This year has made us all very patient and resilient because of the factors associated with the Covid 19 pandemic. The year has also seemed to be longer than normal. One person who knows this better than most is Greg Bury who is the National Coaching Director for the Australian Croquet Association. The huge challenge Greg faced was the production of new Coaching Manuals in all four codes of Croquet in Australia. It will be exciting when the Gateball Coaching Manuals 1, 2 and 3 are released.

One young person who will be very interested in these manuals is fifteen year old Ethan Chilton from Southport Croquet Club. Ethan has been playing Gateball for 3 years fitting it in with his studies at High School. Back in March Ethan agreed to be photographed demonstrating the skills for the new Coaching Manuals. More photos were needed so Ethan returned for these to be taken. Then he had to be called back to the Club for an update in photos so they were “shot again” at a high enough resolution for the books. Last of all, in December, he agreed to participate in the filming of videos that will be used in conjunction with the Manuals. This represents many hours of his time.

Still photo showing Ethan setting up for a ‘bombard’.

The photographic sessions demonstrated the flexibility and adaptiveness of Ethan to the many requests and changes required to obtain the best photo or video. His unfailing good humour and patience was on show the whole time. Ethan plays all four codes and is even in the Golf Croquet Manual. Thank you Ethan from all of us who will be using and benefitting from the production of the new Gateball Coaching Manuals.

Ethan is filmed as he demonstrates a Gate and Touch situation. Greg Bury is in the distance.

Ethan is demonstrating a ball passing through Gate 1 for the video.