Gateball Puzzle #4

Thanks to Philip Brown from the Kew Croquet Club who submitted gateball puzzle #4 based on a real situation from the NSW gateaball championships in 2015.

Readers should leave a reply in the comments.

Gateball Puzzle #4:
3 to play. The score is 3-6 with 25:00 remaining in the match.
What should 3 do on it’s turn?
Puzzle4

Previous gateball puzzles are available at the links below:

Gateball puzzle #1
Gateball puzzle #2 – difficult
Gateball puzzle #3

Gateball puzzle #1 also included information on the format of the puzzle and outlined how you can submit your own puzzle.

6 thoughts on “Gateball Puzzle #4

  1. I would touch 1, send it to the south-west of balll 2 and go to a position on the North boundary about three metres East of gate 2, as close to the boundary as possible. This challenges ball 6 to touch ball 10 and send it to ball 1 but leaves ball 3 in command of gate 2.

  2. Glance off 1 to reach 6 & 10. Spark 1 back to 2, as Tony suggests. Send 6 & 10 off the court, and take position in front of gate 2 close to boundary. If not near enough to 6 or 10, go direct to boundary in front of gate 2.

  3. Tony – your approach seems interesting…
    I would have countered with setting ball 4 as a bridge between 10 and Gate 2 (incidentally, that’s what actually happened in the game). Ball 4 would hopefully be equal with the gate, about 1 foot, maybe 2, from the line. Ball 6 thus has access to the front of the gate (and maybe Ball 3 if you don’t manage to hide it properly).

    There’s a slight risk that 5 could come down the whole line of balls, but it’s tricky.

    Peter – I’m not sure if you’re trying to be sarcastic, but the prospects of successfully completing that shot are effectively nil…

  4. Once again we tried this out.

    The first time we played, red attempted to spark 1 close to corner 4 but within touching distance of 2. Unfortunately 2 was too far out from the line and was an easy pickoff for 10 when 6 sparked it over. White won by a big margin.

    On a second attempt, 1 and 3 retreated to defensive positions on line 4 beside gate 3. When 6 attempted to spark 10 across, the spark was too hard and 10 became an outball near gate 3. Red won by a small margin at the end of this game.

  5. Philip – it was a serious suggestion, since your positioning of 1 & 3 seemed perfect for a glance shot. Now that I’m back in Canb I tried it this arvo, and you are correct that getting close enough to 6 & 10 is too difficult. In 4 attempts I missed 1 completely, and the other three shots had 3 about 10-12′ out from 6 & 10 = too far to risk with them tight on the boundary. I opted for Plan B (as set out in my answer above), and retired to position in front of H2 (although I now see that this might need to be further out if 6 bridges for 10).

  6. Peter

    Thanks for the reply. It was hard to convey on the chart, but the glance shot was not really an option. Ball 1 was about 125cm from Ball 3. Close enough for a very reliable touch but too far to reliably use a slide/glance shot.

    The other difficulty with hiding Ball 3 near Gate 2 is that Ball 2 has a moderate prospect of a gate touch. From memory, I think Ball 2 managed a gate touch in this game because Ball 6 sent Ball 10 to Balls 1 and 2 together. Ball 10 then sent Ball 1 off the court and sent Ball 2 to the scoring side of Gate 3, before attempting a long range gate itself. Ball 10 clanged and ended up in the jaws, creating the gate touch for Ball 2.

    John,

    Interesting to hear that White won convincingly when Red sent Ball 1 to Ball 2. That was the exact choice and result in the game this example is drawn from.

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