Southport’s Gateball Triples

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

Young players take the top places in the All Japan Gateball Championships

The recent All Japan Gateball Teams Championships held in Fukuoka City from 15-16th October had 44 teams participating. Each team had to win the qualifying tournaments within their prefectures in order to progress to the National Championships. Held over two days the results were 1st- Kagawa Shoujima Shoukae Team seen in the photo below. The certificate, banner and trophy are proudly displayed by this  youthful team.

Kagawa Shoujima Shoukae Team

In second place is a team  named “E Force” that represented Mie Prefecture. The young players are the Captain’s children and their friends. What a wonderful achievement for these players who have promising future in the sport!

E Force Team from Mie

 

Toowoomba’s Gateball Teams and Doubles Competition

The annual Gateball Teams and Doubles Competition was held at Toowoomba  1st-3rd October. It is always a wonderful experience playing at Toowoomba’s courts. Situated close to Queen’s Park,  most of the competitors spent several hours before or after the competition to admire the gorgeous floral displays that are featured in their city’s Spring Flower Festival.

Six teams played the Teams competition on the Saturday. The  thunderstorms circled around the clubhouse late in the afternoon but by then the last round was under way. With very good food on offer for the afternoon tea, we adjourned to the Clubhouse to finish off the food and watch the presentation. Mr Burstow, whose family business of Burstow’s Funeral Care are the sponsors of the Gateball Competitions, made the presentations to the winning team which was Southport Red Team and to the second placed team- Toowoomba Royals which included two players from Eildon ( Christine and Robert Roose).

The Southport Red team was the winner of the Team’s Competition

Toowoomba’s Royal Team came second.

The Gateball Doubles Competition began on Sunday with very cold, wet weather hampering the players. All of the Doubles teams persevered and managed to complete the  games organised into 2 Blocks. The semifinal and finals were on Monday. Congratulations to the local  pair- Sandra Reynolds and Toni Sheedy- who won the Final.

Winners of the Doubles Competition- Sandra Reynolds and Toni Sheedy

Second place went to a Doubles pair from Caloundra- Howard Williams and Kath Hayes.

Howard and Kath were placed 2nd in the Doubles Competition

 

QLD State Gateball Teams and Doubles Championships

QLD State Gateball Teams and Doubles Championships
This year the State Gateball Teams and Doubles Championships were held at Southport Croquet Club from 12th-15th August. Since it was a four day event, there was time for the teams to relax between games. When playing the Doubles Competition, it is good to have the time to recuperate because if a team is not playing, it will be doing Referee duties. Fitness is important factor in these competitions. Attracting teams from Qld as well as players from Adelaide, Canberra and Newcastle, there were nine teams competing. Compared to last year, there was an increase in participants with 18 pairs in the doubles competition.

A small burst of wet weather on the Saturday afternoon did not prevent players from giving their best in a close competition. The winning team was Macs from the Toronto Croquet Club in NSW which had two players from other clubs to form the team. Congratulations must go to them- being their first venture into the QLD Championship and finishing as the clear leader in the competition. The presentation was made by Mrs Fiona McAlister. Her mother, Lola Whyte, after whom the trophy was created and named in her honour.

The winning team- Macs- from Toronto NSW.

In contention for second place were three teams all with the same number of wins, but was given to the Grey Shirts, Moreton Bay, because of a better net points score.

In second place were the Grey Shirts from Moreton Bay.

The Competitors in the Teams Championship

There were two Blocks of 9 Doubles required to accommodate the number of entries. Then there was a semi final required to decide the winner.  The winner of Block S was the Ganbatte Team (Jenny Willsher & Geoff Crook) which played against the second placed team in Block T, the 2 Macs ( Ruth Mulvaney & John Park). The winner of Block T was Kele Crew (Robyn Brown and Steve Kele) which played against the second placed team in Block S which was L & J ( Lee Wentworth and Julia Tai). These were very exciting semifinals as would be expected. 

The final was played between the L& J team from Southport (Lee and Julia) and the Ganbatte team (Jenny Willsher from Toronto and Geoff Crook from Adelaide.) The game was won by Jenny and Geoff in an absorbing, tactical battle.

The presentation photo L-R
Lee Wentworth, JuliaTai, Robert Roose QLD Gateball Coordinator, Bruce McAlister, Jenny Willsher, Keith Chur Hansen QLD Gateball Referee Coordinator and Geoff Crook.

The Bruce McAlister Trophy is proudly displayed by Jenny and Geoff in the photo below.

Gateball Pennants for Queensland’s Centenary

In 2021, the Queensland Croquet’s Centenary Committee agreed that Gateball would be included in the CAQ Centenary Pennants to be held in 2022. The innovative format of the event required an entry of five players who played in a Team game and then split to play in a Doubles game and a Triples game. The winner in each region was the club team that won the most pennant rounds.
The Brisbane North Region was represented by Eildon; the Sunshine Coast Region was represented by Caloundra; the Gold Coast Tweed Region was represented by Southport and the Central Queensland Region was represented by Rockhampton.

The participants seen the photo are members of the 4 teams from the Regions in Queensland.

All the teams gathered at Eildon CC from 16-17th July. Competition over the two days was of the highest level with the fantastic weather and lawn conditions making all the matches great viewing. The players agreed that the pennants format was challenging and enjoyable and seem to agree that they would be keen to do it all again next year.

The Southport  Team from the Gold Coast Tweed Region were the winners and were presented with their medal by Pat Habner, CAQ President.

The GCT regional team, Southport, was undefeated by winning all three pennant rounds in which they played. The Central Queensland Regional team, Rockhampton, were the runners up. Eildon from the Brisbane South Region came third.

Representing Central QLD was the Rockhampton team that came second.

The Winning Medal

Information and photos supplied by Ros Crowe