Rockhampton Mallet Sport Club was the venue for the QLD State Gateball Teams and Doubles Championship from Saturday August 18th to Monday 20th August, 2018. This was an appropriate venue for hosting the new format in that Rockhampton has been a club with a long history of competing in Gateball Tournaments. Six teams entered the Teams Championship while 14 entries were received for the Doubles Championship. Team games were interspersed with games involving Doubles combinations. In addition, many players were being assessed for their practical refereeing skills by Margaret Barnard, the QLD Director of Gateball Refereeing.

The six teams were Rockhampton, Capricorn Coast, Toowoomba, Multi Macs, Southport White and Southport Red. The games were played in good spirit with fine sportsmanship demonstrated. The final game was very exciting. The Multi Macs team had not lost a game and were up against Southport Red who had lost their first game against Capricorn Coast.  With a close score throughout the game, Southport prevailed. However, the Multi Macs won the State Championship on a countback over the five games they played because of a higher score of “Net Gates”.

Multi Macs were the winners of the CAQ State Gateball Teams Championship.

The President of Queensland, Mr Don Close, presented the Lola Whyte Trophy  and the medallions to the Multi Macs Team. It consisted of L-R: Barry Barnard, Bruce McAlister, Frances Wregg, Alan Beeson and Philip Rowlands.

Southport Red were placed second. L-R. Barbara Northcott. John Chen, Lee Wentworth, Peter Sweet, Ethan Chilton and Jim Northcott

There was a very good group of players who willingly assisted in the administrative aspect of Doubles- scoring recording and timing- since they were just playing in the Teams event. What is very heartening is that there was an audience for the Doubles Final rather than just a few players watching. The local couple, Cheryl and Steve Kele from Rockhampton defeated last year’s winners, Bruce McAlister from Ipswich and Peter Sweet from Southport by one gate.

Steve and Cheryl Kele won the State Doubles Championship and holding the Bruce McAlister Shield which was presented by the President, Don Close.

Don Close presented second place medallions to Bruce McAlister and Peter Sweet

Preparing for the match between Multi Macs and Southport Red teams were the referees Keith Chur-Hansen, Ros Crowe and Jill Gwynne