Gateball Australia has received an update from Gateball New Zealand

 

Dennis Bulloch, the Director of Gateball New Zealand tells us that the organisation is formally established.  Claire Horncastle, Gaylene Jones, Duncan Dixon, Kathie Grant and Dennis are on on the national committee and that  meets monthly with the aid of Microsoft Teams.  Duncan is working on a gateball website which should be up and running by the end of the year. Gaylene is our secretary and Claire our Treasurer.  They are assembling a database of gateball payers.  A gateball club has been formed in Christchurch and there has been quite a lot of interest from a number of croquet clubs. Dennis reports they are still in the state of establishing Gateball in NZ and feel there is a long way to go.  

 

Hopefully they will be able to have Croquet New Zealand recognise Gateball and be willing to liaise with GNZ. They are seeking funding to purchase gateball sets and loan them to clubs that are showing interest in the sport. 

GNZ will organise and run national tournaments.  

Sadly, it has been decided not to hold the NZ Gateball Championships next year in February due to quarantine border problems. They will let the WGU know of this as well and hope that an Australasian bubble between our 2 countries can be established soon. However, it seems that will not happen before March next year at the earliest.  Fingers crossed, NZ Gateball hope they  can travel in September to compete in the Australian Gateball Championships. 

 

They recently had a fun day at Rose Gardens Croquet club  which was part of their centenary celebrations and gateball sets were used in many of the activities. 

 

GNZ has promiised to give us  some information on how the sport is being tackled in Christchurch. Photos featuring the gateball course for students during the last school holidays and an introductory course for a large number of club members in the Christchurch and Ashburton areas. 

 

CNZ  will try to keep you informed on our gateball progress over the next few months.