Tag Archives: gateball

Crazy Arms lend helping hand for Queensland State Championships

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Crazy Arms are delighted to sponsor the Queensland Gateball State Championships held at Pine Rivers Croquet Club on the 12th to 14th August 2023.  Founded by three Aussie Dads, Crazy Arms were originally designed to protect children from harmful UV, but soon caught on with the older population.  Golfers, Cyclists, Lawn Bowlers, Hikers, Fishers and Gardeners have adopted the fun UPF50+ Sun Sleeves, that come in a variety of colours and patterns. Made from up-cycled waste, like the ghost fishing nets that are reclaimed from the ocean, Crazy Arms are lightweight, cool to wear, and come in fully recycled packaging.

Co-Founder, Martin, was delighted to hear that Gateball players were also taking up the call, “Skin cancer affects 2 in 3 Australians by the age on 70 – A keen golfer, I’m one of them – so anything we could do to reduce the risk felt like a smart move.  Men, in particular, are more likely to get skin cancer, including melanomas. We’re delighted to be involved with the Gateball community, and offer prizes and discounts to everyone who attend.”

Crazy arms are sold on line at crazyarms.com, with sizes for all ages from 3 and up.

Gateball on the move

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On our 2nd visit to Sunnyside Croquet Club to coach and demonstrate Gateball on the 12 July 2023, we were met by a very enthusiastic and welcoming group of players, who were as keen as mustard to get their hands on the first Loan Gateball Kit that I have available to lend to a club who have shown a keen and enthusiastic attitude toward accepting Gateball to their club.

Sunnyside Club and their members, 20 at our first visit, and 10 members, at our second visit, are just what I look for in a club to take on Gateball and expand our game. Along with Point Lookout who are also playing Gateball on a regular basis, Gateball is moving in the right direction in the Wide Bay Burnett Region in regional Queensland.

I have several other clubs to visit this year for Gateball demonstrations and hopefully, will have more Loan Gateball Kits to have on hand to allow these clubs to try Gateball without the initial expense of acquiring their own kits. I like the “try before you buy” way that we are spreading the Gateball message throughout Queensland.  Gateball is different just by the nature of the game, so having more loan kits available, we can expand our sport to the wider croquet community without the initial cost of equipment being a factor. Having Croquet clubs equipped and playing Gateball which is an all-inclusive sport, will not only attract new and possibly younger members and their families but also give existing members at clubs more choice, with Gateball also being offered.

Robert Roose 

Queensland Gateball Coordinator

Southport Croquet Club’s MSOB Gateball Competition 2023

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From Saturday 24th to Monday 26th June Southport Croquet Club held its annual Mallet Sports on the Broadwater (MSOB) at the Gold Coast QLD.

The Gateball Teams Competition was held first. With 9 teams competing it was a good playing roster to organise- 3 courts used with 2 teams playing and one team refereeing. Everything went smoothly particularly since the weather was exceptionally mild and sunny.

The winning team was a combined team. The members of the team came from Rockhampton, Bribie Island in QLD, Lake Macquarie and Newcastle in NSW and one  player from Canberra. The presentations were made by a representative of the Sponsors- Michael Hare Eye Vision.

In second place was the Southport Red team which was one of 3 teams that Southport entered.

The third place went to the team from Moreton Bay.

The Gateball Doubles competition had 18 Doubles teams entered. Again, this created 2 Blocks of 9 pairs and was good to organise the games. The winning pair were from Moreton Bay- Emma Mauceri and Kaelan Sweatman. The presentations were made by the Club Patron, Dawn Crichlow.

In 2nd place were a Southport pair- Kathie Grant and Barbara Northcott.

In 3rd position was a Doubles pair from Eildon – Richard Bevan and Philip Rowland.

 

 

Gateball Captain Development Program proudly supported by Moreton Bay Regional Council

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Gateball Australia is hosting a Gateball Captain Development Program to be held on the weekend of the 20th and 21st of May that will bring Gateball captains from around Australia to the Moreton Bay Region of Queensland. The program aimed at supporting Gateball captains to improve their competition strategy and tactics will be led by the Gateball High Performance Manager, Philip Brown and Level 3 Gateball Coaches, Barbara Northcott, John Park, Geoff Crook and Glen Whitehead. 

The development program has been given a huge boost of over $3,300 in funding from the Moreton Bay Regional Council through a Community Activities Grant and Local Councillor Karl Winchester will welcome participants to the region and open the event.

The funding provided by the grant will provide court and training equipment, printing of course materials and catering for the event. Funding was also received to film part of the development program so that videos can be produced to train future captains and players. 

Moreton Bay Region has several Gateball playing clubs (Pine Rivers, Eildon, Moreton Bay and Bribie Island) and Gateball Captains from the region will be attending the program. We can expect to see flow on benefits for local Gateball players and the wider community as we build our Gateball capability and offer more Gateball playing opportunities. Most clubs in the region currently run Gateball Come and Try sessions through the Moreton Bay Healthy and Active Program which encourages locals to try new activities.  

We are very grateful to Moreton Bay Regional Council for their support of Gateball and  the Gateball Captain Development Program.

 

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