Guess the sport: it was dropped from the Olympics after its only appearance in 1900 for having “hardly any pretensions to athleticism”
One piece of its equipment sounds like it can be bought from a DIY shop. It’s been described as “chess on grass” by one of its players at a club in Uplyme, whose members turn out on Mondays and Thursdays at a cricket ground. The game’s popular (but not necessarily well-informed) image is of a genteel pastime more associated with period dramas like Downton Abbey, but that doesn’t fit well with the group I’m visiting who actually play the game.
It’s croquet, of course!