Capricorn Coast mourns President Keith Gould, cancels Patron's Day

Normally at this time of the year we are preparing fun activities for our annual Patron's Day and Pinefest event where players from all clubs are invited to participate and enjoy the social croquet occasion. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances concerning unavailability of all members of the executive we have had to cancel the event this year. Two are away (one in hospital in England), two are ill and sadly one is no longer with us.

On Friday 2 September, our members were shocked and distressed to hear that our popular President, Keith Gould, died suddenly. Keith was a valued member who was always willing to assist with anything that needed doing: mowing when our green keeper was away, line marking, cleaning the club house, running errands for the secretary, mediating any disputes and giving lifts to one of our members. He was always cheerful, entertaining and kept everyone's spirits up. He will indeed be missed.

As per 2021, our final pennants match was against Gladstone and it was a repeat from last year in that once again we won on points. However, we were not as successful with our other pennants matches as unfortunately we lost two and one was cancelled.

As mentioned in our previous article, the Regional Games have continued with the last event being Aussie Croquet which was held at Gracemere. Three of our members participated and thoroughly enjoyed the day.

We had planned to hold a come and try day during the second half of the year to hopefully attract some new members to boost our membership. Unfortunately, this did not occur.

Last week we farewelled our Tasmanian member who has been visiting our club every winter for over 20 years. Sadly, we only had a few southern winter visitors this year. Due to illnesses and absences, our yearly club championships have been difficult to complete. Hopefully they will be completed before the end of the year.

By Lyn Christiansen, Capricorn Coast. From the Croquet Newsletter, October 2022, page 12.