Do you imagine Croquet is a leisurely pastime for gentle-folk who tap coloured balls through hoops? What nonsense!

From my knowledge of the u3A Thursday group there is nothing gentle about it. Are the teams of four players competitive? Extremely! Ruthless? Undoubtedly! They plot secretively. They destroy their opponents’ hard–won positions without a tremor.

Now these are people whom you might meet in the street, they may even be your neighbours, and you would find them friendly, intelligent, humorous and generous. But put into their hands a mallet and two heavy balls, and the character changes completely. Jekyll and Hyde! Roquet and Croquet! As one lady in a team said about her opponents when their strategy went adrift, ‘We really shouldn’t gloat’…..but there was a wicked smile on her face at that moment.

We put down our mallets and once again become friendly.

With our group being limited to 8 there is a charge of £4.

There is an alternative Croquet Group on Tuesday PM.

Both groups have vacancies and welcomes beginners.