot. All the balls are very close together. Why should this shot be watched?
9. Red, a rover, is very close to the peg. On hitting the peg Red rebounds onto the striker's mallet. Is this a fault?
10. Red hits Yellow and having separated Blue and Black on rejoining Yellow hits it again and is about to take croquet when you forestall. What irregularity has been committed and where should the balls be placed?
11. In a doubles game one of the balls in a croquet stroke strikes the player's partner before the end of the striking period. What happens?
12. Red, trying to run a hoop, rebounds off the wire. In order to avoid Red hitting your foot you topple back and tread on Yellow. Has a fault been committed?
13. Black is against a wire. Playing Red you clout the hoop with your mallet causing Black to shake. Has a fault been committed? Are you responsible for Black's position even though it was placed there by your opponent?
14. Red takes half a bisque, starts to run its hoop, having entered its from the playing side, but is left half-way through its hoop. Can you:
    1. Take a full bisque and complete the running of the hoop?
    2. Complete the running of the hoop in a subsequent turn if you find yourself still there?
    3. Had Red peeled an enemy ball through its hoop in its half bisque turn would that point have been scored?
15. Can bisques be used after time has been called?
16. The player holds the mallet in one hand and supports himself by placing the other hand on his thigh and plays a shot. Has a fault been committed?
17. Advanced Play. In the third turn Red hits in on Blue and goes to the peg. What options are open to Black?
18. Red and Yellow are Irish peeled through rover, without committing any faults. The balls ricochet against each other several times after running the hoop. Is a roquet made?

MEDIUM QUESTIONS

1. Your opponent has a lift and places his ball in 2nd corner and shoots at a ball near the peg. You query the stroke - what happens?
2. You are pegging out, both balls are rovers. In a firm croquet stroke, Red does not hit the peg and goes off the lawn, Yellow hits the peg. Is Yellow pegged out?
3. Open doubles. Your opponents have a lift but the player of Black lifts and plays Blue. Where is Blue replaced when you claim wrong ball?
4. How are the balls replaced when:
   1. a fault has been committed.
   2. a fault has been committed in a croquet stroke and one of the balls goes off the lawn.
   3. the striker plays with the wrong ball when taking croquet.
   4. at the start of a game the side legally playing Red in the first turn, plays Blue in the third turn.
   5. at the start of a game the striker plays Yellow a second time before he plays Red into the game.
5. A high bisquer misses a roquet into a corner and takes a bisque. He then plays with the wrong ball, using two bisques more and making two hoops before the error is discovered.
   1. What happens?
   2. What would happen if the error were not discovered until a couple of turns later?
6. Red roquets Blue which lies close to a hoop. After the roquet Red rebounds off the hoop upright and makes contact with the face of the mallet. Is this a fault?
7. Handicap Doubles. Red and Blue are both for the peg, Yellow and Black for 4-back. Red attempts to peg out Blue. Blue misses the peg but Red rolls onto it in the croquet stroke.
   1. Is red pegged out?
   2. It is a timed game, if Red is wrongly removed from the game and play is continuing what action is open to a referee who notices or is told about the occurrence?
   3. How is the matter resolved?
8. You are acting as timekeeper:
   1. You call time after the striker hits Red, but before Red comes to rest. Is Red in play if (i) he sticks in the hoop he was trying to run? and (ii) he roquets a ball which he is entitled to roquet?
   2. Red sticks in a hoop in the turn in which time was called and says that he is going to take a bisque because the scores are level. Is this correct?
   3. In a handicap game a player pegs out his rover ball (his partner ball not being a rover) to get the winning point. Can you take immediate action?
9. You call a referee from a distant lawn and complain that your opponent committed a double tap. Your opponent does not agree and there were no spectators.
   1. What are the powers of the referee?
   2. You ask for a referee in charge. Are you entitled to one?
10. Red plays a stop shot on Blue, and roquets Yellow before Blue has come to rest. Blue runs off the lawn. Does the opponent have any recourse?
11. Red runs hoop 2, rolls off the lawn and rolls back into the jaws of hoop 2. Has the hoop been run?
12. A referee is called to watch an Irish peel and notices that the balls are not quite touching. Should he tell the striker?
13. A referee called to watch a hammer stroke fails to notice that the striker's ball brushes against the striker's foot after it has made a roquet. Is any course open to the striker? Or his opponent?
14. Advanced Singles. Black and Blue are entitle to a lift, the striker lifts Blue then replaces it then trundles Black to the baulk line and plays it. Is this permissible? Has the opponent any redress?
15. The striker has done a reasonable cross pegging on the opponent's balls. The opponent notices that the peg is not straight and asks a referee to straighten it. Can a referee do this?

DIFFICULT QUESTIONS

1. Singles Game. Black, Blue then Yellow are all balls on the yard line about nine inches apart. At the start of his turn a player intends to strike Blue into Yellow, but (fairly - no beveled edge) hits Black on his forward swing which hits Blue. Has a fault been made?
2. In a handicap game you are acting as timekeeper. The person in play shoots a ball off the lawn and calls for a bisque just before time is called but before replacing the ball on the lawn. Can he do this?
3. In a tournament two balls have been pegged out early in the game. The striker is about to peg out his second ball when he is forestalled by the opponent who claims that the peg is 1/8" too large in diameter. This is proven to be the case. What is the remedy?
4. Red plays a stop shot on Blue, and roquets Yellow before Blue has come to rest. Is this valid play?
5. Robert, correctly playing black in the third turn, rushes red off the boundary into the flowerbed but by mistake brings a yellow ball and the red back onto the lawn and continues to play as if the yellow ball is his striker's ball. Robert continues as if playing his 3rd turn break but somewhere after 2-back his opponent wakes up and correctly declares Robert started playing with black in that turn. What is the remedy? (Southwick spring advanced tournament 2003)