Update on Gateball in Western Australia

A four week Introduction to Gateball is at its midpoint in WA.  Eight players turned up for week 1, fifteen players for week 2.

After play at Victoria Park Croquet Club in Week 1, the group was invited to move the Week 2 play to Forrest Park Croquet Club – headquarters of Croquet West. Forrest Park sent out a flyer to all WA croquet clubs inviting participation and that invitation explains the extra starters.

Regular play will now be Sunday mornings for the next two weeks,  and already players have decided to continue after the introductory course, alternating weekly between clubs with the aim of setting up a three-way inter-club competition (the two Parks and E. Fremantle), as more players are gathered.

Several email enquiries this week suggest  that even more new players will turn up over the next two Sundays.

An organisation of independent schools has organised a day, in October for sports groups to introduce their sport to  high school students. Gateball will be there.

Croquet West runs an inter-generation  GC tournament in October. Croquet players  partner with younger generation to expose the sport. Gateball has been invited to participate.

Wednesday evening play at East Fremantle will begin again in September.

More information can be found on the Croquet West Website

Murray Loane

5 thoughts on “Update on Gateball in Western Australia

  1. It was great to read about the WA experience, and to see Gateball taking off in the way it has. I liked the intergenerational play idea. It was an inspiring article. Thank you.

    Over in Eastern Australia-Sydney (at Strathfield Croquet Club) I recently held a 3 week course for U3A, titled -‘The two G’s of Croquet-Golf Croquet and Gateball’. The course was received well. I had approximately 6 players at each session, and of that group three have joined the club, and one player plans to join in Spring.

    I also conduct a school croquet program. Whilst Golf Croquet is the first game that the high school students learn, towards the end of term, I will set some GB challenges ( to get students familar with GB equipment; show students how well the skills transfer; that the strokes are similar; some new skills are involved; and will get students familar with the basics of the game). This experience will also challenge those students who have returned to our club over several terms, and as they are more experienced player, I will get them helping us with the more inexperienced student player (a learning experience for all at different levels).

    • Hi Ruth. Plenty of coaching sessions by you to spread the golf and Gateball experience to the younger players as well as to adults. Good work. One game that is worth considering is called “G-Ball” I developed the concepts from doing the After School program many years ago. It is simple actually. Use Gateball sticks and balls to play Golf Croquet around a normal Croquet court. Player 1 uses balls 1 and 3 (red Balls) from the Gateball set of 10 balls while player 2 uses balls 2 and 4 (white balls) . Or, it can be played as doubles. Then balls 5,7 play against 6 and 8 to create a second game. No worries about colour blindness. Number sequence means there is very little chance of wrong ball order and the smaller balls go through croquet hoops very easily. Best wishes. Barbara

  2. You are really doing a wonderful thing in introducing Gateball to players in Western Australia. It is so compatible with the other codes. As for schools, yes do continue. We have had the private schoolboys in a select P.E.Class from The Southport School spend 4 weeks on Gateball. Thes e rugby playing boys found it challenging sometimes but enjoyed it.

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