Croquet Sets

If you have ever seen a modern croquet set, you might have noticed how different the one from yesterday's post looked. Here is a modern set:I couldn't find a good picture of someone playing with a modern set, to give you a better sense of the proportions. Basically, the head of the mallet is massively long (what I see is usually about a foot long), where our set was less that half that. The handle, however, is significantly shorter on a modern set, causing people to bend over inelegantly when playing. In my opinion, this is really hideous.

The set we used was a wedding gift to my parents, from a family friend that made the set. It is made to specifications in nineteenth century croquet manuals. When you play with this set, you don't have to stoop over awkwardly to make contact with the ball.
So if you have ever felt inelegant when playing croquet, now you know why. Short, ugly mallets with big, ugly heads will make anyone look silly. Unless you are cool enough to be a Heather, I guess...