Pétanque vs. Croquet: The Complete Comparison Guide

Croquet gets compared to pétanque more often than most backyard games, and for good reason: both are old, unhurried European lawn games that reward a steady hand over speed or strength, and both can be played by grandparents and grandchildren in the same match. The similarities mostly stop there. Pétanque is a throwing game decided by proximity to a target ball; croquet is a striking game decided by navigating a fixed course of hoops. There's also a genuine historical curiosity worth digging into: one of croquet's own competing origin theories traces it back to a French royal court game, which would make it - like pétanque - at least partly French by descent.

This guide compares pétanque and croquet across history, equipment, playing area, gameplay, scoring, and accessibility.

Quick Comparison Table

1. History and Origins

Pétanque: A Documented Birth in 1907

Pétanque was invented in 1907 in La Ciotat, a coastal town near Marseille. A local merchant, Jules Hugues (nicknamed "Lenoir"), suffered from rheumatism that made the running throw of jeu provençal too painful. His friend Ernest Pitiot, who ran the café attached to the local boulodrome, suggested Hugues play from a fixed position instead, both feet planted inside a circle. The name comes from the Provençal pès tancats ("feet fixed"). The sport has been governed internationally by the FIPJP since 1958.

Croquet: Two Rival Origin Stories, and Maybe a French One

Croquet's early history is genuinely disputed among historians, and neither theory has been proven. The French theory holds that croquet descends from paille-maille (also written pall-mall), a mallet-and-ball lawn game played at the French royal court - including under Henry II in the 16th century and later Louis XIV - which reached England during the reign of Charles II (1660-1685) and gradually evolved into croquet. The Irish theory instead points to a game called "crookey," recorded in Castlebellingham, Ireland, in 1834, which may have arrived from Brittany before spreading to England in the 1850s. What's certain is the first written rules: Isaac Spratt registered a set of croquet rules with the Stationers' Company in London in November 1856, the earliest confirmed document to use the modern name. The sport was formalized soon after - the Croquet Association was founded in England in 1896 and still governs the game there today, while the United States Croquet Association followed in 1976. A simpler, faster variant called Golf Croquet had its rules formalized by the Croquet Association in 1934 and gained a following of its own; it took off internationally after highly skilled Egyptian players emerged in the 1980s, and the first Golf Croquet World Championship was held in Italy in 1996. The World Croquet Federation (WCF) itself was proposed in 1985, held an exploratory meeting in London in 1986, and formally convened its first General Meeting at the Hurlingham Club, London, in 1989, with Australia, England, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland, and the USA as its first full members.

2. Equipment: A Boules Set vs. a Full Croquet Kit

Pétanque's equipment is minimal and interchangeable between brands; croquet's is a larger, more specialized kit built around mallets and hoops.

Pétanque Boules

Pétanque is played with hollow metal balls, usually steel, held palm-down and thrown or lobbed underhand.

• Diameter: 70.5mm to 80mm
• Weight: 650g to 800g
• Target ball: the cochonnet (jack), a small wooden or synthetic ball about 30mm across

See our guide on how to choose your first boules for buying advice.

A Full Croquet Set

Croquet requires several different pieces of equipment rather than one type of ball, and quality sets are considerably more expensive than a set of boules.

• Balls: 4 total, made of wood, plastic, or composite, about 3-5/8 inches (92mm) in diameter and weighing roughly 15.75-16.25 ounces (about 450g)
• Mallets: 1 per player, typically 24 to 40 inches (610-1020mm) long with a 9-12 inch head, weighing 2.5-3.5 pounds
• Hoops (wickets): 6 inverted U-shaped metal hoops, with a gap between the uprights of roughly 3-11/16 to 3-13/16 inches (93.7-96.8mm) under standard rules - tight enough that a slightly off-line shot won't pass through
• Peg (stake): 1 central target that both of a side's balls must strike to finish the course

3. The Playing Surface

Pétanque adapts to almost any surface; croquet needs a flat, closely mown lawn with hoops set out precisely.

