Croquet initiation sessions throughout South East England

Try one of our croquet initiation sessions or combine it in the same session with cricket initiation. We deliver these sessions for foreign students (French, German, Dutch, Danish, Polish, Spanish, Chinese and more) in London and the rest of South East England. Please see the Typical Locations page to get an idea where croquet and cricket initiation are available.

The game of croquet involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through a series of hoops (often called 'wickets' in the United States) embedded in a grass playing area. The winner is the first to traverse all the hoops and hit a peg.

Croquet became highly popular as a social pastime in England during the 1860s. It was enthusiastically adopted and promoted by the Earl of Essex who held lavish croquet parties at Cassiobury House, his stately home in Watford, Hertfordshire. It quickly spread to other Anglophone countries, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United States. There are two theories as to the origin of croquet: one that it originated in Ireland and the other that it came from France. In any case, croquet is a French word, meaning 'hockey stick' in Northern French dialect and 'shepherd's crook' in Old North French.