Merthyr celebrates CAQ's centenary with a BBQ and rules update

Merthyr celebrated CAQ's centenary with a mid-year member celebration BBQ. We took this opportunity to invite Cloreen van der Sluis (Co-ordinator of Golf referees) to conduct a 6th edition rules update session for our referees and members. Many thanks to Cloreen for travelling down from the Sunshine Coast to our beautiful club. David Drake, Merthyr's membership officer, distributed CAQ 100 year badges to members present, and the event was attended by our club patron, local councillor Vicki Howard and her team who brought some splendid libations for the occasion.

We've been busy with many private functions throughout the month (including one booking just to use our parking lot). We've had a visitor from Victoria's Phillip Island (home of the famous Penguin Parade) play with us regularly this month, and it looks like she'll be a regular feature to our club when she's in town. It's been interesting discussing different club dynamics and culture between her home club and our club. Closer to home, we seem to be in a flurry of activity of new members, with many new members bringing their friends and neighbours down to play and join the club lately.

Competitive Play

Golf: Merthyr's Division 3 Golf Pennants play continues with a few matches occurring through the month, play will finish in the next month or two. A hearty congratulations to David Phillips who recently entered his first singles competition (outside of pennants) and came runner up in his block at the monthly Windsor GC Brooch competition. Casey De-vene continues to play regular tournaments and came runner-up in the consolation final at Qld GC President's Medal event in a close tussle with John Turner from Southport.

Association: Zach Kominar ventured down to Tweed Heads to participate in the Div 2 event as part of the week-long Gold Coast Tweed Region Tournament. With some solid play over two days, he was beat in his final match leaving the results to a net-hoop calculation. A special note of thanks to the wonderful kitchen crew who made an absolutely scrumptious pumpkin soup which kept him going over two chilly days of play. A second special thanks to Penny Guthrie for her keen interest and hospitality, and wonderful article about Zach and youthful croquet players.

By Zac Kominar, Merthyr. From the Croquet Newsletter, October 2022, pages 24, 25.