HOBBY HORSE/CROQUET:Once seen as a Cinderella sport with Big House connections, croquet may now be developing a cool cachet, writes Michael Kelly
IF ANYONE CAN deliver croquet from the shackles of its stuffy Victorian image, then surely Andrew Johnston can. The 28-year-old from Wicklow is on the Irish team (yes, we have an international croquet team). Together with his colleagues in the Croquet Association of Ireland (CAI), he seems to be on a mission to make the sport cool - or if not cool, then at least not quite so emphatically uncool.
The association has recently established a croquet programme for Transition Year students in second-level schools and they report a good deal of interest in the sport among teenagers. "We were pleasantly surprised," says Johnston when I meet him during a break in play at the Irish Open in Carrickmines Croquet Club in Dublin. "These young lads just treat it as a game. They don't have that stigma about it that most people have."
Johnston is not your stereotypical croquet player. He eschews the old-fashioned white croquet garb for an athletic-looking green tracksuit with "Croquet Association of Ireland" emblazoned across the front. When he's not playing croquet for Ireland, he's playing rugby for Old Wesley - an odd combination of hobbies, for which his rugby buddies give him plenty of abuse. "They also appreciate that I am representing my country and getting to travel to international test matches a few times a year."
Croquet is an equal-opportunities sport. Back garden sets (which include balls, mallets and hoops) can be bought for as little as €10, and the game can be played by young and old, male and female. The youngest competitor at the Irish Open is 11-year-old Isaac Harris.
"There are some big shots that require some strength, but technique is key," says Johnston. "It's a very skilful game. It is gentle exercise but you do need stamina given the length of the games. Some games can take up to three hours, especially for beginners. I have days where I come home after playing all day and I am more tired than I would be from playing rugby."
Competitors in the Irish Open take the game seriously. Intriguingly, he mentions an incident where a mallet was thrown into a tree, presumably in a fit of croquet-induced rage. "People are pretty surprised by the intensity. The amount of giving out and slagging that goes on between players is mad."
Surprisingly, croquet is thought to have originated in Ireland in the early 1800s before being exported to England in the 1860s. It briefly became a national craze there before being eclipsed by tennis in the late 1800s. While the number of people playing in their gardens here is impossible to quantify, the CAI has about 500 registered players. In addition to the Carrickmines facility, there are clubs in Herbert Park, Trinity College, Cork, Meath and Wicklow.
The Irish team punches above its weight internationally, according to Johnston. In 2006, Ireland became the first team to beat England in 20 years, and there are currently five Irish players in the top 50 internationally.
"It is an entirely amateur sport, which is almost unheard of these days. They have some money tournaments in the US, but our own trips abroad for test matches are mostly self-funded." This year the world championships were held in New Zealand.
Johnston's girlfriend Yvonne Hyland is a recent recruit to the game and is his partner in the doubles tournament at the Irish Open. They make an attractive young couple on the court, like a croquet version of Posh and Becks. Hyland is still learning the ropes but says she enjoys the game immensely. "It's very satisfying when you put a break together."
If you don't know how the game works, a written explanation here is not going to help your understanding. In my innocence, I thought it was just about walloping the ball through the hoops with a mallet - alas no, it's like a combination of chess, golf and snooker. Johnston and Hyland try to explain the rules of the game to me, but noting the look of intense confusion on my face, they decide I might grasp it better if we try it out, so we play a short game.
I have to admit I am still largely none the wiser about how it all works, but I can definitely see the appeal. There is an undeniable thrill when the ball (finally) goes through a hoop and when it doesn't, well let's just say I had to fight the temptation to add to the collection of mallets up in the tree.