Hooray! Gateball Competition in Queensland is off and running with the usual Gateball Challenge that was held at McIlwraith Club in Brisbane 13-14th March. One year ago this event was the first of many to be cancelled.

There were 9 teams that entered from various Clubs – some were composite teams – while 3 teams from Southport Club were participating.  The courts were in very good playing condition and carefully set out. The weather was quite hot so plenty of hydration was required. The members of McIlwraith provided nutritious, delicious morning and afternoon teas.

Wonderful surface to the courts and the picturesque club house behind.

The participants came from far and wide- Central QLD players from Rockhampton and Capricorn Coast – and locally based players plus Margo, Andrew and Peter who came from Canberra.  There were quite a few players competing in a Gateball Competiton for the first time. The oldest player was Trudy Cummins aged 93. The youngest was Angelina Carling aged 13 from Moreton Bay Gateball Club.

Youngest player Angelina Carling, aged 13, playing for Moreton Bay Gateball Club

Oldest player Trudy Cummins, aged 93, plays for Southport White

By lunchtime on Sunday the closely-fought team competition was concluded. The winning team once again was Southport Red who had the same number of wins as the local composite team called MacRocks but had scored many more gates (35 – 8). MacRocks was a combination of McIlwraith players and Rockhampton players. In third place was the Southport White team that won on a countback of gates (8 – 4) from the Woody Pointers team. Southport  won this event for the 4th time.

Southport Red Team with the Captain, Lee Wentworth, holding the unique Trophy.

The Doubles Competition involved 12 pairs of players in 3 Blocks. The semi finals were family oriented. One court had Kathie Grant and Cheryl Kele playing against Steve and Chris Kele ( Cheryl’s husband and son). The other semi final was Lee Wentworth and Ethan Chilton playing against Julia Tai (Ethan’s Mother) and Barbara Northcott.

Steve and Chris Kele won their semi final (17-7) and so played Julia Tai and Barbara Northcott who won their semi final. (18-7) It was a very exciting game with quite a few people closely watching the game. Close to full time, Julia Tai concluded the game by scoring three “agaris”. It was a perfect game score of 25 to the opposition’s score of 10.

Alan Beeson presented the prize money to Barbara Northcott and Julia Tai

McIlwraith Club members are to be congratulated on their dedicated work to ensure this Challenge went ahead so smoothly. Thank you to  the wonderful people who do the often neglected behind the scenes tasks- eg. the setting up of the Covid Security system; entering the data on the computer ; cooking the food ; arranging the morning and afternoon teas and cleaning up afterwards; court markings; erecting the marquee ; setting up the tables and chairs etc.

Some interesting photos below.

Chris Kele, Cheryl Kele and Steve Kele in the back row. Kathie Grant at the front.

Keith Chur-Hansen completes his Referee Records for his re-accreditation

(Thanks to Frances Wregg for photos)