welcome to
NELSON BAY CROQUET CLUB
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Nelson Bay Croquet Club has been established for 26 years. It is located in the Blue Water Paradise of Port Stephens, just north of Newcastle, NSW. Membership is open to all who are interested in the game, and visitors are warmly welcomed.
Members play all the three internationally recognised forms of Croquet – Golf, Ricochet and Association. The Club plays both social and competitive games five days each week on four professionally maintained full sized courts and has a small clubhouse on-site. We also have an active program of social events.
Playing schedule available here:
NEWSLETTER
We need YOUR help!! If you have items that need to be communicated to other members of the Club, please e-mail them to David Wilson at David_Wilson@internode.on.net
Also, if you have photographs of members and/or Club events, please e-mail them to Karen Lilly at chaz.kaz@bigpond.com
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
2022 CLUB COMPETITIONS
The Club competitions have been scheduled as follows:
Blowes Shield - Sunday 16th October
President's Cup - Sunday 30th October
CHRISTMAS BUSH BASH
19th-21st November 2022
The Club is hosting the inaugural Christmas Bush Bash, a Golf Croquet Open Doubles Tournament for visitors from other clubs.
Further details here:
Sponsored by: Supported by:
K-Mart Salamander Bay
Newcastle Permanent Building Society
Wests Group Australia
ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday 9th November 2022 at Bruce Scott Pavilion, Tomaree Sports Centre, starting at 2:30pm.
LATEST NEWS
NSW AC SILVER BROOCH
Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th September 2022
Peter Gordon won his 4th State Title of 2022 at the NSW Association Croquet Silver Brooch competition held at Croquet NSW headquarters in Tempe. The 2022 competition was played Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th September 2022 as a double round-robin as there were only 4 entries.
The competition started in chilly conditions making the courts slightly slower early but increasing in pace throughout the day as they dried out. Monday afternoon was overcast with a cold wind; however, Tuesday was cool but sunny providing great conditions to play croquet on Tempe’s flat, hard and fast courts.
The Silver Brooch is singles play for AC handicaps 7 to 10 with 26-hoop games but a 2 ½ hour time limit for each game. Each player played 3 games per day and in only 2 of the 12 games played did a player ‘peg out’ (score 26 hoops) before time.
Peter won 5 of his 6 games, losing only to Rob Wright (Mosman), the top seed as the player with the lowest AC handicap. Peter finished with +43 net hoops with the next best being Joanne Brown (Cammeray) with +30.
Peter receives the Silver Brooch
from Tournament Manager David Stanton
HAIL STOPS PLAY
Tuesday 23rd August 2022
Just as the afternoon ricochet session was about to start, the heavens opened and down came the hail. Within minutes, the courts were covered in a white blanket of hail stones. Karen could not resist rushing out to frolic in the "snow"!!
Very unusual occurrence in these parts and we could not recall the courts looking like a ski run ever before.
A white blanket covers the courts
Throwing snowballs at the moon
THOMPSON TROPHY C GRADE
Sunday 14th August 2022
The C Grade championship was played on Sunday 14th August 2022. Following weeks of unsettled weather, the players enjoyed a beautiful late winter day which resulted in 18 members contesting the championship. The competition was played as 2 blocks of 4 and 2 blocks of 5 with the winners of each block playing a semi-final and final.
The members contesting the final were Bev Apps, Faby Batho, Beryl Chalkley, Col Chalkley, Pat Edmonds, Barry Elliott, Marion Graff, Les Guzowski, Allen Lees, Rod Peet, Vivienne Pitt, Jan Puckeridge, Marty Quirke, Ros Slaughter, Kay Smith, Ian Spight, Rosemary Taylor and Jenny Turner.
In the qualifying round-robin block play, the results were: Col Chalkley (3 wins from 3 games) won Block A with Allen Lees; Ian Spright (3 from 4) won Block B on hoop count-back from Kay Smith; Rod Peet (3 from 3) won Block C from Beryl Chalkley; and Barry Elliott (3 from 4) won Block D on hoop count-back from Les Guzowski.
In the semi-finals, Ian beat Col 7-2 and Barry beat Rod 7-4. The final was a very close contest with the only one hoop separating Ian and Barry throughout. Ian was in the box seat in the later stages leading 6-5 with 2 hoops to play, but Barry staged a great come-back to triumph 7-6.
Thanks to Peter Gordon and Margaret Thompson for refereeing the competition.
David Wilson & Margaret Thompson congratulate the finalists, Ian Spight & Barry Elliott
Action from the championship
Interested spectators
Life Member Margaret Thompson
Referee & President discuss the finer points of play
CNSW SILVER BROOCH
Chatswood Croquet Club
Monday 1st to Wednesday 3rd August 2022
The CNSW Silver Brooch is an annual GC State Singles competition for players with handicap 3 to 6, which was hosted by Chatswood Croquet Club from 1st to 3rd August 2022.
15 players entered including Peter Gordon, Sherry Gordon and Sandy Tawa. The competition comprised two blocks of round-robin qualification with the top 4 players progressing to the finals knock-out stage. The losers contested the knock-out Plate competition.
Playing in Block A, Peter Gordon won 5 of 6 games, finishing 3rd on hoop count-back. In the finals, he beat Patrick Rundle (Royal Sydney Golf Club) 7-2 in the first-round, Trevor Edgoose (Hunters Hill) 7-6 / 7-3 in the semifinal, and Ronald May (EDSACC) 7-5 / 5-7 / 7-1 in the final.
Sherry Gordon and Sandy Tawa played in the Plate competition with Sandy losing the semi-final but finishing third by beating Bob Berry (Chatswood) 7-5.
The Nelson Bay contingent with Ron May, runner-up at 90 years of age - an advertisement for ‘remaining active’
Peter receives the Silver Brooch
Sandy, Peter and Sherry
BI-MONTHLY SINGLES
Sunday 31st July 2022
9 members contested the July bi-monthly singles, meaning the competition was played in 2 blocks, with the winners of each block playing a final. Block A: Col Chalkley, Anke Crick, Rod Peet, Rosemary Taylor and Jenny Turner. Block B: Les Guzowski, Anne Jensen, Jan Puckeridge and Vivienne Pitt.
In Block A , Col, Rod and Rosemary all finished with 3 wins with Rod being declared the winner on hoop count-back - +11 ahead of Col (+5) and Rosemary (+3).
In Block B, Les was undefeated to top the Block with Vivienne 2nd on hoop count-back.
In the final, Les beat Rod 7-3 to win the day. Congratulations to Rae Uptin on a successful day.
A successful day!!
ANNUAL CHRISTMAS / PRESENTATION DINNER
The annual Christmas / Presentation Dinner will be held on Friday 9th December 2022 at Nelson Bay Golf Club, starting at 6pm.