The only item of equipment that you generally needed to play Croquet is your own mallet.
It will (hopefully) fit you like a glove, feel comfortable, play consistently and last many years (20 or more) so a careful choice is needed.
We have a number of mallets in the Ball Store that you can use to try out, though they’re mostly Hobbs mallets and he’s sadly not with us any more. But they will give you a feel for the right length of handle and length of head, possibly also its weight.
Some members have different styles of mallets, so why not ask them nicely if you can try theirs.
Obviously, the longer you can try it the better feel for it you will have. (Robert Fulford has a slightly shorter one with a bent handle because of his wrist problems.)
A good description of the difference between different kinds of mallet can be seen on the Oxford Croquet site.
The October 2023 edition of the Croquet Gazette contains a number of adverts for suppliers of mallets with UK representatives/manufacture:
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The Croquet England shop stocks George Wood mallets costing between £200 and £460 for an airline version.
In addition Dave Trimmer produces a mallet that seems to have found favour with the top competitive players. However, they’re usually on long lead times (6-9 months). It looks a bit like a Terminator.
A 2024 summary of the top 10 mallets in the world is here.