Gateball pennants, the Gibson Medal and an AC Development Squad at Caloundra

Since our last report the weather has been kinder, however there have been days when rain has interfered with play. As I write this report, rain has cancelled play for the past three days.

Our Gateballers, despite being small in number, have been quite active. Our team of Robyn Brown, Glenda Windust, Howard Williams, Sue Dixon and Kath Hayes travelled to Bribie to compete in the CAQ Centenary Pennant competition.

Caloundra won the team and doubles events but were beaten in the triples. As a consequence Caloundra was declared the winner of the Sunshine Coast region and then travelled to Eildon last weekend (16, 17 July), to compete for the state title against other regional winners Southport, Rockhampton and Eildon.

Caloundra performed creditably and finished third overall. Congratulations to the Southport team for playing well and winning the Gateball Centenary Pennants. Special thanks to Ros Crowe for organizing this event, and to the Eildon club for their great hospitality.

After lunch on the Sunday, Barbara and Jim Northcott conducted a level 1 Gateball coaching course for six participants, four from Eildon and Robyn Brown and Howard Williams from Caloundra. We thank Barbara and Jim for their commitment to Gateball. Hopefully with two new coaches we can encourage more Caloundra members to play Gateball.

Prior to the pennant final, four Caloundra players along with Fran and David Buckle (Eildon) formed the "Caleildons", to play in the team event in the Southport MSOB carnival (25-27 June). All six players then paired up to make three entries in the doubles event. Once again we had mixed results in both competitions; and we thank Southport for once again hosting a successful event. It was very pleasing to see one of our newer players, Kerry Helmrich, participate in her first carnival.

The Caleildons (L-R) David, Kerry, Glenda, Robyn, Fran and Howard.

On the same weekend as the State Gateball Pennants, Caloundra hosted the Gibson Medal, a CAQ Association event. This year there were only seven participants which is somewhat disappointing. Last year we had sixteen players in this event. Congratulations to Kathie Grant (Southport) as winner of this event, and to Troy McCallum (Bundaberg) as runner up. Special thanks to Carole Atkinson for her efforts as tournament manager, and Murray Tinker for organizing the preparation of our courts.

Eight of our AC club members participated in an AC Development Squad program conducted by Liz and Bruce Fleming. Liz and Bruce organized three full day sessions with these members and we sincerely thank them for the time and effort they put into these sessions. Our club AC competitions are to commence shortly and the knowledge gained from this program will be put to good use.

One of the concerns in our club is that most of our golf croquet members are social players and we lack members willing to play competitively. However, Murray Tinker is flying the flag for Caloundra, as he and his partner, Peter Nicholson, from McIlwraith recently won the Queensland GC doubles. Congratulations Murray.

By Howard Williams, Caloundra. From the Croquet Newsletter, August 2022, pages 8-10.