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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 COMPETITIONS 2024
The dates of the 2024 intra-club competitions are as follows (all competitions played on Sundays):
Thompson Trophy Novice
Winter Doubles
Ricochet Knockout
Thompson Trophy Division 2
Thompson Trophy Division 3
Thompson Trophy Division 1
Spring Singles
Blowes Shield
President's Cup
19th May
2nd June
June / July
30th June / 1st July
11th August
25th August
15th September
20th October
3rd November
CNSW GOLF CROQUET SILVER BROOCH
27th-29th July 2024
The annual CNSW GC Silver Brooch will be hosted by Nelson Bay in 2024. The Silver Brooch is a level play competition for players with a handicap.between 3 and 6.
LATEST NEWS
HUNTER DIVISION 2 GC DOUBLES CHALLENGE
Newcastle National Park
Sunday 14th April 2024
On a beautiful sunny Sunday, eight Hunter teams from Maitland, Nelson Bay, Pelican and Newcastle NP croquet clubs entered the carnival, and these were divided into 2 blocks of 4 teams. Each block was allocated to a court and played a round robin of 3 rounds of handicap play before lunch and then after lunch the teams played one round of Advantage play as a learning and practice exercise.
At the end of the handicap round robin the winners were announced. Block A was won by Rae Uptin and Brenda-Lee Peet from Nelson Bay with 3 wins. Block B was won by Tony Hammond and Alastair Torrence from Newcastle NP narrowly beating Barry Elliott and Laurie Lawson from Nelson Bay by net hoops after both teams finished on 2 wins.
Two trainee GC Referees from EDSACC and Nelson Bay attended the day and gained valuable experience in a supervised and competitive environment.
block.
Barbara-Lee Peet & Rae Uptin in Block A
(David Wilson refereeing)
AUTUMN SINGLES
Sunday 7th & Tuesday 9th April 2024
15 members entered the Autumn Singles and were seeded into 3 blocks of 5 players, each playing a round-robin of 4 games: Faby Batho, Colin Bailey, Barbara Burgess, Colin Chalkley, Greg Long, Frank Orton, Kath Orton, John O'Shea, Linda O'Shea, Jeff Pettifer, Jan Puckeridge, Rosemary Taylor, John Townsend, Geoff Yonge & Nada Yonge
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Greg Long was undefeated in Block A to finish ahead of Kath Orton (3 wins), In Block B, Frank Orton finished top unbeaten ahead of Faby Batho (3 wins). Colin Bailey won Block C with 3 wins ahead of Colin Chalkley with 2 wins..
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The final was played 0n Tuesday 9th April as a 3 player round robin featuring the 3 block winners. All the games were extremely close: Colin Bailey beating Frank Orton 7-5 and Greg Long prevailing over Frank 7-6. The final game decided the competition with Colin narrowly beating Greg 7-6 to take out the Autumn Singles.
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Congratulations to Les Guzowski on a closely fought competition..
Players waiting to take to the courts
Action from the qualifying block play on Sunday 7th
The finalists: Colin, Greg & Frank
PARKES MASTERS GAMES
Saturday 23rd March 2024
On their tour around NSW, Trevor and Rae Black called into Parkes and played in the Parkes Masters Games GC Doubles..
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Seeded into Block A, Trevor & Rae won 5 of 6 games, level with Len Banks & Bruce Thornton, but their +15 hoop difference (versus +11) saw them win the block.
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Great result, Trevor & Rae
Trevor & Rae, Winners Block A
MAITLAND SWEET PEA
Saturday 16th to Monday 18th March 2024
The Maitland Sweet Pea Golf Croquet tournament was held Saturday 16th to Monday 18th March and attracted 48 entries from around the state, including 15 members of Nelson Bay – a great showing by the Club (Trevor Black also refereed). The 24 pairs were divided into 3 blocks of 8 based on handicap and played a double round-robin, one round of level play and one round of handicap play, 14 games each in total.
The weather was wet which made play difficult but was arguably better than the extreme heat experienced in the weeks leading up to the tournament.
Peter & Sherry Gordon won Block A with 10 wins ahead of Alex Chapman (Urunga) and David Smith with 9 wins. In Block B, Les Guzowski & Greg Long finished 3rd with 8 wins - Alan Smith & Cheryl Smith (Strathfield) won Block B with 10 wins. Colin Bailey & Frank Orton finished 2nd in Block C with 10 wins and +27 hoops narrowly ahead of Jill & Eric Drury (Port Macquarie) with 10 wins and +17 hoops - Margaret Carwood & Di Williams (Maitland) won Block C with 12 wins.
Other members playing were Karen Lilly & Rae Uptin (Block A), Faby Batho & Ralph Harrison (Block B), Jane Scorer & Rosemary Taylor and Barbara Burgess & Kath Orton Block C).
A successful tournament for the Club.
Nelson Bay members between games
Trevor Black, Referee
Sherry & Peter Gordon
Winners Block A
Alex Chapman (Urunga) & David Smith
Runners-up Block A
Play during the tournament