2008 Amendments Summary

The main purpose of the 2008 amendments to the Laws of Association Croquet was to implement the various rulings made since the laws were previously revised in 2000. Many of the amendments were drafting improvements, such as a complete rewrite of the definition of a stroke (Law 5), without any intention to change the way the game is actually played. However, there are a few things that players should be aware of under the the amended laws:

1. You commit a fault if you guide the mallet against your shoe (accidental contact will not be penalised).
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.
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.
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.
5. If there is a collision with a double banked ball, you only replay the stroke if:
   1. (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
   2. (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 the would have ended up but for the collision.
6. If taking croquet from touching balls, you can arrange them for a cannon even if none of them is a yard-line ball.
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.
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).

The full text of the amendments proposal is available as a PDF.