Getting Started with Croquet in Queensland

She parked near the clubhouse, already half-convinced she was making a mistake. She hadn't played a sport in forty years. She was wearing the wrong shoes, probably. She didn't know a single person inside. Then a woman in a sun hat waved from the veranda, walked down to the car park, and said, I've been watching for you. Two hours later she had played her first game of Golf Croquet, won a hoop, eaten a scone, and signed up for the next session. This is roughly how it goes.

The barrier to starting croquet in Queensland is much lower than most people assume. You don't need gear. You don't need fitness. You don't need anyone to come with you. You need to find a club, turn up, and let the club do what it's been doing for decades.

Here is the practical version, assembled from observing come-and-try sessions across dozens of Queensland clubs.

Why people try it in the first place

The draw is usually some combination of five things: it's outdoors, it's social, it's strategic, it's cheap, and it's gentle on the body. Most new players are chasing at least two of those. Former tennis players and bowlers come for the lawn and the company. Retirees come for the structure and the morning tea. Younger people (yes, they exist) come because the strategy is genuinely interesting and nobody has told them croquet is meant to be boring. It isn't.

Croquet is also one of the few sports you can reasonably start in your seventies and still improve at in your eighties. That's not marketing. That's just how the physics of the game work.

Step 1: Find a club near you

The Croquet Association of Queensland (CAQ) is the peak body and maintains the official directory of affiliated clubs. There are around forty of them spread across Brisbane, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, Ipswich, and regional Queensland, plus a handful in northern New South Wales that sit under the Queensland association for historical reasons.

If you live in or near Brisbane, you're within half an hour of several options — Redlands, Sandgate, New Farm, and others across the suburbs. Gold Coast has clubs at Broadbeach and nearby precincts. The Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba, and most regional centres have at least one active club each.

The easiest way to find yours:

• Visit the CAQ club directory at croquetqld.org and search by region or postcode.
• Or go straight to comeandtrycroquet.com, which lists clubs running beginner sessions.
• Pick the closest one. Proximity matters more than you think — the clubs people stay with are the clubs they can drive to without planning their day around it.

Step 2: Book (or just turn up to) a come-and-try session

Most Queensland clubs run free or low-cost come-and-try sessions. Some require a quick phone call or email so they know to expect you. Others will happily take walk-ins during their regular club days. The club's website or directory entry will say which.

Ringing ahead has two advantages. The club knows your name when you arrive. And they can tell you which session is best for total beginners — some clubs run a Golf Croquet morning specifically for new players, separate from the Association Croquet crowd, which is easier to drop into cold.

Step 3: What to wear (and what not to)

The dress code is simpler than the internet will tell you:

• Flat-soled shoes. This is the only rule clubs care about, because heels and cleats wreck the lawn. Sneakers are fine. Sandshoes are fine. Closed-toe is safer.
• Comfortable clothes. Think morning walk, not wedding. Shorts and a t-shirt in Queensland summer, a light jumper in winter.
• A hat and sunscreen. You'll be on an open lawn for two hours. The Queensland sun does not negotiate.
• Water. Bring a bottle. Most clubs have a tap, but it's easier to carry your own.

You may have seen photos of croquet players dressed head-to-toe in white. That's the competition dress code at some clubs — it only applies to tournaments and selected club days, never to a come-and-try session. For your first visit, casual is correct.

Step 4: What actually happens on the day

Here's the honest shape of a first session, based on dozens of them across Queensland:

1. You arrive and someone greets you. They've been told you're coming. You are not an inconvenience.
2. They hand you a mallet. The club has a range, and your host will help you find one at a comfortable height and weight. It's not a permanent decision.
3. You hit some balls. No score, no pressure — just feeling how the mallet swings and how the ball rolls. Most first-timers are surprised at how fast a well-kept lawn actually is.
4. You learn the grip and the basic stroke. Hands together near the top of the handle, feet square, swing from the shoulders like a pendulum. That's the version you need on day one. Refinement comes later.
5. You play a real game of Golf Croquet. Four core rules, learnt in about ten minutes: hit your ball through the next hoop before your opponent does, take turns, each turn is one stroke, and the first side to seven hoops wins.
6. You stop for tea. Mid-morning, everyone heads up to the clubhouse. This is not a throwaway ritual — it's where you'll meet members and decide whether you like the club.
7. You play a bit more, or you don't. Depends on the day. Either way, someone will ask if you'd like to come back.

Cost — both today and ongoing

Come-and-try sessions are almost always free, or a token fee of a few dollars. Some clubs offer new players three free lessons before asking for any commitment. Others just absorb you into social play.

Full membership varies by club, but sits somewhere between A$100 and A$300 a year in most of Queensland. That's total — for unlimited access to the lawns, club equipment, coaching, and social play. Compared with golf, tennis, or lawn bowls, it's among the cheapest outdoor sports you can take up as an adult.

But what if…

The concerns I hear most often, with honest answers:

• "I'm not fit enough." Croquet involves walking, standing, and swinging a light mallet. There is no running. If you can do a leisurely walk around a park, you can play croquet.
• "I'm too old." The average Queensland club has members in their seventies and eighties playing several times a week. You are almost certainly not too old.
• "I have a bad knee / back / hip." Plenty of players arrive at croquet because they had to give up something else. The game is low-impact and paced by you. Mention it to the club beforehand and they'll adapt.
• "I've never played a sport in my life." Good. You've got no bad habits to unlearn. Croquet rewards precision and patience more than athletic background.
• "I don't know anyone there." Nor does almost everyone else on their first day. The whole point of the come-and-try system is that nobody arrives with a posse.

Golf Croquet or Association Croquet — which one?

There are two main codes played in Queensland. Golf Croquet is the faster, simpler game: one stroke per turn, race your opponent to each hoop, games take 30 to 45 minutes. Association Croquet is the longer strategic version, with multi-shot turns and deeper tactics — most international competition is still played in this form.

Start with Golf Croquet. Almost everybody does. It's the format clubs teach first, it's the format come-and-try sessions use, and it's the format you can play competently on your first day. If you fall in love with the strategic side, you can graduate to Association Croquet later. Many players happily stay with Golf Croquet forever. Both are legitimate paths.

What happens after your first session

If you enjoyed it, the typical progression is straightforward. You come back for a couple more sessions, take a short beginner's course (usually included in your first year's membership), and start joining in club social play. Within a few weeks you'll have a handicap. Within a few months you'll be playing club-internal competitions if you want to. After a year or two, players who are keen can enter regional and state tournaments. Players who aren't keen just keep turning up for social mornings, which is a perfectly respectable life choice.

The honest figure most clubs quote: you'll be playing a real game on day one, playing it competently within a few weeks, and still finding new things to work on ten years later.

Your next step

Find the nearest club on the CAQ directory, look up their next come-and-try session, and go. Don't research it further. Don't wait for a friend to come with you. Wear flat shoes, bring a hat, and turn up. Everything else is handled on the day by people who have been handling it for longer than most tech companies have existed.

If you're still hesitating after reading this, that's normal. The people who stick with croquet are almost always the ones who showed up slightly uncertain and got welcomed anyway.