On Sunday 12 July, McIlwraith hosted the Pioneer’s Cup Day for 2015.

This event was established to honour the founding players of gateball in Queensland and is hosted annually by Bribie Island and McIlwraith clubs on a turn-about basis.  Players from clubs deemed to be ‘Surf or coastal fringe based’ team up to play players from the ‘City or Country’ clubs. It is run as a Fun Day with mixed player teams and fancy dress preferred.

This year 15 players took part. There were 7 Surfies comprising 5 from Eildon and 2 from Bribie and 8 City-slickers comprising 4 from McIlwraith, 3 from Toowoomba plus the State Gateball Director Bruce McAllister.

Our Club Captain Roger Brown devised an interesting program that gave everyone involved plenty of gateball in a variety of formats. Two courts were used and guest referees or self-refereeing was employed.

Essentially the program was in three rounds with each round comprising a team game on one court and a doubles game on the other.  This was quickly followed by a triples game on each court. Team captains were required to rotate the players through all the game formats.  Five (5) points were scored for winning a team game, three (3) for a triples win and two (2) for a doubles win.

At the end of the day (9am start to 3pm finish), the City-slickers were the overall winners on a points basis and Maggie from Eildon won the fashion award.

Philip Rowland – McIlwraith