THE CA LAWS CHANGES TO ASSOCIATION CROQUET

The CA has announced a number of changes to the Laws and has issued a new laws book. Many of the changes are cosmetic but some are important. The CA has published these changes on its web site www.croquet.org.uk as well as a summary of what it considers to be the most important changes (shown underlined). I have copied them here, together with what I hope are some (personal) helpful comments. I have also included where appropriate, shown in Italics, what the law was before the change.

Don

1. You commit a fault if you guide the mallet against your shoe (accidental contact will not be penalised).

This technique was used to guide the mallet in a straight line for angled hoop shots.  It was neither allowed nor disallowed as the laws did not cover it. Now they do and you can’t do it!

2. If you commit a fault in a handicap game, your opponent has the choice of whether the balls should be replaced or not (whether or not you take a bisque, as in a level game). Once your opponent has decided that, you can then decide whether or not to take a bisque.

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT CHANGE. Note the order - Opponent chooses first, then player decides whether to take a bisque. This is a powerful change because the opponent can now choose the most awkward position from which to take a bisque.  Beforehand there was no choice, the ball HAD to go back whatever, then the player decided about the bisque.

3. If you play a stroke that might have been a fault, you, or any referee watching, should declare it to be a fault if you believe it was more likely than not that it was a fault.

I find this a very strange decision and suspect that it is likely to lead to some ill feeling. What does “more likely than not” mean? If you think it 51% likely that it was and 49% it wasn’t, then it’s a fault? I have always worked on the “benefit of the doubt” thinking and don’t like this change at all.

4. You commit a fault if your ball makes a roquet, then hits a hoop or another ball, and then your mallet hits it again. On the other hand, you do not commit a fault if your ball hits the hoop before making the roquet and then your mallet hits your ball again.

This needs thinking about! Normally a double hit after a roquet is made is NOT a fault. This is because in a hard rush when your ball is very close to the rushed ball it is almost impossible not to double hit. Judging such a shot would be troublesome and time-consuming, so it is allowed.

However, if your ball makes a roquet, then goes on to hit something such as a hoop, then bounces back so that you hit it again, this is a fault because the double hit is not due to the roquet.

However again, if your ball hits a hoop, then makes a roquet, then hits your mallet again, this is not a fault because the double hit is due to the roquet.

Of course if your ball just hits a hoop and bounces back on to your mallet without making any roquet at all, this is a fault.

The law hasn’t really been changed, just clarified.

5. If there is a collision with a double banked ball, you only replay the stroke if:

(a) the double-banked ball was not there when you took up your stance (otherwise you should have waited or moved it out of the way); and

(b) either a point might have been scored, a roquet made or a ball might have ended in a critical position (e.g. where it may or may not be wired from another ball).

Otherwise the balls are placed as near as can be judged to where they would have ended up but for the collision.

This new law makes it much harder to get any redress if you hit a double-banked ball with yours. Unless that ball wasn’t there when you hit yours AND you might have made a roquet, etc as in (b) above, you get no replay. So pay attention!

6. If taking croquet from touching balls, you can arrange them for a cannon even if none of them is a yard-line ball.

This is a change from the old law which only allowed  Yard-line balls to be cannons.

7. If advertised in the conditions for an event, you can replay a stroke if a ball is too big to go through a hoop, even if the ball does not end up jammed in the hoop.

Note “If advertised”. So if it is not, then the old law “only replay if actually stuck” applies.

8. Deeming a stroke played is now called “declaring” the stroke played. If you do this when both your balls are in play, you should say for which ball you are becoming responsible for the purposes of Law 13 (wiring).

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