Final day and high tea at the Downs tournament

Sunlit lawns and a spacious pavilion, lavishly flower-bedecked, made a charming setting at the Toowoomba Croquet Club for the final games of the 1954 Darling Downs croquet tournament and a high tea party yesterday afternoon.

After competing in, and watching the games on the lawns, the players and their friends gathered in the pavilion for tea. The main room was decorated with groupings of dahlias in rich and pastel colourings, and on the white-topped occasional tables were slender vases and shallow bowls holding bright flower heads and sprays of maidenhair fern.

The official hostess was the president of the tournament committee (Mrs. George Fogarty). She was assisted by the secretary (Mrs. Nelson Fox), the treasurer (Mrs. B. Binney), and the managers of the tournament (Mesdames W. A. Dean and J. Flegler).

Mrs. Fogarty wore a smartly cut suit of junior navy faille and added a zig-zag hat of matching woven straw, displaying a swathed ribbon "trim."

Among the invited guests was the patroness of the Toowoomba Croquet Club (Mrs. J. D. Annand), who wore a close-fitting hat with her simply styled frock in muted toned fabric.

After tea the trophies won during the tournament were presented by the president of the Queensland Ladies' Croquet Association (Mrs. Frank Williamson), who has been the guest of Mrs. R. H. Carlisle, Mary Street, for the past week. Other Brisbane players included Mesdames W. Massey, Cornelius, R. White and Banks, and Misses Wassell and A. Crowther.

Mesdames B. Bond and D. Brown, of Allora, who were among the country competitors, returned home yesterday afternoon.

The article as it was printed in The Toowoomba Chronicle, 3 April 1954. Scan from Trove, National Library of Australia. (Trove, National Library of Australia)