This proposed game of croquet was invented, in 2001, by Matt "The Mauler" Maldre of your fine Chicago Croquet Squirearchy of Gentlefolk.

Croquet Clue is basically like the board game "Clue", but it is played on a lawn with croquet equipment. Players owning standard croquet equipment (two stakes, nine wickets, six balls and mallets) should note that Castle Croquet requires, instead:

* 10 stakes

* 2-6 mallets

* 2-6 balls

* 9 wickets

Also, you'll need:
The Clue board game, because:

* reference to the Clue rules

* those handy detective notebooks

* pack of cards

* of course, you don't need the die (dice), because you are playing on the field with your mallets to move your piece (ball) around.

You could use the tiny weapons in the Clue board game, but it is highly recommened NOT doing that for a number of reasons:
* You can easily lose the tiny pieces in the lawn
* Other players will not see what items you are talking about across the lawn
* It's just freakin' neat to hold up an actual weapon as you are making your guess.

Here's the weapons you'll need.

* Knife

* Candlestick

* Revolver (preferrably a squirt gun)

* Rope

* Pipe

* Wrench

It's obviously not that wise to be using an actual revolver. Uh, what happens when someone gets pissed off? Plus what if there are children playing or in the area. Doom. Using a water squirt gun can prove to be great fun in the summer time. When you make your guess, you can actually squirt the person who is in your guess! Har har!

It is also recommended that you make signs to afix to each of the 9 stakes to identify the appropriate rooms. You can make the extra stakes out of anything you like: sticks, 2x4, wire. But the centre stake should be a standard croquet stake.

Okay, other than this looking very satanic with it's circle properites and sticks coming out of the ground (another reason not to use a real revolver, the neighbors will think you are absolutely psycho!) Almost all the rooms fall on a 90° or 45° angle, but yeah, notice that the Library and Billard Room, they are the odd number rooms, so they don't fit on the nice 90° or 45° angles.

The distance from one gate to it's stake should be anything you like, but don't make them too far apart, because there's alot of talking involved in this game, and it'll take a while for you to walk from one stake to another.

Here's the players (suspects):

* Colonel Mustard (yellow)

* Professor Plum (purple)

* Mr. Green (green)

* Mrs. Peacock (blue)

* Miss Scarlet (red)

* Miss White (white)

Okay, so you probably don't have a white ball or a purple ball. Some improvising might be needed. I recommend making your own cards. If you make your own cards to match up with your set, make sure you make cards for all 9 rooms, 6 suspects, and 6 weapons.

The order of play is in accordance with the colors on the centre stake.

To enter a room, the player must go through the wicket in the appriopate direction (from the centre stake through the hoop towards the room stake). And the player must hit the stake to be officially in the room.

You leave the room by going through the room's hoop in the direction going towards the centre hoop.

It is optionalrule to have to hit the centre stake before you go into another room.

Everything else pretty much follows the Clue boardgame rules.

Join the Croquet Clue club at yahoo groups.