OUT-OF-DOOR RECREATIONS. 



skilled players, the number is usually eight, seven, 

 or even six. Perhaps, however, the nine-hoop 

 game is still the most prevalent. The clips, which 

 are often used for marking the game, are discs 

 of tin marked with the colours of the balls, and 

 are placed on the hoop or peg which is next in 

 order for the ball of the corresponding colour. 

 Marking-boards similar to those used in playing 

 pool are also employed in marking. 



The game was originally played by eight play- 

 ers, four on each side, each taking one ball ; but 

 a four-ball game is now considered best, and that 

 best when it is played by two players, each taking 

 two balls. The hoops being set according to a 

 plan or pattern agreed upon (which varies with the 

 number of hoops used), the game, when there are 

 four or more players, commences by the choosing 

 of sides. The choice of lead and of balls is deter- 

 mined by lot in the first game ; but, in succeeding 

 games, the lead is alternate, the sides keeping the 

 same balls. The object of each side is to be first 

 in carrying all its balls through the course that 

 is, through the hoops in order to the turning-peg, 

 .and again through the hoops in order to the win- 

 ning-peg ; and in doing this each player is allowed 

 to give assistance to his partner, to use for his 

 purposes his partner's and his enemies' balls, and 

 is liable to obstruction at the hands of the enemy. 

 The starting-spot is usually a mallet's length in 

 front of the starting-peg, but this varies with the 

 setting of the hoops adopted. Formerly, if a 

 player at commencing missed the first hoop, his 

 turn was over ; but his ball was not ' in play,' 

 not liable to molestation from hostile players, or 

 entitled to assistance from his friends ; now, how- 

 ever, a ball is in play as soon as it has been struck, 

 and may roquet or be roqueted, whether it has 

 passed through a hoop or not. If the ball be 

 moved, a stroke is considered to have been taken, 

 unless when it is moved accidentally ; and if, after 

 being accidentally moved, it is struck without being 

 replaced, the stroke is foul. To roquet (pro- 

 nounced rokay) is to hit with one's ball another 

 ball for the first time in one's turn, or for the first 

 time after making a point ; and it is out of the 

 power of making roquet that the difficulty and 

 interest of the game mainly arise ; for a roquet 

 gives the right, and indeed imposes the duty, of 

 taking croquet (krokay). This is done by placing 

 the striker's ball in contact with the one roqueted, 

 the striker then hitting his own balL He must, in 

 taking croquet, move the roqueted ball, but he 

 may do so as gently or violently as he pleases, and 

 he may hit so as to send the balls in whatever 

 direction he thinks proper. As, after taking 

 croquet, he continues his turn, his object will be to 

 use the enemy's ball so as to promote his own 

 game and that of his partners, and to impede that 

 of the other side. As he can roquet every ball, 

 friendly or hostile, once after the commencement 

 of his turn, and get a renewal of the right to do 

 so after making a new point, it will be obvious 

 that the power of roqueting, followed by taking 

 croquet, gives a skilful player an immense power 

 of making way himself, helping his partners, and 

 discomfiting his opponents. 



In taking croquet, formerly what was called 

 tight croquet was a favourite stroke ; the striker 

 putting his foot on his own ball, so as to keep it 

 from moving, and then striking it with force, so 

 as to send the enemy's ball to a great distance ; 



[ but now this stroke is not permitted. The strokes 

 made in taking croquet are (i) The stop stroke, 

 I in which the striker's ball goes only a short dis- 

 i tance, the other ball going much farther, which 

 | is made by giving a sharp tap ; (2) The rolling or 

 | following stroke, in which both balls go about the 

 same distance, in taking which the mallet must be 

 ; brought down steadily, and made to dwell on or 

 follow the striker's ball ; (3) The passing stroke, 

 which sends the striker's ball beyond the other, 

 and is made by dwelling on or following the 

 striker's ball more than in a rolling stroke, so that 

 it receives an additional impetus after the other 

 ball is out of contact with it ; (4) The take-off, in 

 which the balls are so laid and struck that the 

 striker's ball receives nearly the whole force of the 

 blow, the other scarcely moving ; and (5) The 

 splitting stroke the most important of all which 

 makes the balls fly off from each other at an angle, 

 the manner of effecting which is difficult of de- 

 scription, and varies according as it is desired 

 to send the one ball or the other to the greater 

 distance. The stroke for running hoops or mak- 

 ing a roquet should be a sharp tap, the mallet 

 being allowed to follow the ball as little as possible ; 

 and it is best to hold the mallet with both hands, 

 swinging it across the body from right to left, and 

 to give the stroke principally from the shoulder. 



A ball is deemed to have run its hoop when a 

 straight-edge placed against the wires on the side 

 from which it was played does not touch it ; and 

 a ball driven partly through its hoop cannot run 

 it at the next stroke, if a straight-edge placed 

 against the wires on the non-playing side touch it 

 If a ball in course of play is driven through its 

 hoop, or against the turning-peg by any other ball, 

 the point counts for it. A ball that has made all 

 its points in order except the winning-post, is 

 called a rover. A rover may be pegged out of the 

 game that is, driven against the winning-peg 

 by any fair stroke of either side ; the player who 

 pegs out a rover by a roquet, however, losing the 

 remainder of his turn. Another change made in 

 the game, is what is called the dead-boundary law. 

 If a striker, in taking croquet, send his own ball 

 or his opponent's off the ground (and if a ball 

 touch the boundary-line it is deemed to be off the 

 ground), he loses the remainder of his turn of play, 

 unless in the same stroke he make a roquet 



TENNIS AND LAWN TENNIS. 



Tennis is a game of great antiquity, belongs to 

 the class of ball-games, and finds its analogies in 

 the sphairisis of the Greeks, and the pila of the 

 Romans. Under the name of pautne, a name 

 given to it from the ball being at that time struck 

 with the palm of the hand, it is noticed in the 

 Arthurian romances, and in the earlier records of 

 the dark ages. In the isth century, it was in great 

 vogue in France among all classes, ;from the 

 monarch to the meanest of his subjects ; and 

 about this time the use of a. heavy glove to pro- 

 tect the hand in striking the ball was introduced, 

 and a further improvement was subsequently 

 effected by the adoption of the racket. The game 

 in England kept pace with its progress in France, 

 and during the i6th, I7th, and i8th centuries, was 

 generally practised under the name of tennis. 

 Many modifications have been introduced, but 

 the legitimate descendant of the paume and tennis 

 of former days is the present game of rackets. 



671 



