Category Archives: Events

Moreton Bay Gateball Club event 11th -13th March 2023

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We had a wonderful weekend with all the players that joined us for our 1st ever Team and Doubles competitions. 

We had players travel from Canberra, Rockhampton, the Sunshine Coast and many from our local region to join us for our 3 day event. 

Congratulations to our Winners:

Teams Winner : Dolphins 

Teams Runners up : Eildon White (missing from photo are Grahame Bishop and Jules Churchward).

Doubles Winners : Kele Crew

Doubles Runners up : Em & M

There were many very close games that went down to the last second. 

It was lovely to see some new players. Welcome to the game David, John, Joanne and Mark. We look forward to see you at the next event. 

We thank you all for your support and we’ll see you all again in the future. 

Thank you 

Moreton Bay Gateball Club  

Submitted by Emma Mauceri

The 2023 Andrew Davies Canberra Gateball Triples

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The 2023 Andrew Davies Canberra Gateball Triples were held last weekend (18-19 February) at the Canberra Croquet Club.  We had a fantastic turn-up of 14 triples teams, six from NSW, five from QLD and three from the ACT, with a total of 51 players participating.  Although the weather was very hot, 35 degrees on Saturday but with a breeze to add some cooling, and 32 degrees on Sunday, there were fortunately no obvious cases of heat distress.  The shady trees around the lawns provided pleasant shelter under which to “chill out”, as did the gazebos set up around the lawns for the event.  Feedback from the participants was very positive and the players certainly seemed to enjoy the event.  The new clubhouse with its fine kitchen, uncluttered main room for serving morning and afternoon tea and lunch, and the twin clean toilets was a great improvement on the original clubhouse.

Play in front of the new clubhouse.  Two of the four white shade umbrellas kindly loaned by the Hyatt hotel can be seen on the lawns.  These were used to keep the sun off the scorers and the scoreboard.  One of the gazebos can be seen at the left.

Play occurred in two round robin blocks of seven teams each, followed by two semi-finals and a final.  The quality of the play was very high, with four of the 45 games played achieving the perfect score of 25 points.  The Final was between the Redcliffe Dolphins from QLD and the Canberra Mavericks from the ACT. The Dolphins looked like the team to beat as they had scored three of the four perfect games in the round robins.  Until the last turn of the Final, and with the score 10 to 15 in favour of the Dolphins, it looked like the Dolphins would indeed take the game.  But in a real come-from-behind surprise, in the last turn of the Finals the ever-so-accurate Julie Toms ran her ball through gates 2 and 3 and then made 2 Agari’s, scoring a total of 6 points, and thus giving the Canberra Mavericks an exciting win of 16 to 15!

Julie Toms strokes the ball under the watchful eye of referee Ralph Richardson.

 

In recognition of the great distances traveled by some teams, the presentations were made by Cheryl Kele from the Rockhampton Straight Shooters which was the team that traveled furthest.

Cheryl Kele made the presentations.Cheryl (left) presented the Redcliffe Dolphins with Runners Up badges: from the right, Geoff Morris, Alan James and Paul Ekeberg. 

 
Cheryl presented the Tournament Trophy and the Winners badges to the Canberra Mavericks: from left, Glen Whitehead, Margo Davies, Judy Tier and Julie Toms.

 

One of the aims of the tournament was to get three to four current referees-in-training qualified as Level 1 referees.  In the end this ambition was not possible due to scheduling problems, but it does seem that two new qualified referees have been created (final approval still to come).

Finally, I would like to express my thanks to the many Canberra Croquet Club members who contributed to the successful running of this event.  Special thanks go to the Tournament Committee of Peter Freer (Tournament Referee), Margo Davies and Judy Tier as well as to Ralph Richardson for everything to do with the courts and lawns.  In addition, we greatly appreciate the effort the 14 teams made to come to this tournament.  We look forward to next year’s event and we will try our best to make it just as enjoyable.

Peter Wood – Gateball Coordinator, Canberra Croquet Club

Tournament Manager for the 2023 Andrew Davies Canberra Gateball Triples

Developing a taste for Gateball in Victoria

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Over the weekend of December 10 and 11, 2022, we held the first Gateball Development Weekend for Victoria at Brunswick Malletsports Club.  The course was hosted by the new Gateball High Performance Manager Philip Brown.  The purpose of the day was both simple and difficult all at once:  get better at Gateball.  Overall, we think we achieved the goal and had plenty of fun along the way to boot!

We had 12 players from five clubs attend the weekend, including visitors from regional Victoria and from South Australia.  The players had very different levels of skills, too.  There were some absolute beginners, some solid players and some of the best players in the country.

