Croquet

It has been many years since I last played croquet. A sport in which I performed quite well. Some croquet players indulge in a practice I deplore. When they succeed in striking their ball to touch an opponents, they pick up their ball, place it next to the one they have hit, and plant a foot on their own ball while striking it hard enough to send the other ball a long distance away. This eliminates the skillful tactic of sending the other ball far away, without picking up one's own ball. One advantage of croquet is that it can be successfully played on a small lawn, perhaps as small as a quarter of the space between the lines of the tennis court. We no longer have any of the equipment: mallets, balls, hoops, and the stick which is the final target in the classic form of the game. I miss it all.