John Riches, the NCD, has recently completed writing four new booklets.  These are intended mainly for players who have a reasonable command of the basic strokes and are capable of playing breaks.

The booklets consist of between 25 and 45 pages, and almost every page has colour diagrams.  This, together with the fact that they are aimed at a specialist and limited market, makes the booklets rather expensive; but those who have seen them consider them good value nevertheless.
The cost is $30 per booklet plus postage of $1.50 per booklet.

1.  CROQUET:  THE TEACHING OF TACTICS
This is intended for coaches of players who are improving, but contains much of interest to the players themselves.  It covers the effective teaching of such important tactical ideas as hoop loading, trap-lines, standard and ideal leaves, etc..

2.  CROQUET: OPENINGS
This is an explanation of all the common openings, and also some uncommon ones.  It explains the aim of each opening, how to answer it, and how to continue after various possible continuations.  Nowadays players who enter major events must be prepared for a number of possible openings that may be used by their opponents.

3.  CROQUET: ENDGAMES
Most players do not get sufficient practice at playing endgames against strong opposition.  This booklet covers topics such as when to make 4-back (and when not to), when to peg a ball out (and when not to), how to play with two balls against one, or one ball against two, or one ball against one, etc..  It does not cover triple peels or sextuple peels which other authors have written about.

4.  CROQUET: CANNONS
This booklet is mainly for people who enjoy getting out on the lawn and messing around with balls to find out what can, and cannot, be achieved.
It covers more than 25 different types of cannon, explaining how to arrange them, how to play them, and how to use them to set up breaks and so increase your chance of winning games.

All four booklets are guaranteed to contain ideas that will never have occurred to most players, and which can bring about a noticeable improvement in your ability to win games.