Toombul hosts the CAQ Golf Croquet Open Singles and the First and Second Eights

Toombul Croquet Club has been fairly busy this past month. The club has had two tournaments and two Pennants matches.

The club hosted the CAQ Golf Croquet Open Singles, which were held at Wynnum and Toombul on the 22nd and 23rd of April, then Toombul held the Plate. The play was good and everything ran fairly smoothly. The weather was a bit fresh. The Plate was won by Jenee Molyneux (Eildon). The referees were Di Leahy, Greg Kerswell, Gaye Pitman and Penny Jackson. The referees do a great job and the club thanks them very much for the time and effort they put in.

Over the second weekend, April 29 to May 1st, the First and Second Eights for Association Croquet in Queensland were held. It was quite interesting having the two tournaments running simultaneously. Fortunately Bruce Fleming was on hand to help with the XYZW Format on Croquet Scores. Liz and Bruce Fleming, and Willy Silk were the refs, and once again Toombul thanks them for their huge effort.

The First Eights, held over 3 days, was won by Robert Fletcher against Malcolm as a best of 5. The precision of both of them is amazing to watch. When Robert made his speech he said he was very happy with Toombul's courts. This thanks went to Wayne Appleby, the great greenkeeper. He also mentioned that Liz and Bruce were the No 1 Refs in the World.

The Second Eights was held over 2 days. This was a Round Robin, so easy to put on Croquet Scores. Jacky Lynch (Stephens) was the winner and Zach Kominar (Merthyr) was the runner up.

AC Pennant started in April and the Toombul/Merthyr AC combination played at Twin Rivers on 15 April. They were very welcoming and Kevin made a delicious cake. The score was 2-1 to Twin Rivers. The club also played Stephens on 13 May at Toombul. They also won 2-1; the club hopes this is not going to be a habit.

Toombul's GC score was 5 all but McIlwraith won by 1 hoop. Against Windsor the club won 4 matches, so for a side whose players haven't been playing much longer than 6 months the club has done very well.

By Hedi Trask, Toombul. From the Croquet Newsletter, May/June 2023, pages 30, 31.