Croquet is a summer game but it was a chilly business setting out the hoops in late March. On Wednesday, 25 March, a hardy bunch of volunteers were battered by hailstones while installing hoops on the full lawns and on Saturday, 28 March, there was a distinctly chilly northwesterly wind blowing across the lawns when installing hoops on the short lawns. But all the hoops – 72 hoops and 12 pegs – were set out in record time for the start of the new season.
