Despite our anachronistic tendencies, we devised a few rules to guide x-treme croquet play.
We play with a cornucopia of miscellaneous equipment. Players are divided into two teams and mallets are divided evenly among the team. Within each team, mallets are distributed respective to height of team players so that the tallest players get the longest mallets. Platform shoes do make a difference!
Once mallets are distributed, each player takes aim at a distant target -- tree stumps work well. Once all players have taken their shot at the target, they are ordered from closest to farthest from it. Remember this order -- it will be important for first shot play.
The team whose player gets closest to the target can choose first shot or color scheme (red, orange, and yellow or blue, black, and green). Within a team, colors are divided by whatever means necessary.
Play continues as specified below. The winning team must have all of its players complete the course before last member of the losing team.
X-treme play begins with the first shot, which is taken simultaneously at the count of three by all players. Therefore, position on the first shot can be critical. Positions are chosen along a pre-determined line in an order determined by the target shot, above. The player who came closest to the target gets first choice of position, and so on. Players are not allowed to choose a position that would interfere with another player's swing.
Nine wickets and two stakes are set up in a large area (preferably two or three hundred yards from one end to the other). They are arrayed roughly in a figure eight, with two wickets and a stake at either end, much as in standard croquet. The terrain is what sets this sport apart. We specifically look for arenas that have rough ground, forests and other hazards, and in particular, elevation changes.
After the first shot, players take turns in order, starting with the team that won first-shot privileges, and going by color in the order shown on the stakes (if red, yellow, orange goes first, start with the bottom color and move upwards, if blue, black, green goes first, start with the top color and move downwards). Players must pass through the first two wickets, then follow the hourglass shape of the course playing the right side corners. At the half-way point, players must strike the stake with their ball before proceeding back through all center wickets and the two corners they have not yet played. One only earns a wicket if they play through it in the proper direction and order.
Players are finished and must remove their ball from play when they have earned all fourteen wickets and struck the end stake.
Within a turn, a player may earn bonus shots by playing through a wicket or contacting another player's ball (called a roquet shot). Each player may roquet each other ball once per turn. A player earns two bonus shots for a roquet and one for earning a wicket. However, when a player earns a wicket, he or she loses all accumulated bonus shots but does earn the bonus from that wicket and any bonuses from roquet shots once through the wicket.
With the first bonus shot on a roquet, a player has the option of placing his or her ball next to the one it contacted. The player can then choose to "send" the other ball by hitting theirs while the two are in contact. The player may also use the first shot in a normal manner.
The stump rule allows a player to take advantage of the rough nature of our courses. If a player's ball comes in contact with a tree stump, boulder, or other distinct object (i.e., not a dirt mound), that player has the option of placing the ball on top of that object on his or her next shot and teeing off. We recommend that they warn any other players in the vicinity with a courtesy shout of "fore!"