On the recent Australia Day holiday Monday Kew Croquet Club held a “Give Gateball a Go” day. The aim was to spread our game to other members of the croquet club and to complete beginners as well. We had a wonderful day weather-wise and 30 people came to try a sport that very few had every played before.
We had a few from Kew Croquet Club, but also visitors from two clubs (hopefully) interested in taking up the game: Ivanhoe Park and Yarrawonga. Special kudos to the Yarrawonga members who’d driven a long way to get there.
We used a relatively standard approach of having some drills and learning the basic skills first before having a couple of competitive games. Having learnt from previous experience the emphasis was on teaching croquet players to hit the ball gently and teaching the newcomers to hit it straight….
We also incorporated some drills that might seem more advanced, like deliberately hitting the left side or the right side of the ball. But this was taken to well by the guests and seemed to give a better feel for the game very early on. A game learned in Canberra called “International Box” was a big hit.
Philip Brown
Kew Croquet Club
