About

[Maine photo caption] My name is Ben Pollock, and I love croquet.

*This is a demonstration website and thus fictitious — except for this About page. Sorry for any confusion. — Ben Pollock

Sure, I played when I was a kid. The object was to tick the ball of the opponent so then you got an extra turn and could use your ball to whack his into the next yard.

I forgot about it and I grew up. I saw an article somewhere about tournament croquet. What we’re talking about now is pool or billiards played on fairly flat grass the size of a doubles tennis court.

The kids’ way of playing ends up being all about defense — hit the other guy’s balls so far away it’ll take them two or three turns to come back.

What about offense? You want to win, don’t you?

[demonstration on headings] H2 – What, there are rules?

The new rules allow you to play the other guy’s balls to give yourself extra turns, to position yourself for easy wickets. And also for defense, put those balls at bad angles to burn off the other fellow’s turn.

http://www.croquetamerica.com/ — The new rules aren’t new. I just didn’t know them. They’re really British, adopted a bit for America by the U.S. Croquet Association.