The annual Gateball Triples Competition was held at Southport Croquet Club on Saturday and Sunday 15-16th April. Originally the event was planned as a one-day event. However the popularity of this version of Gateball has grown. Fourteen teams entered of which 7 were from Southport.  The competition was organised into two Blocks of 7 teams. Advertised as a one-day event, the organisers faced a good problem- that  of too many teams for a one-day event. How to complete the Round Robin in one day?

The Southport members of the 7 teams in the Gateball Triples

Julia Vickers came up with a solution and the Southport teams co-operated. A decision was taken to have the teams from Southport that were scheduled to play on the Sunday transferred to be played on the Saturday.  Only Southport players were required for the two days of competition. The visiting teams were required to play only on the Sunday. By 4:30 p.m. the Finals were scheduled to be played. Being a wonderfully sunny day the games were all held in bright sunshine and, for the most part, the competition went according to plan. 

Block A was a very tight result and was rather interesting when sorting out the 1st position. Both the Southport ALT and the Eildon Blue teams had won 4 games; both had gained 74 gates scored for ; and both had 58 gates scored against. The ranking order had to be determined by the results of the game when they played each other. Hence, Eildon Blue was ranked 1st because that team has defeated Southport ALT in their game. Block B was won by Southport Red Roulettes and 2nd place went to Moreton Bay 1.

The Final for the winner of the Southport Triples for 2023 was a good game played between Eildon Blue and Southport Red Roulettes. Thank you to the Referees – Margaret Barnard and Kathie Grant. The winning team was the local team of Peter Sweet, Michelle de la Mare and Matthew Xhilaga with a score of 14 gates whereas Eildon scored 11 gates.

The winners- Michelle, Peter and Matthew

Philip, Jules and Alan

The game to decide third place was between the Southport  ALT Team and the Moreton Bay 1 team. The Referees were Keith Chur-Hansen and Barbara Northcott. Again, it was a close result but Moreton Bay secured 3rd place with 12-11 victory.

The event was a very successful and the usual standard of good catering was continued. 

Third place went to Kaelyn, Emma and Warren