Playing croquet in the backyard with family and friends is one of the most enjoyable activities for the outdoors. Croquet is a sport that can be highly competitive, but it’s also wonderfully social and every household should have a croquet set and enjoy a game on a regular basis.
And if you already fall into the category of being a backyard croquet regular, one of the best ways to learn more about the sport is to connect with a local croquet club. Finding a croquet club isn’t the easiest task as they are not always pinned on Google maps. So, in general, the best resource to locate a croquet club nearby is to check out one of the directory resources. In order of most useful, here are the top online croquet club directories.
1. Croquet Network North American Directory
For the US and North America overall, our own Croquet Network offers one the best-curated directories of croquet clubs. The Croquet Network North American Club Directory organizes clubs by state to easily target your location. In addition, Croquet Network’s directory only includes croquet clubs that have websites, which is a strong indicator that a club is well-run and welcoming to visitors. Many croquet clubs listed in other directories are private and not welcoming to new players. By excluding clubs without a website, Croquet Network’s goal is to provide a better quality list.
Explore the Croquet Network North American Croquet Club Directory at:
www.croquetnetwork.com/north-american-croquet-clubs
2. Croquet Network International Club Directory
For croquet clubs outside of North America, Croquet Network utilizes the same website-only criteria for adding croquet clubs and organizes clubs by country. Admittedly, the Croquet Network International Croquet Club Directory is not as deep as other sources, but it is a good starting point and is rapidly expanding research efforts.
Explore the Croquet Network International Croquet Club Directory at:
www.croquetnetwork.com/world-croquet-clubs
3. Oxford Croquet World Club Directory
The Oxford Croquet website offers the most comprehensive world directory of clubs. Even more impressive, the Oxford Croquet Club directory offers both map-based and list-based options. The one disappointment is that there is no option to go full-screen with the map and the square frame seems relatively small when working on a laptop or modern monitor. Also, note that the site is not optimized for mobile viewing. Despite those shortcomings, the Oxford Croquet map search is still the go-to option if you are traveling and looking to stop by a local club.
Explore the Oxford Croquet Club Directory at:
www.oxfordcroquet.com/clubs/index.asp
4. Croquet Association UK Club Directory
For Great Britain, the Croquet Association Directory provides a detailed and accurate resource of clubs for the region. Additionally, a map search is also available and the search tool is effective when placing even just a community name. Additionally, the directory and overall site has been adapted for mobile viewing. Like the Oxford site, there is no option for full-screen, but functions well otherwise. The list directory is alphabetical, which is fine as an option, but geographically based list would also be useful.
Explore the Croquet Association Club Directory at:
www.croquet.org.uk/?p=games/clubs/details
5. Australian Croquet Association Find A Club Directory
Looking toward Australia, the ACA offers a modern directory of clubs that features an alphabetical listing of clubs and map search in the same screen. The map search again is only limited to the available and frame and cannot be expanded to fullscreen. Another downside for the directory is that details for each club does not include website addresses. Otherwise, the directory is easy to navigate, attractive and mobile-friendly.
Explore the Australian Croquet Association Club Directory at:
www.play-croquet.com/#
6. Croquet New Zealand Find a Club Directory
The Croquet New Zealand club directory is a sharp-looking map-based tool, that is mobile-friendly. Unfortunately, it is limited in that you can only use each of the dropdowns — region, city and club to search. This makes it quite challenging to get an overview of club locations, similar to the CA, ACA and Oxford map directories. On the plus side, the directory does include the club website links if you do navigate down to the club level. The CNZ website does not offer a list-based directory of clubs.
Explore the Croquet New Zealand Club Directory at:
www.croquet.org.nz/find-a-club/
7. United States Croquet Association Club Directory (USCA)
The USCA croquet club directory is quite promising as the site is new and mobile-friendly. However, the club directory is quite limited. The field choices on the search form take some experimentation. To start, if you just leave the fields empty and press “search,” you can get a large map view of the USCA region. Even better, this is the only tool that allows a user to go full-screen with the map. Unfortunately, the map pins are completely in-accurate and random.
There is however an alphabetical list of all the USCA clubs that appears below the map. This is a great view and includes all the key information including the club website (if available). If there was an option to sort the is list by state, that would make the USCA directory quite powerful.
Instead, your only option is input a zip code and choose a radius. That’s helpful if you happen to have all of the US zip codes memorized. Most of us don’t, so to really get down to a pseudo-state-based search (or city), you’ll need to do a search for a zip code and choose a radius.
So while offering so much promise, the USCA Club directory falls frustratingly short of being a good resource. However, it would seem with the overall sophistication with the site that this could be improved in the near future.
Explore the USCA Club Directory at:
USCA Club Directory
8. World Associations Directory (BONUS OPTION)
Outside of the specific club directories offered by Oxford Croquet and the “Big 4” croquet associations there are now 29 World Croquet Federation recognized national croquet associations. Croquet Network maintains a list of the top association websites. Many of these sites also offer a directory of clubs that generally should be the most authoritative club list for each of those countries.