In the lead up to the 2022 Canberra Gateball Triples Championships the Canberra Weekly ran the following story introducing gateball.
“What’s gateball?”, you may well ask. Five red balls and five white balls, three gates and six players with ‘sticks’ moving around a 20 x 15 metre lawn with the red ball players trying to score more gates than the white ball team. That is the game of gateball…..
To read the full story click here
The Canberra Croquet Club hosted the inaugural 2022 Gateball Triples Championships on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 February.
The event was covered in the Canberra Weekly. and more than 50 competitors in twelve teams entered for the title of Canberra Triples Gateball Champion. Players from Queensland, Victoria and NSW joined Canberra players for our first event in 2022.
Queensland players came from Bribie Island, Eildon and Southport and NSW teams included Twin Cities in Albury (including a Victorian), Strathfield, Toronto and Hazelbrook.
As Coordinator of gateball at CCC and the ACT and NSW, Judy Tier welcomed all players and reminded us that for many our last Triples tournament was probably several years ago at Jamberoo CC.
She also noted that at least 50% of players were attending their first Triples tournament with many new players being initiated into their first GB tournament.
Special thanks were given to the Tournament managers– Margot and Andrew Davies – and the many CCC volunteers who ensured each day flowed smoothly. There are so many people involved in running a GB tournament but fortunately the very timed nature of our games does allow for precision timing throughout the weekend.
It was great to have Bruce McAlister, Director of refereeing for Gateball Australia, here to identify referee training needs. He gave valuable feedback to all referees and trainees and was generally pleased with standards.
Glen Whitehead, tournament referee, explained the relational form of Triples play and the tournament structure. On Saturday the two qualifying blocks played a round robin with each team playing 5 games. The first and second placed teams from each block progressed to Yellow block. The third and fourth placed teams progressed to Green block and fifth and sixth to Red block. The classification blocks were round robin with each team playing 3 games.
The first and second placed teams from Yellow block played in a final to determine the Championship winners.
The Triples Gateball Championship trophy, complete with handmade gateball stick, was awarded to Kristina Whitehead, Captain of the Canberra 3PK team and Peters Wood and Freer.
Runners up badges were awarded to Glen Whitehead, Captain of Canberra Djara team and Craig Oxley, Pamela Hunt and Judy Tier.
Canberra North finished third with Lake Mac (Newcastle) fourth overall. Southport won the Green block with 3 wins and two + two (Canberra) won the Red block by 2 net hoops from Murray Mayhem (Twin Cities).
Players gave very positive feedback on the draw format with the Sunday three block format allowing teams to compete against their peers and register wins.
Judy Tier
ACT/NSW Gateball Coordinator
The fourth edition of the SA President’s Gateball Doubles competition saw a couple of innovations this year. The first of these was that I was responsible for organising the tournament for the first time, which was an interesting, and ultimately rewarding experience, if somewhat nerve shredding along the way with the ever changing border restrictions – the number of pairs for the tournament varied from 4 to 9 in the lead up, and ultimately settled at 6, which allowed us to run 2 courts and hold a round-robin tournament.
Saturday morning opened to glorious Gateball weather, and the pre-tournament favourites did not disappoint with Barry and Karen on 4 wins and Philip and Ben on 3 wins but superior net gates going into the final game
Philip and Ben prevailed and Philip’s name will adorn the trophy for the third time.
An honourable mention goes to Ros and Keith who travelled the furthest and beat the winners and lost narrowly on a shoot out to the runners up, to finish in third place – a terrific result.
On Sunday, we held our first SA State teams event. With only two teams, and a couple of players unable to compete, we ended up with two teams of 5.
The first team was the “Shanghai 6” comprising Barry J, Geoff, Peter M, Ros, and Trish. The members of this select group have all competed in the “Jinxi Cup”, held just outside Shanghai. The remaining players – Ben, David, Karen, Keith and Philip – formed the “Australia 6” team, with 3 states represented.
To add a bit of variety, and also to take advantage of a development opportunity, each game was played with a different captain. Captains were matched in terms of experience and the two most experienced captains on each team were banned from providing in-game advice.
The Shanghai 6 team stormed to a 3-0 lead, but the Australians fought back, to result in a 3-2 win for the Shanghai 6.
All games were played with great sportsmanship, in particular the team games that were not refereed (although we did have the unusual luxury of four Level 1 referees playing).
A big thank you to all our competitors but particularly our interstate competitors – Philip, Ros and Keith for making the trip, and also to Roger and David for marking the courts, and Lyn for presenting the trophy.
Geoff Crook
Woodville Croquet Club
It was a fitting result to have our two newest gateball recruits share Runners Up and Winning positions in the Sunday November 21 Tavender Trophy Annual High/Low Doubles event.
Margaret Richardson and Glen Whitehead gave a very clinical display of skill and strategy to win the final 19 points to 9 over Ralph Richardson and Judy Tier. With Glen’s accurate bombards the opposing team quickly realised it was pretty difficult to score points with their few white balls on the court.
30 to 50 millimetres of rain and storms were forecast for the weekend and a postponement loomed. Fortunately this weather moved north and with 3 courts in play we completed our games in a morning of dry and cloudy conditions.
Thank you Susie Linge and Gabby Walsh for so masterly managing scoreboards and Peter Tavender, the trophy donor, for presenting the trophy to the winners.
Results can be viewed here
Judy Tier, Canberra Croquet Club
Winners: Margaret Richardson and Glen Whitehead with Calvin & Liam and Peter Tavender
Runners Up: Ralph Richardson and Judy Tier
Geoff Crook from South Australia has sent us another conundrum from a recent game at Woodville. Please put your answers and comments in the ‘Leave a Reply’ box below.
The last 3 minutes
After a gap of at least 12 months, Woodville hosted a Sunday afternoon of Gateball on 7 November 2021. The last game of the day was pretty unusual, with Red storming to a 15-1 lead after 12 minutes, and White’s solitary ball in play was an out-ball [Ball 6].
However, White fought back and the result was the position below – 5 points behind with a couple of minutes left.
Ball 10 is to play, and assume Ball 6 plays last.
Can White win? Please explain the sequence of play leading to your answer.
