welcome to
NELSON BAY CROQUET CLUB
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Nelson Bay Croquet Club has been established for 27 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.
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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:
BOOKING FOR TUESDAY MORNING GC PLAYING SESSION
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The Tuesday morning GC playing session has been regularly over-subscribed and to mange the numbers an online booking system has been introduced.
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To play, register at
https://bookwhen.com/nelsonbaycroquet
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The booking system opens at 8am on the Sunday before each Tuesday playing session
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
ANNUAL CHRISTMAS/PRESENTATION LUNCH
The annual Christmas/Presentation Lunch will be held at the clubhouse on Sunday 3rd December. BYO meat for the BBQ, nibbles and drinks, the club will provide salads.
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The courts will be open from 11:00am with the BBQ being fired-up at 12:15 to have lunch around 1:00pm with the presentation of trophies around 2:15pm.
ANNUAL COURT MAINTENANCE
The annual court maintenance will commence on Thursday 14th December 2023. The courts will be closed for around 2 weeks with the first playing session after the maintenance scheduled to be Friday 29th December 2023.
LATEST NEWS
CHRISTMAS BUSH
Friday 17th to Monday 20th November 2023
The 2nd annual Christmas Bush tournament was held Friday 17th to Monday 20th November 2023. The competition comprised 4 blocks of 8 teams each playing a round-robin of level play followed by a round-robin of handicap play, 224 games in total over the 4 days.
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64 croquet players travelled to Nelson Bay from around NSW - from as far north as Grafton, as far south as Wagga Wagga and as far west as Orange. The teams were seeded on combined handicap with the lowest handicap teams playing in Black A and the highest handicap teams playing in Block D.
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More details here:
Christmas Bush at courts
Play on Day 1 of Christmas Bush tournament
NSW CHAMPION OF CHAMPIONS
Saturday 11th & Sunday 12th November 2023
Pamela Barnwell won the Club’s Thompson Trophy A Grade competition in June 2023 and entered the NSW 2023 Golf Croquet Champion of Champions on behalf of Nelson Bay. The competition was played Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th November at Tempe, CNSW’s headquarters. 7 clubs were represented: Canberra, Nelson Bay, Newcastle NP, Queanbeyan, Royal Sydney Golf Club, Sutherland and Toronto.
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The 7 players played a qualifying round-robin block of untimed 13-point games. Pamela won 4 of 6 games to finish 2nd to Grant Denyer (Sutherland). In the best-of-three final, Pamela was in top form to run out the 7-5 7-1 winner. A great result, well done, Pamela.
Pamela Barnwell at Tempe
MAITLAND UNDER LIGHTS
Saturday 11th November 2023
6 members from Nelson Bay played in the Maitland Under Lights GC Doubles Competition on Saturday 11th November: Peter & Sherry Gordon, Rob & Faby Batho and Greg Long & Jane Scorer. There were 18 pairs playing in 3 separate blocks, of 13-point games with a 30-minute limit. Greg & Jane won 4 of 5 games to win Block C outright. Another great result, well done, Greg & Jane.
Nelson Bay at Maitland
AGM LIFE MEMBER
Wednesday 8th November 2023
At the AGM held on Wednesday 8th November 2023, Trevor Black was elected as a Life Member of the Club .
Trevor is the 4th Life Member of the Club. and joins Margaret-Rose Thompson as current Life Members.
Trevor & Margaret-Rose at the AGM
MELBOURNE CUP
Tuesday 7th November 2023
The playing session on Tuesday 7th November 2023 celebrated Melbourne Cup with a special morning tea, sweepstakes on the race and best dressed prizes.
A great morning with some rather worrying images!!
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Melbourne Cup 2023
GLOUCESTER MASTERS
Saturday 4th November 2023
10 Nelson Bay Croquet Club members travelled to Gloucester for the one-day Golf Croquet Doubles Masters competition held on Saturday 4th November – Faby Batho, Rob Batho, Peter Gordon, Sherry Gordon, Les Guzowski, Karen Lilly, Brenda-Lee Peet, Rod Peet, Jane Scorer and Rae Uptin.
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The 20 teams were divided into 4 blocks of 5 teams, providing a round-robin of 4 games for each team. The games were played as 13-point games with a time limit of 50 minutes.
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Nelson Bay members enjoyed a successful day, winning 3 of the 4 blocks and runners-up in 2:
Block A 1st Brenda-Lee and Rod Peet
2nd Peter and Sherry Gordon
Block B 1st Rob Batho and Lyn Stewart (Gloucester)
Block C 1st Faby Batho and Chris Sims (Gloucester)
2nd Jane Scorer and Eric Drury (Port Macquarie)
A great day for the club with 7 of 10 players being successful.
Block A success
Nelson Bay at Gloucester
Gloucester Masters