By Casey O'Connor
The weather gods were kind to Stanthorpe Croquet players over the past week. While their Warwick counterparts were confronted with a wet and soggy lawn preventing any play, the Mallet players in from the Granite Belt dodged the rain and were able to play three disciplines.
The Association croquet group opened the month on Tuesday 1/3 with two games.
The experience of Joy Newman was on display as she played against Grace Howard and Pauline Smith. Newman very well and scored one peel and one run of two on her way to a convincing a 22-13 win. The second game between Carol Verwey and Jenny Tunbridge was much closer. Both played very well. Verwey had two runs of two in the game and Tunbridge scored one run of two before she took the win 24-23.
On Wednesday (2/3) the Golf Croquet group took to the court.
The strong combination of Shirley Page (7) and Sharyn Roser (6) was able to outplay Kim Foster (2) and Liz Ellway (3). Roser scored some accurate long shots to take hoops and Page was at the top of her game.
Shirley Evans (6) and Di Wren (6) also played well and scored a win over Bev Sullivan (2) and Jennifer Gleadhill (2). Evans showed her experience executing a particularly difficult long jump shot during the game.
After the break there was one more game played. With only six players available Ellway (4), Foster (4), and Sullivan (3) played Wren (4) , Page (3), and Gleadhill (2) scoring an 11-9 win. Despite several attempts to score a hole in one Foster came up empty handed but played well in this game.
On Friday, the Gateball players successfully dodged the rain. Jenny Tunbridge, Heather Widderick, Joy Newman and Irene Peachey won the toss and elected to play the white balls. Their opponents (playing red balls) were Les Williams, Grace Howard and Sharyn Roser.
In hindsight, perhaps the choice or white balls may not have been a good move with reds dominating the opening game. Grace Howard was in good form with both her long and short shots. Newman also had some accurate long shots but unfortunately it was not enough to stop reds cleaning up with a 23-8 score line. Included in the winning score were four Agaris.
The second game was much closer. Reds were well in front when Widderick playing for gate three, managed to put three balls through after a very long shot and went on to Agari. Her efforts narrowed the gap; however, Reds scored their second win the score 12-10,
In the third game, Roser and Howard went slightly off form playing the white balls against Tunbridge, Newman and Peachey playing red. Irene Peachey began to find form and played some accurate shots during the final two games. Whites struggled to get their balls into play allowing Reds to dominate gates two and three kept the white balls off the court and they claimed another win. the score 10-7.
The final game was closer but as had been the way all day those playing the red balls got the upper hand early in the game and went on to score a 16-12 win in a a game where each team scored an Agari.
