Croquet

You’d be forgiven, at least by me, if you assumed croquet was a sport or rather leisurely game played back in the nineteenth century. That was my view based on novels I’d read of bygone eras. Then I encountered Jo Meinjes and her Springer Spaniel Merlyn. Merlyn talked or woofed in his memoirs about Jo playing croquet. And in subsequent years I’ve got to know of Jo organising tournaments in South Africa as well as playing regularly with friends.

So I was quite intrigued to read that Pall Mall in London got its name from thr Italian word pallamaglio which means ‘ball and mallet’. Apparently, the game was introduced to England in the 17th century and played in St James’s Park (one end of Pall Mall being St James’s Palace) by Charles II. It is said the game was an ‘unstructured and rather energetic version of croquet.’ (79 Pall Mall in Eccentric London by Tom Quinn, p26)

Over time the game became more refined and with the growth of the British Empire was exported to the colonies. I wonder (without going invesigating further) if hockey derived from the same source – a more rigorous and fast-moving game with ball and mallett…

Image: Paille-maille (pall-mall) illustrated in Old English Sports, Pastimes and Customs, published 1891; original image by Lauthier, 1717 (en:Project Gutenberg eText 14315 – http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/3/1/14315/14315-h/14315-h.htm )