It was a memorable weekend of competition at the recent McIlwraith Gateball Challenge Cup held at McIlwraith Croquet Club 30-31st March.
The nine teams who competed for the annual cup were from Rockhampton, Capricorn Coast, Redcliffe, Pine Rivers, Toowoomba, Ipswich, Blue Macs (McIlwraith), Broadbeach and two teams from Southport. We welcomed the Pine Rivers and Capricorn Coast teams who were competing in the competition for the first time.
This first competition of the year is always well attended as players get back into ‘the swing’ of the the season. Each team won at least two games over the week-end. The Competition was won by Southport Red team with the Challenge Cup being presented by Club President Sandy Ridgway. Southport White team were placed second.
Southport Red Team won the McIlwraith Challenge and are displaying the trophies
Southport White were presented with the second prize by McIlwraith Club President Sandy Ridgway
All players were enthusiastic about McIlwraith’s well kept greens and facilities. Because of the imminent threat of rain on Saturday, McIlwraith’s organisers ensured the break between the games were held a shorter than normal to complete the matches before the heavy showers.
The Toowoomba team get ready to play
Ten teams also competed in a Doubles competition on Sunday. This was won by Geoff Morris and Paul Ekberg from Redcliffe in a hard fought game against Lee Wentworth and young player Ethan Chitton.
Paul Ekberg and Geoff Morris – winners of the Doubles competition
The Suzuki Cup 2018, an award honouring the founder of Gateball in Japan, for the best team playing in most Gateball competitions was presented to Southport Gateball Red and White teams.
Southport Red and White teams grouped around the Suzuki Cup which was won by the Red team in 2018 for being the most consistent team in QLD. The presentation was made at McIlwraith.
Our well supported Raffle helps to keep entry fees down to make travelling to the competition more accessible for regional teams. Judith’s smiling face at the Raffle table meant that this year we sold double the usual number of tickets.
Judith selling Raffle tickets to Jan Wells from Ipswich
Frances Wregg
Manager McIlwraith Gateball Challenge 2019
