“The game has been described as a combination of chess and billiards, played on grass,” says Rik Mills of Croquet, a sport he has become a little obsessed with in the past eight years.

“It is a very skilful game, it makes you think, makes you use your brain and you have good people around to play with.”

Rik, a former medical laboratory scientist, discovered croquet through friends and has since been making up for lost time.

“Basically, when I retired, I did a bit of woodworking down at the Guildry, and one of the members there said, ‘Why don’t you come and try croquet?’ And so I turned up here one day and I've been playing three times a week just about ever since!”

Croquet is a simple game to describe, but the game is far from simple. In essence, it involves using a mallet to hit balls through hoops placed on a grass court, but croquet requires a skill, strategy and cunning.

“People think it is a simple game; it is not,” said Rik. We get people coming along and trying it and they suddenly realise that it is not as simple as it looks. And if you watch the games, there is a lot of strategy in it, a lot of tactics — it is a sport you've really got to think about.”

At the Orange Croquet Club they play two different variant of the game: Golf Croquet and the more involved Association Croquet — both of which are played internationally.

As well as the challenges the game presents, Rik said there is good camaraderie in the club and with players at tournaments further afield.

“There is the option to play in other towns,” he said. “A couple times a year we go down to Bathurst and they come up to us I went up to Urunga earlier this year to play.

“Come along and try it! It’s a good sport, there’s good company and it is stimulating — it makes you think!”

The Orange Croquet Club play from 1pm to 4pm every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.