A Clear-Cut Difference

Wiring is pretty simple -- six-wicket has it and nine-wicket does not. Of course, if you haven't played six-wicket, you likely have no familiarity with the wiring rule. For the full details, you can check out this page on the USCA website, but the essence is that when utilizing the opponent's balls, you must leave your opponent a shot when your turn ends. Specifically, the opponent's striker ball must have on open shot on a live ball. In billiard terms, you are not allowed to "snooker" your opponent.

The spirit of this is creating a back-and-forth game. At the elite U.S. six-wicket level, it is challenging enough as a player may grab the first break and run all the way out to rover, then leave a virtually un-hittable leave for the opponent (player two). Once the roquet is missed, player one can then start the final break. The wiring rule at least gives player two some sort of shot.

Nine-wicket is designed for longer grass, so there is generally more interactivity and wiring does not appear to be as necessary.

The Nine to Six Series (Highlighting Differences Between Nine-wicket and Six-wicket Croquet)

Part One -- Clearing Deadness
Part Two -- Post Roquet Options
Part Three -- Boundaries
Part Four -- Wiring
Part Five -- Rover Balls

More on this series: The series endeavors to describe changes that nine wicket players will encounter when they try out the U.S. rules six wicket game. There's a lot of quality information on six-wicket on the internet, but some of it seems pretty complex and is presented all at once. The aim here is to slice this into smaller concepts to allow players to absorb as needed. Also, I need to clarify that I have been playing the six-wicket game for just one-year and have not attended tournaments. So, more experienced players should feel welcome to chime in using the comments and clarify if I am leading people astray. I do think my inexperience is useful in that the concepts are fresh in my mind. Also, for players making the jump to six-wicket, I assume the basics of the game are understood.