For 2, 3, or 4 players; game time approximately 30 minutes; quickly learned and suitable for novice group events and competitions as well as casual family or social play.
These rules are very similar to the rules for world championship Golf Croquet, with only slight variations: (1) instead of croquet balls, the balls are soccer balls, with oversized wickets to match, made of break-away PVC piping for safety. (2) Instead of striking the balls with a mallet (Malletball) you may choose instead to kick the balls (Toequet.)
THE COURSE: For Xtreme Malletball, you make up your own course, putting the wickets wherever your pioneering spirit leads you – and there are no fixed boundaries; a roughly circular or oval course is recommended. The tamer games of Court Toequet and Court Malletball use any standard court configuration, either with six wickets or nine wickets. A court of any size may be laid out, but a clear area of at least 100 feet wide and 125 feet deep is recommended. An ideal six-wicket court is 150 feet wide by 180 feet long approximately; a good size for a proportional nine-wicket court is 100 feet wide by 200 feet long. Boundaries may be set according to “house rules.” If boundary lines are used, play must stop until out-of-bounds balls are replaced.
THE SIDES: Blue/Green play against Red/Yellow in a two-sided game, with one or two players on each side. Each player may directly kick (or stroke) only his or her own ball in the order of play, but the player’s ball may impact other balls. In singles, one person plays both balls of the side in the proper sequence: Blue/Red/Green/Yellow.
THE TURNS: Play is always in the sequence Blue/Red/Green/Yellow (the order of the colors on the stake and on the wickets). There is only one shot per turn. There are no bonus shots for scoring a wicket or striking another player’s ball with your own ball.
STARTING THE GAME: The starting side is determined by a coin toss. The balls are played in proper sequence (Blue/Red/Green/Yellow) from the agreed-upon Starting Tee. This is the only tee-off in the entire game. All the other turns are played from where the balls lie.
SCORING: Each wicket is scored by only one ball, which wins the point for its side. Wickets must be scored in the order and direction of the course. A ball must make a complete pass through the proper wicket from the correct side to score a point. Any number of turns may be taken to complete the pass through the proper wicket in the order of the course and thus score the point. After a wicket is scored by any ball, play continues in sequence from where the balls lie to contest the next wicket in the order of the course.
THE HALF-WAY RULE: If at the beginning of a turn the player's ball is more than halfway to the next wicket in a position it achieved BEFORE the previous wicket was scored, the opponent may request that the player move the ball to any point within six feet of the last wicket to be scored, and the ball must be played from that position.
WINNING THE GAME: “House rules” determine how many points must be earned to win the game; a four-point win is sufficient; if you want a longer game, you may repeat the course any number of times, playing continuously until the winning score is reached.