Few can agree on the origin of this American pastime. Some say that the game of croquet originated from the French game Paille Maille, in which crude mallets were used to knock balls through hoops made of bent willow branches. Others argue that the game came from the Irish game of “crooky” first played in the 1830’s and then brought to England in the mid-nineteenth century.
It has been said that Victorian women relished the game as it gave them a chance to socialize out of the earshot of chaperones. Playing “tight croquet”, whereby one puts their foot on the ball and sends their opponents ball into the bushes, enabled young men to go into the bushes with young women in search of their balls.
Croquet National Championships were held at Wimbledon before the lawns there were transformed into the tennis courts of today.