The club turned out in style, despite a few members attending the Spring Carnival at Young and the McRobertson Trophy at Rich River. Those present also included Alan & Catherine Morton of the Fylde Croquet Club in Lancashire, UK.
James (John) Hope was born 9th October, 1903. He graduated from Sandhurst Military College, spent 30 years in the British Army and retired with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He served in India and Hong Kong, then in the 20th Indian Division during the Second World War, then when hostilities ceased he was present at the surrender by the Japanese to Lord Louis Mountbatten in Burma.
He arrived in Australia in 1971 and lived in Bowral N.S.W. where he introduced croquet at the Bowral golf Club and played there for twenty years. When that venue was terminated he joined the Bundanoon Croquet Club in 1995 where he played regularly until 99 years of age. John visits the club on occasions, and last year on his 102nd birthday he presented the club with his mallet which, suitable inscribed, occupies a prominent place in the club trophy cabinet.
Lawn mowers were used with great affect to clear away the mess left by the scarifier and made what can be a hard job relatively easy. A short break for a 'cuppa' and then back to work. Then with an assortment of wheel barrows, a trusty shovel or two , some very willing helpers about five tonnes of sand was wheeled out onto the lawn.
The ladies Kay, Helen, Ruth, Wendy (from Wales Hi Auntie Connie) along with Tim and Reese took turns wheeling the sand out and a tally was kept to make sure no one missed their turn.
In the meantime Jim had got the ride on mower out of the garage and with the spreader attached by rope went to work to spread it evenly over the grass.
The whole operation was finished by 10.30 am and now we wait for the 'grass to grow'.
Club members are going to visit other clubs while the lawn is down and are looking forward to seeing old friends.
In the meantime we all look forward to next year knowing that we will have to do it all agan!.
Thanks everyone.
Geof McDonald
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Out of the blue they came. A delightful group of year 7 Sydney Girls High School students who had on their own initiative and the blessing of their Principal Mrs M. Varady investigated the wonders of the magical game of croquet.
Read all about it... |
This is a new interclub competition between Jamberoo and Bundanoon croquet clubs, and is the result of serious discussions between both our clubs since the Bundanoon Autumn Carnival held in March this year.
The shield is named after the Morton National Park, which lies between Bundanoon and Jamberoo.
The inaugural competition was to take place on the second Monday in September, but was rained out. Fortunately the good people from Jamberoo were able to turn up next Monday, to a day of perfect sunshine weather.
Initially the competition was to be between Bronze players, however after further consideration, a variation enabled lower handicap members to be included.
A total of seven events were played, consisting of six single games, and one doubles. Players were matched with similar handicaps where possible, without the use of bisques. The competition was played under advanced play rules, including turns after the bell according to rule 15C.
Towards the end of the day, Jamberoo and Bundanoon had three games each. Then the final singles game resulted in a win to Bundanoon.
So a well-played competition, with a final score of four to three, resulted in the Morton Park Shield being awarded to Bundanoon, much to the delight of Bundanoon captain, Dick Topham.
Bundanoon players from left to right are: Jackie Crossle, David Archer, Sheila Topham, Leila Merson, Freda Doy, and Marion Beurle;
together with captain Dick Topham holding the shield. |
And from Jamberoo, left to right are:
Marilyn Benson, Len Chafer, Christine Peters, Diana Chafer, David Simmonds, and David Probert
(with Dick Topham in the center, still holding firmly onto the shield). |
The competition results were:
| Jamberoo | Bundanoon | |||
| Diana Chafer | 14w | Vs | Freda Doy | 4 |
| Len Chafer and David Simmonds | 14 | Vs | David Archer and Sheila Topham | 17w |
| Christine Peters | 6 | Vs | Jackie Crossle | 9w |
| Marilyn Benson | 14w | Vs | Marion Beurle | 9 |
| Len Chafer | 6 | Vs | Sheila Topham | 15w |
| David Simmonds | 15w | Vs | David Archer | 13 |
| David Probert | 15 | Vs | Leila Merson | 19w |
At the moment two days have been set aside but this may change depending on the number of entries. Play will be organised in round robin blocks. Competition will be held in three divisions:-
- Primary Years 4 - 6
- Junior Secondary Years 7 - 9
- Senior Secondary Years 10 - 12
Students would be expected to wear their school sports uniform and MUST wear a hat and sunscreen for protection. To assist country players billeting could be arranged if requested.
Entry forms including permission notes will soon be available on the NSW Web Page and will be sent to each club in the next mail out. There will not be any entry fee. Children will not be permitted to leave the venue during the day and will be supervised at all times. Parents and teachers will be welcome.
