Croquet games, there are regular world championships and international matches between croquet-playing countries. The sport has particularly strong followings in the UK, US, New Zealand and Australia; every four years, these countries play the MacRobertson Shield tournament. Many other countries also play. The current world rankings show England in top place for association croquet, followed by Australia and New Zealand sharing second place, with the United States in fourth position; the same four countries appear in the top six of the golf croquet league table, below Egypt in top position, and with South Africa at number five. Croquet is popularly believed
United States Croquet Association brought together five clubs in 1977 to form the nucleus of the United States Croquet Association. Although the sport had long flourished in the Commonwealth countries, croquet had devolved to a backyard pastime in the United States, and there were no agreed-upon rules. One of the first orders of business of the new association was to hammer out compromise rules acceptable to all five clubs - the Green Gables Croquet Club, the Palm Beach Croquet Club, the New York Croquet Club, the Westhampton Mallet Club, and the Croquet Club of Bermuda. Since then, the list has grown to nearly 400