The recent All Japan Gateball Teams Championships held in Fukuoka City from 15-16th October had 44 teams participating. Each team had to win the qualifying tournaments within their prefectures in order to progress to the National Championships. Held over two days the results were 1st- Kagawa Shoujima Shoukae Team seen in the photo below. The certificate, banner and trophy are proudly displayed by this  youthful team.

Kagawa Shoujima Shoukae Team

In second place is a team  named “E Force” that represented Mie Prefecture. The young players are the Captain’s children and their friends. What a wonderful achievement for these players who have promising future in the sport!

E Force Team from Mie

The annual Gateball Teams and Doubles Competition was held at Toowoomba  1st-3rd October. It is always a wonderful experience playing at Toowoomba’s courts. Situated close to Queen’s Park,  most of the competitors spent several hours before or after the competition to admire the gorgeous floral displays that are featured in their city’s Spring Flower Festival.

Six teams played the Teams competition on the Saturday. The  thunderstorms circled around the clubhouse late in the afternoon but by then the last round was under way. With very good food on offer for the afternoon tea, we adjourned to the Clubhouse to finish off the food and watch the presentation. Mr Burstow, whose family business of Burstow’s Funeral Care are the sponsors of the Gateball Competitions, made the presentations to the winning team which was Southport Red Team and to the second placed team- Toowoomba Royals which included two players from Eildon ( Christine and Robert Roose).

The Southport Red team was the winner of the Team’s Competition

Toowoomba’s Royal Team came second.

The Gateball Doubles Competition began on Sunday with very cold, wet weather hampering the players. All of the Doubles teams persevered and managed to complete the  games organised into 2 Blocks. The semifinal and finals were on Monday. Congratulations to the local  pair- Sandra Reynolds and Toni Sheedy- who won the Final.

Winners of the Doubles Competition- Sandra Reynolds and Toni Sheedy

Second place went to a Doubles pair from Caloundra- Howard Williams and Kath Hayes.

Howard and Kath were placed 2nd in the Doubles Competition

On Saturday 17^th September, Eildon hosted its annual Gateball Teams Competition. There were six teams competing: Eildon White, Eildon Blue, Southport Red, Southport White, Pine Rivers and Friends, and Caloundra, 35 participants in total.

The weather held and players enjoyed a mainly fine day with a bit of humidity and intermittent sea breezes towards the afternoon.

Format was ‘round robin’ with play commencing at 8.25 am and then at basically hourly intervals. There were many close matches and one point wins but no shoot-outs.

At the end of the day, Caloundra were tournament winners with four wins and a 10 net with Eildon White second with four wins but a 5 net – see Gateball Scores. All games were played in good spirit and camaraderie.

The usual Tournament Raffle with prizes comprising a Gift Basket from our local MP Yvette D‘Ath and Gift Cards from our local Bunnings and Woolworths was well supported and the home baked goodies supplied by the Eildon players for morning and afternoon teas were much appreciated.

Written byPhilip Rowland, Captain of Gateball, Eildon Croquet Club

QLD State Gateball Teams and Doubles Championships
This year the State Gateball Teams and Doubles Championships were held at Southport Croquet Club from 12th-15th August. Since it was a four day event, there was time for the teams to relax between games. When playing the Doubles Competition, it is good to have the time to recuperate because if a team is not playing, it will be doing Referee duties. Fitness is important factor in these competitions. Attracting teams from Qld as well as players from Adelaide, Canberra and Newcastle, there were nine teams competing. Compared to last year, there was an increase in participants with 18 pairs in the doubles competition.

A small burst of wet weather on the Saturday afternoon did not prevent players from giving their best in a close competition. The winning team was Macs from the Toronto Croquet Club in NSW which had two players from other clubs to form the team. Congratulations must go to them- being their first venture into the QLD Championship and finishing as the clear leader in the competition. The presentation was made by Mrs Fiona McAlister. Her mother, Lola Whyte, after whom the trophy was created and named in her honour.

The winning team- Macs- from Toronto NSW.

In contention for second place were three teams all with the same number of wins, but was given to the Grey Shirts, Moreton Bay, because of a better net points score.

In second place were the Grey Shirts from Moreton Bay.

The Competitors in the Teams Championship

There were two Blocks of 9 Doubles required to accommodate the number of entries. Then there was a semi final required to decide the winner.  The winner of Block S was the Ganbatte Team (Jenny Willsher & Geoff Crook) which played against the second placed team in Block T, the 2 Macs ( Ruth Mulvaney & John Park). The winner of Block T was Kele Crew (Robyn Brown and Steve Kele) which played against the second placed team in Block S which was L & J ( Lee Wentworth and Julia Tai). These were very exciting semifinals as would be expected. 

The final was played between the L& J team from Southport (Lee and Julia) and the Ganbatte team (Jenny Willsher from Toronto and Geoff Crook from Adelaide.) The game was won by Jenny and Geoff in an absorbing, tactical battle.

The presentation photo L-R
Lee Wentworth, JuliaTai, Robert Roose QLD Gateball Coordinator, Bruce McAlister, Jenny Willsher, Keith Chur Hansen QLD Gateball Referee Coordinator and Geoff Crook.

The Bruce McAlister Trophy is proudly displayed by Jenny and Geoff in the photo below.