Laws and Official Rulings
The 7th edition of the AC Laws was approved by the WCF Council on 24 January 2021.
Association Croquet is played in accordance with the Laws of Association Croquet ("the AC Laws") which are published by the World Croquet Federation..
As well as the 7th edition laws, two other documents have been published to assist players and referees in applying the new Laws.
Introductory statement Laws 7th edition
AC Laws 7th edition Changes log
The 6th edition of the AC Laws may be found here and the Official Rulings that supported the 6th edition may be found here.
Commentary and Official Rulings
There are three documents supporting the new 7th edition of the laws:
Official Rulings published version As per law 63.1, this document explains the Official Ruling relating to law 8.5.2 and the reference to it in law 8.3 (April 2021).
Official Rulings and Commentary published version This document includes the above Official Ruling (page 3) and the Commentary on the 7th edition AC Laws.
Laws Rulings Commentary combined published master This document combines the 7th edition AC Laws, the Official Ruling and the above published Commentary into one master.
Administration
The Laws of Association Croquet are the responsibility of the WCF's Association Croquet Laws Committee ("ACLC") which came into existence on 1 January 2017 in succession to the International Laws Committee which was a non-WCF body. The ACLC is also responsible for maintaining the Official Rulings on the Laws of Croquet ("ORLC"). The scope and operations of the ACLC are set out in WCF Statute 132. The ACLC consists of four voting members appointed by the WCF Members for Australia, England, New Zealand and the United States and a non-voting member appointed by the WCF Management Committee.
The voting members of the ACLC for the period 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2024 are:
Australia: Elizabeth Fleming
England: Ian Vincent
New Zealand: Graeme Roberts (Chair)
United States: Martyn Selman
In addition, the WCF MC is entitled to appoint a non-voting member.
WFC MC: Graeme Roberts
History of the Laws
For the first hundred years of AC's existence as an organised sport, the administration and evolution of the Laws of Association Croquet was regarded by all croquet-playing countries as a responsibility of the English governing body, the Croquet Association or "CA". While the holding of the MacRobertson Shield contest every three or four years provided an opportunity for representatives of Australia, England and New Zealand to meet to discuss any issues relating to either the interpretation or coverage of the Laws, it was left to the CA and its Laws Committee to decide what changes, if any, should be made.
The establishment of the World Croquet Federation ("WCF") in 1989 was followed in 1990 by an international laws meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand which recognised that, owing to AC's innate complexity, amending a law to cure one perceived shortcoming could sometimes create a new difficulty or difficulties elsewhere. Accordingly, it was agreed that it would usually be preferable to issue Official Rulings to deal with interpretative issues rather to make frequent amendments to the text of the Laws. The advent of the WCF also made it desirable to involve input from other governing bodies when considering possible Rulings, something which was made much easier by advances in electronic communication.
In 2000, the 6th Edition of the AC Laws was published and responsibility for the administration of the Laws was passed to a new body, the International Laws Committee ("ILC") which consisted of representatives of the governing bodies of the four largest AC-playing countries, namely Australia, England, New Zealand and the United States. In 2016, the WCF obtained the agreement of all four governing bodies to transfer responsibility for the administration of the Laws from the ILC to a new WCF Association Croquet Laws Committee ("ACLC") with the same purpose but with updated succession and governance provisions as set out in WCF Statute 132.