Growing up, I remember a set of strange colored mallets that occupied a dusty corner of the family garage. My mother had purchased them as a novelty, I learned, in an effort to take up croquet when she bought her first weekend home upstate. She had fond memories of playing croquet as a child, but to me it always rang somewhat ironic: the city slicker’s romantically anachronistic idea of, “What else is there to do in the country?”

So when I got invited to this year’s Annapolis Cup – the 42nd annual croquet match between St. John’s College and the US Naval Academy – I wasn’t sure what to make of it. My first instinct was to assume it was a gag, a silly put-on for charity. As my Maryland friends made clear, however, the cup is a fiercely competitive and cherished tradition in the small Annapolis community.

Croquet, which involves hitting a ball through small hoops (or wickets) with a mallet on a large grassy course, can be both posh and........

© The Spectator