TASSIE TALES SEPTEMBER 2015 P a g e | 1

FROM THE PRESIDENT

At the Presentation Dinner after the Interstate Shield, and during my travels to the Masters Games

in Adelaide much praise has been given me regarding a magnificent team effort running the ACA

GC Gold medal, the Men's and Women's GC events, and the GC Interstate Shield. Everybody

involved, from referees, venue managers, hoop setters, lawn mowers, catering volunteers,

spectators, and even just club members who gave up the use of courts for the event all played

their part.

We have left a lasting impression on the Australian croquet community as able to rise to the

challenge, and put on an event that that was not only competently run but friendly as well. This

legacy should ease the path for Tasmania to host other national and international events in the

future such as the Eire Cup and the Trans-Tasman Internationals against New Zealand.

There are too many people for me to thank individually, and in fact I do not know who did what at

some venues, so to this opportunity to pass on my thanks for a magnificent whole of state effort to

all members of Croquet Tasmania.

Bob Godfrey

EAST LAUNCESTON CC REPORT

Hello to all from the East Launceston roquet

Club.

The Club is in full swing at the moment

assisting with preparations for the upcoming

National Titles.

We are very proud to have two members of

our Club representing Tasmania, they are

Ruth McKean and Grant Willson. We wish

them well in their endeavours.

Due to the very cold winter season our Club

Championships have not been completed.

However, congratulations go to the winners

so far. Grant Willson was successful in the

Open singles, Bill Greenhill in the Handicap

singles and Paul Boer was successful in the

Novice.

In the NRCC Doubles 6-8 Handicap event

Lynne Farrell (East Launceston) and Roberta

Campbell (Devonport) were successful. In the

TCA doubles competition Grant Willson and

June Pongratz won a very close fought final.

We wish the national competitors all the best

for the very exciting upcoming event and

welcome everyone to our state.

Lynne Farrell,

President

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ST LEONARDS CC REPORT

St Leonards Club members have been

extremely busy with volunteering their time to

prepare the lawns and the centre for the

Nationals. Our members have been involved

in line marking, lawn preparation, hoop

setting, spring cleaning, cooking and our

Master of “Big and Little Jobs” Neil Drury has

been flat out ensuring that all is in readiness.

Our thanks to everyone involved and we wish

all our state representatives the best in the

competitions.

Our members have also been excelling in

other ways – Bob Godfrey has been elected

Chairman of TCA, Jan Farrell won her

division in the recent Golf Croquet

tournament held in Northern Tasmania and

Kaye Jeffery played off in the final of the

State Doubles Golf Championship. Kaye is

also a reserve for the State Team. Neil Drury

was elected Chairman of the Club for 2015-

2016.

“Spring into Spring” Wattle Day was enjoyed

by the old and young and it was good to see

some of our older players enjoying the day

out. The Egyptian Golf Croquet Doubles

played on the day was won by Neil Drury and

Duncan Livingstone.

We had a good roll up of club members for

coaching by Sue Beattie in both Golf and

Association. Everyone learnt a lot and

appreciate Sue’s time in passing on some

good tips.

Above: Molly Mc Bain & Margaret Brockett

Some happy Wattle Day party goers at St

Leonards

Below: Duncan Livingstone & Neil Drury

TASSIE TALES PUBLICATION SCHEDULE

Remember “Tassie Tales” is your magazine. Everyone is invited to submit items of interest for publication. Closing date for copy in January 2016 issue is: - 17 December 2015

Please email contributions to peter.tracey@bigpond.com

TASSIE TALES SEPTEMBER 2015 P a g e | 3

SANDY BAY CROQUET CLUB OPENS

ITS 100th SEASON

Acting Lord Mayor Alderman Ron Christie,

accompanied by Ms Lili Sun, officially launched

the Sandy Bay Croquet Club’s 100th season on

Saturday 5 September. Following Alderman

Christie’s successful first hoop, around 50

members joined him and Ms Sun for a

wonderful morning tea before participating in

croquet on the lawns.

With the current membership at 97, Sandy Bay

is looking forward to a busy season with a

record number of teams entered in the

Association Croquet and Golf Croquet pennant

competitions.

The recently held Croquet Tasmania AC Men’s

Medal event was won by Callum Hyland

and runner-up was Bob Bye. In the Tweed

Heads Regional Tournament, Mignon and

David Johnston won the mixed double handicap

event and Mignon also won the Division 4

handicap. David won both the division 2

handicap and level events. David and Lance

Turner (formerly from Hobart and now from

Murwillumbah Club) were placed third in the

open doubles event.

As we move towards 2016 a host of exciting

events and celebrations are being planned to

mark our Centenary.

Yvonne Shaw

Promotions, SBCC

ROYAL PARK CC REPORT

Once again RPCC has had a very successful

year with membership on the rise after losing

some members due to ill health and moving

away.

I am particularly pleased with some of our

new members entering and playing well, in

the recent tournament at NTCC. A great

experience and the social interaction between

clubs is great to see.

In May RPCC once again held “THE

BIGGEST MORNING TEA” for the Cancer

Council and raised a considerable amount of

money for this worthy cause.

In November we have our Club tournament

“THE NUNN TROPHY” and this year both

singles and doubles will be played in the one

month. With many new members “really

keen” to improve their game, this should be

an interesting tournament for all who enter.

For the last three years we have held a

“CHRISTMAS IN JULY” social event for

RPCC. This has been at my home and

always well supported for a fun day and

general get together away from our normal

“game days”.

