Bundaberg hits the airwaves and promotes comeandtrycroquet.com

Bundaberg Croquet Club secured a live cross on ABC Wide Bay Breakfast on 5 August 2026. Club president Russell Davis spoke from the Bundaberg lawns to ABC reporter Jackie.

The club has been part of the local community since 1900. Russell told the ABC he joined about six or seven years ago. He describes himself as "a bit of a croquet tragic" who loved the game from the start.

When asked what has kept the club thriving for over 125 years, Russell's answer was simple: "It's the people. It's the people that keep you coming back."

Bundaberg is now preparing to host a September Association Carnival. Run by Croquet Queensland, this is the division 2 and 3 AC medal event. Russell expects players from Brisbane, Toowoomba as well as locals to attend.

When the interviewer asked how people could join, Russell didn't give out a phone number. He told listeners about comeandtrycroquet.com: "We've got a website now. It's called Come and Try Croquet. So if you go onto that, you can enrol through that and we'll get back to you."

This is where the shared machinery of the centralised comeandtrycroquet.com site shows its usefulness.

The website comeandtrycroquet.com is designed to aid anyone to "Discover if Croquet Is For You" via a 3-Week Beginner Programme. It provides equipment and requires no prior experience. Visitors enter their name, email, mobile number and postcode to pick a session time near them.

As the CAQ explained in a recent newsroom article, "The postcode helps us match the visitor to their closest club." This means Bundaberg's airtime doesn't just benefit them. A listener in a different part of town could use that prompt to sign up at Hervey Bay, Isis or Sunnyside. One club's local media spot becomes a lead generator for the entire region. The system is built for exactly that.

The system is already scaled for state-wide use, and clubs are keen to get going: out of 41 clubs, 33 of those are ready to go. The infrastructure Russell used on air is switched on and ready to guide people to their local clubs.

Clubs should point people to comeandtrycroquet.com rather than other methods. It allows anyone from anywhere who comes across the media to visit comeandtrycroquet.com and find their local club.

Its how videos on the Gold Coast attract players in Toowoomba and how local invitations given out in Logan mentioning comeandtrycroquet.com will have visitors signed up to Twin Rivers.

Broadcast on 5 August 2026 on ABC Wide Bay Breakfast. Full broadcast available at ABC listen.

Hear Russell Davis describe the magic of the game in his own words.

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