I would welcome any comments and suggestions
Jacky McDonald
Vice President
The clubs visited were as follows:-
Lismore also had 10 students from Trinity Catholic College present on one of the afternoons so that the Lismore members could watch Kenn at work.
Club Participants Other Clubs represented Wagga Wagga 6 Bundanoon 12 Southern Highlands, Canberra Nowra 7 Maitland 22 National Park, Miller Park, Toronto Taree 16 Port Macquarie, Forster Lismore 18 Alstonville, Ballina
Kenn is primarily involved with Aussie Croquet and how best to introduce it to schoolchildren. However these skills are ideal for any person being introduced to croquet. Kenn also covered hoop running, jump shots, rolls, stop shots as well as attending to individual requests. At Bundanoon the weather was not kind so the carpet inside was used to good effect as well as the lawn outside.
At each club the day was judged an outstanding success. Kenn has the extraordinary ability to supply clear and easy to understand instruction and to make what seems complex simple. The feedback from participants included such comments as "Can we have him back again?", "Fantastic", "Now I can do a pass roll", "I liked the way he simplified the game", "Everything was great"
Suggestions for improving the day included:- more participants, make a video recording, use a day when school students can be present, make the day longer, have a follow up day.
Taree was the only club visited who is not already involved with school croquet and they have approached the local high school(across the road) to include croquet in their sports curriculum.
Thank you to all the clubs who were so helpful with the organisation of Kenn’s visit and for providing an evaluation. It is hoped to make this an annual event so if your club may be interested please contact Croquet NSW.
Jacky McDonald
Vice President
Two club championships have been held with the winner of the golf Croquet Singles being Wal Poole and the winners of the Golf Croquet doubles Kaye Poole and Ruth Harden.
Members have travelled to Golf Croquet Carnivals and Friendship Days at Forster, Muswellbrook, Toronto, Maitland and National Park. Geof and I have played croquet in NSW with varying degrees of success. Geof and his partner John Levick won the NSW Open doubles and Geof was then runner up in the ACA Bronze Medal. My partner Bill Cooper and I won the NSW Golf Croquet Handicap Doubles Championship.
We also travelled to the NZ Open in January which was a disaster as far as Geof’s croquet was concerned but major back surgery in March seems to have him almost back to normal.
Playing days have remained Monday, Tuesday and Saturday with the lawn available for practice on the other days. If membership increases at the same rate as this year we will have to consider an extra playing day.
Branxton Public School offered croquet as a sport in Term 4 last year and Term 2 this year. This is only possible if members are prepared to assist in coaching.
All voluntary clubs rely heavily on the efforts of their members and thanks must go to all those who have assisted with lawns, school children and other club matters. In fact special a thankyou must be extended to Wal for his work on not only the lawns but also the gardens.
Finally I would like to thank all of you for making Miller Park Croquet Club such a friendly place and wish you all good croquet for the next year.
Jacky McDonald
President
As is usual the lawns and maintenance of them is a general topic and it has been decided to look at fully automating our watering system. This will allow for greater flexibility in watering times and do away with the necessity of getting volunteers to come in and move or turn off hoses. It will start when we do lawn renovations later on in the year.
There have been a couple of golf croquet days and they have been very succesfull with visitors from a variety of clubs attending. We are having another one on the 18th of next month and we are all looking forward to it. On the other side we have also had players going to play in other club tournaments all over the place. It is turning into a very social year.
Association Croquet held its annual tournament and unfortunately due to the loss of a sponsor the 'Gift' was not held. Apart from that drawback the rest of the week went off well. There was some good croquet played, and not so good, but that is 'croquet'. The main thing is to enjoy it and I think everyone did.
John Levick and I played in the NSW Mens Open singles and John played very well but unfortunately was pipped at the post and missed out on proceeding to the finals. I on the other hand didn't do so well but I was pleased to be just playing as I have just recovered from major back surgery. I am now playing with a '42 inch' mallet that is taking some getting used to.
We have been actively looking for new members as there has been a steady decline of membership over the past couple of years. Chris Pont has been very active in this regard and has organised a variety of stalls and letter drops. We have had mixed success and at the moment have about half a dozen new players who may stick around. Let's hope so!
Geof McDonald
The following photographs are from the National Park Hunter Festival Day:
The healthy rivalry between the Canberra and Queanbeyan Croquet Clubs continued in May, with the playing of the Blackall Cup, a long running, annual competition held in Autumn between the two clubs.
After a long time of Canberra holding the Cup, Queanbeyan finally brought it home this year, winning the 2 part comp, 5 games to 3.
The photograph shows Queanbeyan player Elwyn Smith setting up for a hoop.
Sarah O'Sullivan