Event History (click here to see below)

Club Bisque List (click here)

Croquet is Fun:

The Arizona Croquet Club was founded in 1975 by four individuals with a passion to learn how to play the game of croquet the right way.  Stan Patmor, Ed Cline, Doug Whitneybell and William Hermann began the club's long history with croquet through organized tournament play.  The tournament events are pre-announced formats to encourage members to compete, improve their skills, and fraternalize its membership.  Our formats are varied both in skill levels and game rules.

Skill Levels:

The Pro-Am and our handicap tournaments are specifically designed to encourage new players to team up with skilled players to develop break away play and strategic tactics.  The beginning players are given extra turns, 'bisques', which can be played in consecutive order.  The handicap bisques allow the weaker players to
assemble the balls on the court and run a break to score a number of points in their turn (also called a tour of play).

Click here to Review current club member handicaps.

In the advanced formats, the players are challenged to compete at level play.  These formats are played without the use of bisques, and involve rules which limit the number of hoops the player can make on his first all-round break.  At the highest level of play, these games often involve developing the skill of 'peeling', whereby the player puts its partner ball through some of its hoops during the turn.  This allows a player to 'finish' the game and take away the opponents chance to win.

Informal play and practice is always welcome.  We encourage more use of the lawns.

Game rules:

The United States Croquet Association, the USCA, was founded by Jack Osborn to unify the sport of croquet within America.  Jack created an American six-wicket version of the game that was both competitive and challenging and most importantly he codified its rules, set up an organization for developing clubs and promoting the sport within the United States and its neighbors.

Arizona soon began playing the American rules as well as traveling to tournaments around the country.  The ACC hosted its first Arizona Open in 1983 to attract players they had met on their travels and the tournament was a huge success.  We have been playing this version of the game as well as the Association version for many years.

The Association laws of croquet were developed in England along with its associate countries inside Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.  The Croquet Association in England administers the rules and associations of clubs throughout Great Britain.  The American Croquet Association (the ACA) was founded to organize and promote this version of the game in America when the USCA was not interested in its promotion.  The USCA changed this position when the World Croquet Federation (WCF) was created in the 1990s. The United States Croquet Association supports US player's interest as our governing body on the WCF committees.  The USCA selects team members to play for our country in events hosted by the WCF and the CA.

There are a variety of other croquet rules still existing throughout America (including various versions of nine- and ten-wicket, extreme croquet, clay court, long grass, one-ball, golf croquet and numerous shortened versions of 6 wicket).

Our club actively pursues the development of its players through this rich variety of events.

Our previous club court - the Kraft Lawn:

The club court is located in Ren and Carol Kraft's backyard at 6022 N. 64th Place in Paradise Valley.  The court can be found at the end of 64th place which is one street east of the 4 way stop at McDonald and Invergorden (map1, and see close in map2).  Most of our tournaments are held at this lawn although sometimes we are invited to play on some of the other private lawns.

Other Courts:

Within the Phoenix area, there have been numerous public and private lawns within the past 30 years.  Two of our founders had croquet lawns at one point and many competitive games were held, but courts are expensive and difficult to maintain for individuals and these as well 3-5 other lawns have long since vanished.  Ren's court has existed since 1985, and continues to attract players from around the country.

Some top resorts and recreational centers offer (or used to offer) croquet to its members: Biltmore, Wigwam, Phoenecian, Gainey, Venture Out, Desert Mountain and Enchantment Resort of Sedona.

We are thankful to the people that have lent us the use of their facilities in the past.  Please help support them if you get a chance.

Calendar of Events:  click here for Schedule of Events (or below in the History table)

Event History: