Intermediate Croquet Set

Surprisingly, this croquet set (mostly) survived my son's 8th birthday party. It's a budget set, nothing fancy. The mallets remained unbroken with a dozen kids who've never played croquet before whacking balls around. The balls are still in good shape. They did manage to break one of the stakes, which is a bit of a wonder because it was firmly in the ground and they snapped the top off. I wasn't watching, but I've got the feeling it didn't happen through normal croquet activity. I was looking for an inexpensive croquet set, specifically for this birthday party, and the Franklin brand was the decider when comparing to similar sets. Franklin makes some quality backyard games. I love my Franklin horseshoes. This set includes a bag for carrying everything, but you have to take the heads off of the mallets. With the wooden threads, screwing the heads on and off isn't something I would want to do often, as I'm afraid they'll strip pretty easily. I might carry around the assembled mallets separately from the bag of balls, wickets and stakes.

Very disappointed. We're a huge fan of croquet, so when our previous set broke down from a couple of years of good solid use, we decided to get a new one. Upon reading the reviews and looking at some of the user submitted photos, we came to the conclusion that the intermediate set would be of at least medium quality (for the money) and would get us through a season or two. The positive reviews we read talked about metal fittings and decent build quality. It turns out, those reviews, and the user submitted photos were for an entirely different set (also made by franklin). They must have been reviews for the advanced or classic set, although when we purchased this set those other sets were sold as a separate item. Upon taking it out of the box, we noticed it was a little smaller than expected. During the first turn of our first game, my 12 year old niece (who only weighs about 60 lbs) hit the end pole and it broke in half. She didn't even hit it very hard. Halfway through the game, at the other end, the other end pole broke. By the end of the game, 3 of the 6 mallets were broken or cracked. The plastic ends of several mallets had also cracked and come off. The plastic balls all had decent sized gashes in them. We have all played croquet many times before with this group. We aren't the most gentle, but it's still pretty rare for us to break a mallet. Unfortunately we didn't play our first game until more than 30 days after purchase, so we're not able to send it back. We certainly didn't expect the set to last forever, but to be completely obliterated after one game not unexpected. I do have to say, we all had a good laugh at just how incredibly crappy the build quality was, and that memory alone is almost worth the $30 we payed. If you're looking for a croquet set you can use for more than one game, look elsewhere.

I love it! We had such fun playing it with kids and grandkids. We need to get a smaller set for the little ones but it was perfect for adults.

I got the intermediate set. We have had a couple of different croquet sets over the years. We found this one to be average to low in quality. I am concerned with how well these would hold up if we were to store them in the bag after every use. When screwing them together some of the threads are chipped and some of the holes aren't drilled out very well. I think this mostly has to do with inferior wood as there's a lot of chipped pieces. Several of the mallets need quite a bit of force to get screwed together. So for the price of 26 bucks I'm not thrilled with these. They'll do but we have to leave them assembled which defeats the purpose of having a storage bag. I think that's what has me most frustrated with this set. Storing them has become a burden. I wish I had shopped around and purchased one with the storage rack. On the bright side I don't have to worry about my four children ruining a nice croquet set. SMH This one might make it through 2 summers if we're lucky.

When it came time to replace our old croquet set, I with the well known Franklin brand. The wood is a bit thin, pretty light weight. The mallets are tall enough for adults to use without being bent halfway over (and much cheaper than buying the longer mallets). We had no issues with splinters, all of the parts are sanded smooth. The balls are lightweight resin, they are not clay. They do show some signs of wear after being smashed around the yard, which is to be expect. Once the mallet heads are put on, do not expect to remove them for storage. The threads will strip out, but they all fit together just fine. We keep the mallets assembled and stored standing, they don't take up that much space. We use the handy bag to store the other pieces of the set. A wide age range of kids have played with the set a few times with no damage yet. Could they be sturdier, sure, but having priced multiple sets, the quality seems on par for the price point. So I feel it was a good purchase and it made for some fun leisure time in the yard.

This is the nicest croquet set I've ever owned. The wickets are solid steel and the mallets have steel connections. Got a great price on a used set, and I'm really happy about this purchase.

The design of this set is great! That's where the positives end. I like the way the cart holds all the balls and mallets. Balls are solid and truthfully are the best part of this set. Typical poor Chinese material and quality control on the rest of the set. Wood is soft and I fear it won't last many seasons. Handles of the mallets have splits, giving a poop playing experience. One mallet was missing a screw holding the metal threaded end on, so I had to drill it and add my own. Would be fun for kids, but I don't think it would last. I guess I will just have to use these as templates and turn my own on my lathe. :(

Without spending too much money and without buying something cheap, this is the perfect mix of both worlds: Affordable and sturdy, good quality. It'll last for years and it looks sleek.