Caloundra hosts inaugural Alternate Stroke AC Doubles and Fletcher brothers contest Australian Mens Final

On Thursday 17 August the club held its AGM. After three years of sterling effort, President Sue decided to step down, having dealt with the fall-out from Covid, and more recently the upgrading of all six courts. The club thanks Sue for her dedication to the club as President, and prior to this as a committee member. At this meeting, Treasurer John assured the club that we were financially viable, and that membership fees and playing fees would remain unaltered. The club's new committee is as follows: President Howard Williams; Vice President Sam Oaten; Treasurer John Nealer; Secretary Fran Meem; Committee members Mike Bertram, Robyn Brown, and Faye Carr; Club Captain Murray Tinker.

Last week, Club Captain Murray presented some interesting ideas to the committee, so we are looking forward to a productive year ahead.

The Association players are well advanced in their club singles competitions in all divisions. The club AC doubles handicap competition was played as a knock-out event over one day. This resulted in a win for the pairing of Mike Bertram and Sam Oaten. Their opponents in the final were Don Helmrich and Rikki Barrett.

Doubles finalists Mike Bertram, Sam Oaten, Rikki Barrett, and Don Helmrich.

For our Golf Croquet players there is the Doug Jones Memorial event and club championships to look forward to in the immediate future.

Last weekend, Caloundra hosted the inaugural CAQ Alternate Stroke AC Doubles competition. There were nine pairs entered in this event, including three pairs from Caloundra. Unfortunately, as there was only time for three 2.5-hour games each day, it was not possible for all teams to play each other, and six teams had to have a bye. The results were as follows:

Winners: Bruce Fleming (Wynnum) and Gordon Cooper (Bundaberg), undefeated.

Runners Up: Sam Oaten and Howard Williams, 5 wins from 6.

Third: Mike Bertram and Don Helmrich, 4 wins from 5.

Sam and Howard were somewhat fortunate as they did not play the top two seeded pairs, and they did lose by one hoop to Mike and Don in a close encounter.

Robyn Brown, Tournament Manager, with the Caloundra alternate stroke pairs.

The club thanks all the members who contributed in any way to make this a successful event. In particular we thank our Tournament Manager, Robyn Brown, for a task well done. It was pleasing to receive many positive comments on the standard of our lawns.

Our Gateball players participated in the Teams and Doubles State Titles that were held at the Pine Rivers courts in July. In the teams event we had mixed results, finishing 6th in a field of nine. However in the doubles event, Robyn and Sue performed creditably, finishing third in their pool, just missing out on participating in the final. We have nominated a team and three doubles pairs for the upcoming Gateball carnival in Toowoomba.

Robert Fletcher practicing on Court 3.

In a result just in, Robert Fletcher defeated his brother Malcolm in the Australian Mens Final (best of 5), 5-7, 7-5, 7-5, 6-7, 7-6. Congratulations to both Robert and Malcolm. The Fletcher brothers are members of our club and practice regularly on our courts.

By Howard Williams, Caloundra. From the Croquet Newsletter, September/October 2023, pages 8-10.