One of our new members Geoff Murray is a

designer and maker of silver jewellery. He

kindly donated two pieces for the National

Championships at NTCC this month. Looking

forward to that event and great Croquet in

2016.

Lois Richards

President RPCC

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REFEREEING AT THE GC

NATIONALS

From all reports the Refereeing went very well.

For most it was the first experience officiating at

a National event.

First of all I must thank and congratulate our

newly qualified Referees in Kaye Denny, Sue

Pearson, Joan Gill, Elaine Roomes, Kevin

MacDonald and Denis Macdonald in agreeing

to officiate and doing so well. I should also

mention Referees in Training in Di Hollier, Bob

Beattie, Hazel Lloyd and Elva Hutchinson who

helped to ease the workload on the qualified

Referees

In the Gold Medal State Team Member

Referees in Hugh Denny, Graham Keating and

Daryl Jacobs were able to officiate –thank you

guys.

In the Men’s event in Hobart all the more

experienced referees in Pam Hamilton, Ian

Smith, Jenny Parrott, Gwen Denehey, Patricia

Mc Neill, Liz Bassett and Henry Burbury shared

the heavy workload with the newly qualified.

We were also fortunate to have the services of

Judy Stewart of South Australia and of course

Jim Clement of Victoria who took over my

responsibilities as Tournament Referee when I

had a health issue. Jacki McDonald from

Newcastle and Tricia Vierra from Noosa

officiated at the New Town Club.

In the Women’s event in Launceston Grant

Wilson as Tournament Referee was ably

assisted by Lee Turner, Bob Godfrey (when he

wasn’t managing), the MacDonald Brothers and

Devonport’s Joan Gill and Bob Beattie from

Kingston. Ron Johnston from NSW also

refereed some matches

The Interstate Shield played at the two Northern

venues with 16 courts resulted in heavy

workloads for all referees. Thank you especially

to the southerners who travelled in Pam

Hamilton, Ian Smith, Henry Burbury and Bob

Beattie. Also our interstate visitors in Jacki

McDonald ,Tricia Vierra , Judy Stewart, Graeme

Thomas from South Australia ,Terry Ericson

and Graham Weymas from Queensland, Jim

Saunders from Victoria and of course Jim

Clement.

Well done all.

Graeme Denehey

Director of Refereeing

Denis MacDonald on the job.

OUR PERFORMANCE IN WCF

INTERSTATE SHIELD

Our team put in its best performance ever this

year with more Matches and Games won and

Hoops scored than in previous years – but

still NO TESTS.

Further, we only won 9 out of 40 doubles

games and no doubles matches despite trying

12 different combinations.

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Day 1 - Victoria

The eventual competition winners proved very

tough allowing us only one match and seven

games to their 14/33 with a large 112 net hoop

difference. Gina Kirkland was our star

performer winning a match.

Day 2 – South Australia

We took to the lawns with high hopes against SA

but were again undone by the eventual second

place getters winning one match and 9 games

(net hoop differnece 69) to their 12/31. Gina

starred again taking a match from Karen Magee.

This was the team’s first experience of the “lawns”

at Birch Avenue. Despite all the hard work put in

by the Northern organising committee,

Launceston City council staff and Henry Burbury

and Ian Smith the grounds proved a challenge

which was shared by all who played on them.

SA Captain Bernie Pfitzner in play

Day 3 – Western Australia

Our second best performance of the competition:

four matches and fifteen games (net hoop

difference 48) to WA’s 9/25. Graham Keating

won two matches, June Pongratz and Grant

Willson one each.

Day 4 – New South Wales

As with Victoria we expected a difficult day and

thus was the case, only one match and eleven

games. NSW were 10/29 with a 57 net hoop

difference. Our Women performed very well in

this test with June winning our only match and

Gina, June and Sue Beattie all sharing their

matches with one game in each.

Grant Willson running a hoop against WA

Day 5 – Queensland

Back to the rigours of Birch Avenue. Our best

Test for the series, four matches and fifteen

games (Qld 4/15) and net hoop difference only 35

hoops. Teams were level at the end of the

doubles with all matches being shared and

continued even with three matches each just prior

to the lunch break. We must all have over-eaten

at lunch time as we did not fare so well after lunch

winning only one more match to Queensland’s

six.

Ruth McKean clearing the Yellow with SA referee

Graham Thomas observing

WOMEN’S AC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Congratulations to Sue Beattie on reaching the

final 16 in the championships recently held in the

UK.

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24 HOUR EVENT

To celebrate 90 years of

CROQUET

being played in DEVONPORT the Club

is hosting a 24 hour event.

A game of Association Croquet doubles will commence at 2pm on

Saturday 28th of November and will continue until 2pm on Sunday

the 29th with an afternoon tea to follow.

Secure yourself a place in this historic event by nominating a 2

hour time slot and paying $5 (collected on the day).

You can even choose which ball you wish to play with, just contact

Patsy Paine on 64246152 or email at patsy.paine12@gmail.com

If numbers warrant it we may play a double banked second game

concurrently or if numbers are small you may like to play in more

than one time slot.

The Devonport Bowlers are going to bowl for 24 hours as well. The Bowls and Croquet Club

rooms will be open for darts, snooker etc to help keep you awake if not playing.

We are not trying for the Guinness World Record but we hope to set a challenge to all other

Croquet Clubs to beat the tally of hoops we make and to see who can make the longest break.

Patsy Paine

Croquet Chairperson

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Photos by courtesy of Robbie Lee (Kingston member)