Saturday was the skills carnival.  We started the morning with basic skills and progressed into more advanced topics as the day continued.  First up were the seminal requirements for Gateball: hitting and sparking.  There’s a clear need in Gateball to control the strength of the shot and the direction of the shot at the same time.  It’s easy to say, but harder to do.  We practised placing all 5 balls in a cluster near the goal pole, then sparking each one agari. This helps you to proactively plan your shots as a cohesive turn.  It requires you to think ahead for where you want your ball to be – but then also react when, inevitably, your ball isn’t quite where you wanted it to finish.  So you go back to drawing board and think through what to do next.

We handed over to two local coaches from Kew for a session on sliding.  Clare and David discussed different techniques for envisioning the slide before you play and showed how to use the slider guider.  David and Clare emphasised the need to think of short slides as well as long cross-court ones.

We ran a version of the excellent Think Like a Captain course developed by John and Penny Park before lunch.  This is a series of exercises and scenarios designed to help players understand what their captain might ask them to do and, more importantly, why. The course also focuses on what players can do to assist their captains – things like tracking their own ball’s score and knowing where the next opposition ball is.   

After a delightful shared lunch in Brunswick’s lovely clubhouse, we spent the early afternoon looking at some basics of refereeing.  The participants heard the ideas behind the Referee A and Referee B system, including the need for the refereeing team to watch the ball and the target closely at all times.

The final exercise was decision making as a captain.  We looked at various scenarios of balls on a court and discussed which tactics are best in those circumstances.  It’s a great way to ease a player into the ideas behind captaincy without the pesky 10 second counts that happen in a real game…

Speaking of real games, the Sunday was devoted to putting our newly-learned skills into action.  Unfortunately, a non-Gateball-related sprained ankle and some COVID protocols robbed us of some attendees.  Never-the-less, the group played some doubles, triples and larger games to cap off an enjoyable – and instructive – weekend.

Philip Brown, Gateball High Performance Manager

South Australian State Gateball Tournament December 2022

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The SA State Gateball Tournament was held from Friday 2 December 2022 to Sunday 4 December 2022, and was a testament to the flexibility, pragmatism and all round good nature of the Gateball community.

This was the first time we have held a “real” teams competition after last year’s trial event with two teams and rotating captains. It was gratifying to see 6 teams enter the competition, with 3 local sides and 3 interstate teams from Victoria, NSW and ACT.

A big thank you to all of our interstate visitors for making the trip – you certainly enhanced the standard of the competition and the enjoyment of all competitors.

We started with doubles on Friday, teams on Saturday, and completion of doubles on Sunday. This unusual schedule arose from the availability of some players who could not play on Friday, and some team-only players who could only play on Saturday.

The President’s [doubles] Trophy was contested over two blocks of six pairs, with the local Brighton team having an excellent Friday to lead Block A with 4 wins from 4 games, and it was a similar story in Block B with Canberra Long Shots also winning all four of their games.

Saturday saw the arrival of the Victorian team and the hot weather. Kew [and co] played to their usual standard, despite being more of a composite team, and will be the first team to adorn the new Gateball Teams perpetual trophy. Canberra placed second with 3 wins, separated from Woodville, ably supported by Ros and Maddi Crowe from Queensland, in third place by net gates. [Can I say Well done Woodville? Just did I guess.]

Sunday again brought hot weather and a tough schedule for the pairings of Philip and Peter W; and Elaine and Cheryl, who had to play all of their games on Sunday morning.

A tense finale was in store with 3 teams in each block in contention for the finals as the last round started.  Philip and Peter beat Brighton 21-9 which unfortunately consigned Brighton to third place in Block A, but still a great performance from the Brighton pair in their first tournament.  Elaine and Cheryl won their final Block B game but also placed third in their block, which set up semi finals between Philip and Peter versus John and Penny and Canberra Long Shots versus the Hyde Park pair.  It was great to see a local doubles team make the finals and the Hyde Park pairing should be congratulated on their performance.  Unfortunately, Canberra were too strong, and the final was played between Canberra and Philip and Peter [also from Canberra].

Philip again will have his name etched onto the trophy after overseeing a 14-8 victory.

The weekend also provided an opportunity for a number of people to sit their Referee Theory exam.

Congratulations to Cheryl, Peter W and Ralph for passing the level 1 Referee Theory exam.

Barry Jennings and Maddi Crowe also passed the theory exam and were assessed for the practical component, and are to be congratulated on becoming our newest Level 1 referees.

Story submitted by Geoff Crook, SA State Gateball Coordinator