A few days ago I read Agatha Christie's first mystery novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles, from 1921. Set in a rural English estate, a passing reference is made to a croquet game...bringing to my mind a flood of memories of playing it with my family during my childhood in the 1960s. After reading up on it, I discovered that there are different versions of croquet...including one with flamingos for mallets, hedgehogs for balls, and living card-men for wickets, if you happen to be a Lewis Carroll fan. But here in America, we seem to have agreed on one form: the nine-wicket game. Each player starts off in front of the "home" stake with their own mallet and colored wooden ball, the goal being to make a complete circuit of the course by putting the ball through each wicket (a thick rectangular wire stuck into the ground) in the right sequence and direction while hitting the stakes at the ends of the course before anyone else. I remember getting pretty good at it...and then we all sadly seemed to outgrow croquet. But I'd like to revive interest in it, at least at my home. The only problem is that with this heavy rain we've been having and almost unbearable humidity, the ground in my backyard is thoroughly saturated with water and is sloshy to walk through. It's bad enough to try mowing the lawn through it...at least during my recovery I'm happy to let others tackle that...but in this mushy state it is impossible to attempt a croquet game. Still, I entertain hopes for a dryer future and plan on obtaining a croquet set soon...
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