Mallets in hand, women clothed in white linen join men in slacks and shirts of the same color as they all make their way through a carefully arranged course. Good-natured taunting and witty interludes are interrupted only when, in turn, each in the merry party pauses to send a wooden ball rolling across the well-manicured lawn through a nearby wicket. The camaraderie is strong, the competition lively.
This scene could depict one from 1850s England, the Roaring Twenties in America, or a 21st-century backyard, for croquet has long been favored as a particularly delightful way to spend an afternoon. No one quite knows just where or how the game originated, but regardless of whether Italy, France, or Egypt actually holds bragging rights, the sequenced sport with hoops and balls continues…
