There are six cast-iron hoops set firmly into the ground, and a peg. The layout never varies. Balls, four to a game, each weigh one pound and have a diameter which, in top-class competition, is only one sixteenth of an inch less than the inside width of a hoop. They are of different colours - blue, red, black, and yellow for the primary set and green, pink, brown and white for an alternative set.

Mallets typically weigh three pounds. Modern materials improve their durability and balance, but substantial change to their playing characteristics through design is banned.

There are three variants of the game. The one that most people have played at some time in a garden in known as 'Golf Croquet' or 'the sequence game'. The objective of each player is to get his ball(s) though each hoop first. When the first hoop is scored all players move on to the second hoop, and so on. Each turn comprises only one stroke. A match is a contest for the best of 1, 3 or 5 games of 7, 13 or 19 points. Each game ends as soon as one side (the winner) has scored a majority of the points to be played. The balls are played in the sequence blue, red, black and yellow.  For the alternate colours the order is green, pink, brown, and white.  The merit of Golf Croquet is simplicity and an analogy between it and 'Association Croquet' is like that between draughts and chess. The nation most adept at Golf Croquet is Egypt. Cairo's many clubs play floodlit croquet in front of sizeable spectator crowds. Most members of this club play this form of the game.

Association Croquet has a large number of different strokes to achieve various aims. Once one ball is struck ('roqueted') it allows two further strokes - the croquet stroke, where the player's ball is placed next to the ball roqueted and both are struck, and a continuation stroke, in which another ball may be roqueted or a hoop run. In this way breaks are established and it is not uncommon for a good player to take a ball through every hoop in one turn. In Association Croquet both of a player's balls have to go through every hoop (that is twelve - each is run in both directions) and hit the peg to win.

At the highest level, Association Croquet has complex tactics that involve 'peeling' the partner ball (where a player's first ball will attempt to strike the second ball through its own hoop). One description of croquet in common use is 'snooker on grass', since the range of skills and tactics, allied to superb hand-eye co-ordination, is similar to that of snooker.

It is Association Croquet that is mainly played at the highest levels. There are regular World Championships and also an international team event played irregularly between the top nations (in 2008 Great Britain won).

The third variation belongs exclusively to North America, where a significant variation to 'International Rules' evolved. It differs from Association Croquet in the same way that rugby league differs from rugby union. The skills required for both are transferable, with US and Canadian players, hungry for international competition, willing to adopt the standard version.

(with thanks to the Croquet Association)