revised 6/3/2002 back to http://www.spring.net
Roque. You probably never heard of it.
I grew up playing roque as a child in Chautauqua, Illinois.
The other day
I was talking to my cousin, Corky King, now a swim coach in the Chicago area and
we had a good laugh about the Chautauqua days and the game of roque. It's
a "hard" game, the mallets are very stout with hard rubber (one was featured as
a weapon in the Stephen King novel the "Shining"). And it's a hard sand
court. It's definitely the macho version of croquet.
I know this sounds brash, but
this site is the "ultimate" website on the game of roque. I did extensive
google searches and could only find bits and pieces here and there about roque.
So I assembled them all here and added some documents I scanned and will put in
some personal observations from my experience as a roque player.
Is roque in the USA dead? How is it faring overseas? In the coming weeks this site will look in to the state of roque and whether it has a future or if it can be revived.
Great video about roque at Chautauqua:
Detailed Description of Roque
Notes on Roque
Roque Court Construction Drawings:
court1 court2 court3
New! The Official Rules of Roque
These are a few notes I've picked up on Roque via people mailing information to the Nottingham Croquet Mailing List.
From Garth Eliassen (April
1999)
Roque is a great and historical game. There are a few courts still in existence,
scattered across the country. Roque is still played at a few locations in the
United States, played the same way it has been for over 100 years. It's a
version of nine-wicket croquet, usually played on hard sand with a raised border
that the balls can carom off.
There is still a national roque organization, but it is loosely run and I have never succeeded in getting a copy of the rules even though I tried for several years.
The strongest group I've heard of is the Angelica, New York, group. Try contacting Paul Gallmann at (716) 406-7676 or David Haggstrom at (716) 466-7930. My phone numbers are several years old.
Barty Johnson in Texas makes roque balls and mallets. He'll probably be able to give you good leads and more information: (806) 894-6652.
from http://heracles.itsc.adfa.edu.au/~sme/croquetweb/roque.html