2018

Posted on April 27, 2018 by Barbara Northcott

Since 2012 Southport Croquet Club has been hosting a one-day Triples Competition. Held this year on Sunday 22nd April, there were 8 teams that participated. It is always a busy day to fit in 7 games for each team. However, the usual smooth running of the event was ensured by the careful planning by Julia Vickers. In the photo below the happy group are waving to the photographers.

Just a few light showers arrived in the middle of the day but nobody was fazed by that. Plenty of delicious food sustained everyone thanks to the generous donations by club members. There were plenty of supporters from Southport CC who were assisting the Gateball players by scoring or by organising the food for morning and afternoon tea and a BBQ lunch.

Three games per round had to be refereed by two teams ( 6 or 7 players) so it was ‘all hands on deck’ to complete the tasks needed to referee a match. The teams co-operated very well so there were no difficulties in covering the refereeing tasks. Some of the teams had 4 members so there was one player available to take on a role.

Every team had at least 2 wins and it was until the second-last round that a clear winner emerged. It was a team from Redcliffe. Second place was a team from Southport- the Bombers. Congratulations to these place getters and to all of the participants who made it another good event on the QLD Gateball calendar.

Redcliffe wins the first prize presented by John Turner, President of Southport CC

Southport Bombers accepting the second prize with John Turner.

Queensland Gateball’s Program for 2018

Posted on April 7, 2018 by Maggi Williams

Queensland’s Gateball’s new directors have set themselves an ambitious program for 2018

In the area of coaching they aim to have:

Three people trained as Trainers of Coaches as conducted by the QLD Director of Coaching.
Each club that plays Gateball to have a qualified Australian Level 1 Coach for Gateball
Each club that plays Gateball to have a minimum of two players who participate in three coaching updates organised in 2018

In the area of refereeing they aim to:

Have their two international referees gaining reaccreditation following the successful reaccreditation of Keith McCleod and Bruce McAlister in 2017
Ensure each club that plays Gateball competitively has a minimum of one qualified Australian Referee
Have att least three Level 2 Referees in QLD pass the theory and practical examination to become Level 1 Referees
Have at least five players in QLD pass the theory and practical examination to become Level 2 Referees.
Each club that plays Gateball has a minimum of three players who participate in Referee updates organised at designated Competition venues in 2018.

The program of activities to support these worthy aims reads as follows:

The program of training for gateball coaching and officiating was outlined to players at the McIlwraith Tournament on the 24th March, The training program was explained including the necessity for completion of Australian Sports Commission on-line course “Introductory Officiating- General Principles” and timetables announced for Level 1 and Level 2 Referee examinations.
A coaching program for team captains will be presented on 5th May, at the Rockhampton Challenge
From 2-3rd June at the Ipswich Challenge, level 1 and level 2 referee theory examinations will be conducted
An information session for recorders and lines persons will be presented on the 30th June at the Southport Gateball Tournament.
On 14th July, at the Redcliffe Teams Event, a session will be conducted on using the Basic Skills Cards for coaching
On 4th August , at Eildon, a referee Q&A session with explanations will be presented.
Practical tests for Referee candidates for Level 1 and 2 will be conducted from 17-20 August at the State Teams and Doubles Championship in Rockhampton while a Foundation Coaching Course will follow from the 21st-22nd August in Rockhampton.
Finally, from 29 September at Toowoomba, specific details about the assistant referee role and positioning will be presented.

More detailed documents were presented in the area of coaching and refereeing and are available and can be found in the documents below.

Anyone who wishes to be accredited as a referee or coach in Victoria should contact Philip Brown, the Victorian Coordinator of GB. In CNSW contact Manual Guttierez the State Coordinator of Refereeing to become a referee. John Park, National Coordinator is the contact for coaching for CNSW, SA and WA. For refereeing in SA contact Geoff Crook at Woodville.

Download (PDF, Unknown)

Complex or what?

Posted on April 7, 2018 by Maggi Williams

Australian gateballers may remember John Swabey who played at the 2017 Australian Gateball Championships with the “Internationals” team. John was visiting us from Germany and is one of the movers and shakers in the European Gateball League. John kindly sent us the following article. His rules summary is certainly recommended for new players.

Complex or what?

Across Europe in the Gateball League, we don’t have many players competent as yet to rule even on relatively simple issues such as when a ball is out.

The 2015 WGU rules of Gateball run to 42 pages, plus another 27 pages of “terminology”. In addition, there are 60 pages of “Guide for Referees”, much of which it is also important for the player to be aware of.

On top of all that, the WGU found it important to publish a 207 page Q&A booklet, sub-titled “The rules made clear” (sic). Such a convenient reference document!

What we needed, I decided, is a summary (yet another, you may say?) of practical answers to the frequently occurring situations, in an easily accessible, weather-proof format. Hey presto: my summary in just 18 laminated A5 pages, including diagrams, set in a font size (Arial 12) that even my aged eyes can easily manage to read at a glance.

I started with a German language version for the 4 clubs across Germany, but also distributed the summary in English across the additional 5+ clubs in the rest of the Gateball League (in Belgium, France and Switzerland) and to an Italian club and to the UK national centre in Ripon. The pagination is the same, for ease of discussion when different cultures clash on court.

Reference is also made to the WGU rule in question, to facilitate use of these practical answers for setting our first ever exams for would-be referees in Europe, planned for later this year. Any Australian referees travelling to Europe before October would be welcome to adjudicate exams and of course any player is welcome to sign up for one or more of our tournaments (see below).

John Swabey

http://johnswabey.wixsite.com/gateball-league/2018-tournaments

Download (PDF, Unknown)

Inaugural South Australian Gateball Doubles Competition

Posted on April 4, 2018 by Maggi Williams

The Easter weekend saw the inaugural South Australian gateball doubles competition held at Hutt Road. The lawns were in fantastic condition and the weather gods smiled on us, with beautiful weather on the practice day, Friday, and on the main competition day, Saturday.

Six teams entered, with two from Woodville, two from Hyde Park, one team from Kew (Victoria), and a composite Hyde Park/ Millswood team.

A refereeing workshop was held on Friday afternoon, led by Philip from Kew, which proved extremely informative to the group of assembled novice “referees”. Given that there were no refereeing bloopers during the main event, it is safe to say that the workshop was an invaluable exercise, and provided encouragement to at least one participant who remarked how much they had enjoyed refereeing after the event.

On Saturday, a round robin was held using two courts, with the two highest placed teams playing off in a final. Competition was fierce with some very close games and all teams won at least once.

Ultimately, experience showed with Philip and Kerry from Kew, Victoria winning all their round robin games.

The final with Geoff and Trish from Woodville was at times a close and tense match, but with three out balls in the final round for the Woodville team, Philip and Kerry scored enough points to take an unassailable lead and win 14 points to 9.

Thanks to all the competitors and spectators, Graeme Thomas for organizing the event, Philip Brown for conducting the referee workshop and Croquet SA President Eileen Ferguson for donating and presenting the trophy. A great time was had by all and hopefully we’ll see a few more of you next year!

Geoff Crook