Pétanque: Play Almost Anywhere

Pétanque needs no dedicated court for casual play - a gravel driveway, a dirt path, a beach, or a park lawn all work, and the ground's natural unevenness is part of the strategy. Competitive matches use a marked lane, with the FIPJP specifying 15m x 4m for national and international championships (a 12m x 3m minimum is allowed for other sanctioned competitions). See our full court dimensions guide for the official specs.

Croquet: A Precisely Mown Lawn

Full association croquet is played on a rectangular court measuring 35 yards by 28 yards (roughly 32m x 25.6m), bounded by a boundary line with an inner "yard line" that governs how balls are replaced after going out. That's a serious commitment of closely mown, dead-flat turf - well beyond what most backyards can offer. Casual and garden croquet scale the same idea down considerably, often to a lawn as small as 50 feet by 40 feet (about 15m x 12m), with looser hoop placement and no strict boundary rules. Either way, croquet is far less forgiving of an uneven or bumpy surface than pétanque, since a mallet stroke needs a true, predictable roll to thread a ball through a hoop only slightly wider than the ball itself.

4. How You Play: Landing Close vs. Running the Course

Pétanque: Precision Throwing From a Fixed Circle

Players stand with both feet inside a small circle (35-50cm) and throw the boule underhand, typically adding backspin with a wrist flick so it stops quickly where it lands. There's no fixed target distance - the jack can be thrown anywhere within a legal range each round - and players can also aim to knock an opponent's boule away rather than simply landing close to the jack. Our pointing and shooting technique guides cover the two core throwing styles in depth.

Croquet: Striking Your Ball Through a Fixed Course

Players strike their own ball with a mallet, aiming to send it through all six hoops in a set order (in both directions on the course) and finally hit the peg. Association croquet adds a distinctive bonus mechanic called the roquet: if your ball strikes another ball on the course, you earn two extra strokes - a "croquet stroke," where you place your ball against the one you hit and knock it away while sending your own ball onward, followed by a normal continuation stroke. Skilled players chain roquets together to complete much of the course in a single extended turn, something with no real equivalent in pétanque. Golf croquet strips this away for a simpler, faster contest: everyone aims at the same hoop each round, and whichever ball goes through first scores the point for its side, with no roquet bonus strokes at all.

5. Scoring

• Pétanque: Games are played to 13 points. After all boules are thrown in a round (a mène), only one team scores: one point for every boule closer to the jack than the opponent's closest boule. See our full scoring guide for the details.
• Croquet: Association croquet scores each ball for running a hoop and again for hitting the peg, for 13 points per ball and 26 points per side (two balls) at most - the first side to send both its balls around the full course and onto the peg wins outright, even before every possible point is scored. Golf croquet is simpler: hoops are worth one point each regardless of which ball scores them, and a side wins by taking a majority of the hoops in play - typically first to seven out of a 13-hoop game.

6. Physical Demands and Accessibility

Both games are low-impact and playable by a wide range of ages and fitness levels, though croquet asks for more walking than pétanque. Pétanque is played entirely from a stationary circle and remains genuinely competitive for players well into their 80s and 90s, including people with limited mobility (see our guide on pétanque for players with disabilities). Croquet players walk between their ball's position and each hoop over the course of a full-size lawn, and the striking motion - bending to address the ball, then swinging the mallet through a controlled stroke - asks a bit more of the back and knees than pétanque's upright underhand throw, though garden and golf croquet on a smaller lawn narrow that gap considerably. Neither game demands running, jumping, or significant cardiovascular fitness, making both good choices for mixed-age groups and family gatherings.

