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NELSON BAY CROQUET CLUB
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Nelson Bay Croquet Club has been established for 28 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:
FORTHCOMING EVENTS
CLUB PATRON VISIT
Meryl Swanson MP, Federal Member for Paterson, will join a plying session on Tuesday October 1 at 10:00am for an hour. Please come along and welcome our patron.
CLUB COMPETITIONS 2024
The dates of the 2024 intra-club competitions are as follows (all competitions played on Sundays):
Ricochet Knockout
Thompson Trophy Division 1
Blowes Shield
President's Cup
July / August
6th October
20th October
3rd November
CNSW STATE PENNANTS 2024 - HOME MATCHES
The Club will field 2 x Division 2 and 1 x Division 3 teams in 2024. The home matches I n the Hunter Region Qualifying Tournament are as follows:
Division 2 Fingal
Thursday 3rd October vs Toronto, 1:00pm
Thursday 7th November vs Newcastle National Park, 1:00pm
[Sunday 10th Nov ember vs NB Shoal, 10:00am]
Division 2 Shoal
Monday 30th September vs Pelican, 1:00pm
Sunday 10th November vs NB Fingal, 10:00am
Division 3
Thursday 15th August vs Newcastle National Park, 1:00pm
Monday 2nd September vs EDSACC, 11:00am
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LATEST NEWS
MERYL SWANSON PATRON
Tuesday 1st October 2024
The Club’s Patron, Meryl Swanson Member of Parliament for the seat of Paterson in the Federal House of Representatives, visited the Club on Tuesday 1st October 2024. She was welcomed by President David Smith and then played a few hoops of croquet before sharing morning tea with members.
Meryl indicated that it was an honour to be Patron of such an active Club and celebrated that the sun had returned for her first ever game of croquet. She also congratulated the Club on being selected, together with other Hunter croquet clubs, to host a series of Australian Championships in 2015. Finally, she thanked the Club for the warm welcome and for putting on a beautiful morning tea.
Nelson Bay, together with EDSACC, Maitland, Newcastle National Park, Pelican and Toronto croquet clubs, will host the Australian Golf Croquet Gold Medal (starting 3rd September 2025, the Australian Golf Croquet Men’s and Women’s Championship (starting 6th September 2025) and the Interstate Series (ISS, 10th to 15th September 2025).​
Great weather and a fun day
Meryl celebrates running a hoop
Meryl discusses croquet with Trevor Black
COME-AND-TRY DAYS
Sunday 22nd September 2024
Wednesday 18th September 2024
On Wednesday 18th September 11 participants attended a Come-and-Try event organised for the Tomaree Hospital Auxiliary. On Sunday 22nd September 36 participants attended a Come-and-Try day for the general public.
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Both were hugely successful with 12 participants already booked for further introductory lessons.
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A big thank you to Jane Scorer for organising these events and to all the members who assisted by spreading the word, manning the table at the shopping centre, plus cooking-up a storm and helping out at the events themselves. The success of these events was always going to be dependent on the help from members and a significant number responded magnificently.
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Another success for the Club.
Trevor Black assists one of the participants
The courts look a picture
Fun and action at the events
TAREE ON MANNING GOLF CROQUET
Tuesday 17th - Friday 20th September 2024
32 players from around NSW travelled to Mid-North Coast area of NSW for the Taree on Manning GC tournament. Nelson Bay members Peter & Sherry Gordon, Karen Lilly, Rod & Brenda-Lee Peet and Rae Uptin competed in the 4-day tournament.
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The players were seeded into 4 blocks for singles play and 2 blocks for doubles play, each played as a separate competition. Rod Peet finished runner-up in the Block C singles winning 4 of 6 games and Sherry Gordon finished runner-up in the Block D singles winning 6 of 7 games but placed 2nd on hoop count-back.
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A well run successful tournament with more success for the Club.
Action from Taree on Manning
Sherry receives her runner-up award
Picturesque Taree Croquet Club
SPRING GC SINGLES
Sunday 15th September 2024
The Spring GC Singles were played in rain, hail, strong winds and occasional sunshine. Fifteen intrepid members contested the tournament which was played in 3 blocks of 5 players, seeded on handicap with the lowest handicap players in Block A and the highest handicap players in Block C.
The atrocious weather made for very challenging conditions but the dedication of the players meant all the games were completed and all the players stayed until the end of the day. The block winners and runners-up were:
Block A: Frank Orton 1st with 3 wins (+10 hoops) and Greg Long 2nd with 3 wins (+4 hoops)
Block B: Jane Scorer 1st with 3 wins (+13 hoops) and Bruce Chapman 2nd with 3 wins (+8 hoops)
Block C: Barbara Burgess 1st with 4 wins and Julia Harrison 2nd with 3 wins
Congratulations to all the hardy players who braved the conditions and also to Peter Gordon, Trevor Black and Rae Uptin for organising the play, Les Guzowski for preparing the courts and Ralph Harrison for refereeing.
Block Winners and Runners-up
Play in atrocious conditions
MAITLAND UNDER LIGHTS
Saturday 7th September 2024
Jane Scorer and Greg Long finished runners-up in Block B of the September Maitland Under Lights tournament. Alistair Torrance / Tony Hammond (Newcastle National Park) won the block.
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The tournament also included a series of 'jump shot' prizes and Jane won two prizes of $20 each - well done!!
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Another great night under the lights at Maitland and a success for the Club.
Jane and Greg celebrate their success
PORT MACQUARIE GOLF CROQUET CARNIVAL
Tuesday 3rd - Saturday 6th September 2024
24 players from around NSW travelled to Port Macquarie for the annual GC carnival. Liz Friend, Brenda-Lee Peet and Rod Peet entered from Nelson Bay. Liz and Rod entered both the singles and doubles with Brenda-Lee only contesting the singles.
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The singles were played as a double round-robin of 6 players in each of 4 blocks. Liz finished 3rd in Block A with 6 wins from 10 games while Brenda-Lee won Block B with 8 wins from 10 games.
Brenda-Lee (centre) awarded winner Block B