Southport celebrates Seniors Day, welcomes ophthalmologists, and wins regional pennants

The end of the year brought on several active days before the courts were scarified and top dressed in mid November. There were two days during which we celebrated Seniors Day. One was on Wednesday, 11th October which brought approximately 60 visitors to the Club with 19 club members taking them through many different activities and ensuring good food was available throughout the day. The local Member of Parliament, Angie Bell, was an honoured guest. The second Seniors Day was on Sunday, 22nd October during which there were 50 visitors and club members who continued the provisioning and entertaining of the visitors.

Murray Trainor supervising a popular activity during the Seniors Day visit.

Also in October, a group of ophthalmologists from the Gold Coast area visited our croquet club to have their annual sporting challenge. Organised into teams of 4 with each team wearing fancy dress, they played golf croquet. Our Club members experienced hilarious moments during their visit and the exuberance of the group.

The competitive team named "4 Blind Mice" during the ophthalmologists' visit.

The annual IntraClub Gateball Triples Competition for the Beryl Phillips Trophy was held on 28th October. Five teams that were arranged using a high/low method of selection vied for the trophy. It was won by the team consisting Kerry Lamerton (Captain), Trudy Cummins and Rob Nicholson. Trudy was in the team that won it last year so her lucky charm will be sought after in 2024.

The Gold Coast Tweed Regional Christmas Party was held at Burleigh Heads Palm Beach Club on Monday 27th November. It was a very well organised day. The Southport Red won the Division 1 Golf Croquet Pennants while the Southport Movers won the Division 2 competition. Randall Whyte won the singles player of the year award for Division 1 and Trevor Gray won the Division 2 award. With Ricochet for the Region, the Southport team won the Pennants this year.

Hisham Elkomy, Randall Whyte and Alan Edwards, GCTR President and GC Coordinator.

Barbara Northcott with Garry Purcell, AC and Ricochet Coordinator.

Because the courts were being refurbished, a working bee was organised and the inside and outside of the Club was cleaned. Surfaces of outside furniture were painted and inside areas including the toilets were painted. The recent rain has brought on very good growth of the grass so let's hope all of the weeds were eliminated before the rain fell.

The Club's Christmas Party and Presentation Day will be on the Saturday 9th December. From now on the members are pleased to be able to resume playing on their usual days. Christmas time is when the Club is usually closed for the refurbishment of the surface of the courts. Congratulations to Kathie Grant on being selected in the QLD Association Croquet Team and in being selected as Vice Captain.

Some of our members who play Gateball will be travelling down to the Cherry Street Croquet Club at Ballina on the 14th December because Ray Chapman at that Club has extended an invitation to Southport players. He wishes to provide more experience with this code for himself and several other members.

Wishing everyone a joyous Christmas and a Happy New Year.

By Barbara Northcott, Southport. From the Croquet Newsletter, November/December 2023, pages 21-24.