7. Popularity and Growth

Pétanque remains the more widely played of the two worldwide - it's the dominant boules sport in France, with major strongholds across Southeast Asia (notably Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia) and a growing presence throughout Europe and North America. Croquet's footprint is smaller but genuinely international under the World Croquet Federation, with roughly 200 clubs in the United States, over 200 in England and Wales, about 10,000 players in Australia, and organized national federations across Europe: Spain's Federación Española de Croquet (founded 1994) counts around 3,000 players and 40 clubs, and Germany's Deutscher Krocket Bund (founded 1998) runs annual national championships in both association and golf croquet across its member clubs. Sweden adds an interesting wrinkle for this comparison: alongside the internationally standardized game (locally called "engelsk krocket," or English croquet), Sweden has its own long-running casual variant, svensk krocket, played on a smaller 14m x 24m lawn with ten hoops (two of them set as a cross) and matches typically raced to seven - a genuinely different national tradition rather than a simplified copy of the international rules, much like pétanque itself has taken on a life of its own outside France.

Which Should You Play?

Choose Pétanque if:

• You want a game that travels light and sets up anywhere - a driveway, beach, or park lawn all work with no marking needed.
• You want equipment that's affordable and easy to compare across many manufacturers, from budget leisure sets to competition-grade boules.
• You'd rather throw than swing a mallet, and prefer a game decided by proximity rather than navigating a fixed course.

Choose Croquet if:

• You have (or have access to) a genuinely flat, well-kept lawn and want a game built around precision striking rather than throwing.
• You like the tactical depth of the roquet mechanic, where a single skilled turn can complete much of the course at once.
• You're drawn to a game with real historical pageantry - croquet's association with formal club play and manicured lawns is part of its appeal for many players.

Plenty of people who enjoy one lawn game end up trying the other, since both fit a similar relaxed, low-impact niche for a small group outdoors. A pétanque set suits nearly any patch of ground and a quick pickup game; a croquet set rewards investing in a proper lawn and a slower, more tactical afternoon.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is pétanque similar to croquet?

Only loosely - both are old, low-impact European lawn games, but pétanque is a throwing game decided by proximity to a target ball, while croquet is a striking game decided by navigating a sequence of hoops with a mallet.

Did croquet come from France, like pétanque?

Possibly, in part - one origin theory traces croquet to paille-maille, a French royal-court game, while a rival theory points to 1830s Ireland. Either way, croquet's first written rules date to London in 1856.

What equipment do you need for pétanque vs. croquet?

Pétanque needs hollow steel boules and a small wooden jack. Croquet needs four balls, one mallet per player, six metal hoops, and a center peg.

Do you need a special court for croquet but not pétanque?

Yes - pétanque plays fine on unmarked gravel, dirt, or lawn, while croquet needs a flat, closely mown lawn with hoops set out in a fixed pattern.

How do you win at croquet versus pétanque?

Pétanque is played to 13 points scored round by round. Association croquet scores up to 26 points by running both balls through all six hoops and hitting the peg; golf croquet simply races to a majority of individual hoops.

Ready to get started?

• Check out our Beginner's Guide to Pétanque
• Browse the best pétanque sets for backyard and garden play
• Learn the official pétanque scoring rules
• Curious how pétanque compares to other backyard games? See Pétanque vs. Kubb, Pétanque vs. Horseshoes, Pétanque vs. Spikeball, Pétanque vs. Pickleball, Pétanque vs. Cornhole, Pétanque vs. Bocce Ball, and Pétanque vs. Lawn Bowls
• Curious how it compares to boccia, the Paralympic sport built on the same boules family and adapted for athletes with disabilities? See Pétanque vs. Boccia
• Curious how it compares to curling, a winter sport that swaps pétanque's fixed circle for a sliding stone steered by sweeping brooms on ice? See Pétanque vs. Curling
• Curious how it compares to a court game where a disc is pushed with a cue instead of a ball thrown by hand? See Pétanque vs. Shuffleboard
• Curious how it compares to darts, a stationary precision game thrown overhand at a fixed board indoors instead of underhand at a moving jack outdoors? See Pétanque vs. Darts
• Curious how it compares to bowling, an indoor game where the goal is to knock down ten pins rather than land closest to a target? See Pétanque vs. Bowling
• Curious how it compares to Mölkky, Finland's own numbered-skittle throwing game invented in 1996? See Pétanque vs. Mölkky