It is almost that time…the time when normally civilized students and professors resort to their most base qualities in an attempt to seek vengeance on poor grades or late papers…the time for The Annual AMRS Croquet Death Match. For one day, we students will put aside our chosen time periods and join together on the battlefield, but until then, shouldn’t we know the foundations of the sport we are soon to use in order to rebel against our professors?

While one source claims the earliest form of croquet originated in the French countryside during the 12th century, others claim a Saxon origin (but then again when aren’t France and England fighting?). Either way, the peasants are believed to have fashioned crude mallets and balls from wood and curved willow branches to form the hoops seen in modern croquet. It was from this that the French Paille-maille or English Pall Mall lawn game was formed.

Joseph Stutt wrote, “‘Pale-maille is a game wherein a round box ball is struck with a mallet through a high arch of iron, which he that can do at the fewest blows, or at the number agreed upon, wins.” It became hugely popular and was one of the favorite pastimes of Charles II’s court. Out of this popularity came alleys sectioned off specifically for game play. Some of these, like The Mall in London or the Ru de Mail in Paris, still retain the name of the game — although now, as the sport is out of favor, they have fallen to the many merchants and vendors who now fill them (This is why we call our collection of stores a shopping mall).