Croquet arrived in England from Ireland in the 1850s.
At the end of the 19th century, it was more popular than tennis. Tennis eventually came out on top, largely because of croquet’s unsavoury reputation. In America it became associated with gambling, drinking and philandering to such an extent that it was once banned in Boston as an immoral practice. Herbert Swope, the American newspaperman, on whose estate Groucho Marx and Dorothy Parker were said to have played with unsportsmanlike rivalry, said, “croquet gives release to all the mischief in you. It makes you want to do bad things… it is a great game”.
The Croquet Club on Hove Lawns was first established in 1928 and our new Hove Beach Croquet Club was founded in 2011. Our motto today is as it always was - to cause mistrust and resentment among even the best of friends.
'One of Brighton's best kept secrets'
The Argus
