Local croquet swings into Spring with regional competition

SPRING has sprung for the Myall Park Croquet Club (MPCC), which recently held two major events to launch the new season and record local and regional successes.

The club held its Spring Into Spring Social last Saturday (5 September) in glorious early seasonal sunshine.

Eleven players took to the lawns to play, while another eight joined them to enjoy the sausage sizzle.

The local masked lapwings, who typically nest in small hollows and open ground, were very vocal in protesting the players’ intrusion onto the lawns. Tree chicks learnt valuable life lessons while carefully evading the balls.

“Today’s social was an opportunity to welcome some players returning from injury as well as socialise with new members,” publicity officer Jackie Laycock said.

“We also celebrated the return of club president, Andrew Sillar, and treasurer, Gary Bennett, after their successes in Forster last week.”

The pair competed at the Forster Croquet Club Association’s Spring Carnival, playing with representatives from clubs as far afield as Coutts Crossing, Wollongong, and the Blue Mountains.

Games were played under Association Croquet (AC) rules, the traditional form of the game.

“AC requires a high degree of skill, accuracy and a few wily tactics to outfox your opponent,” Ms Laycock said.

“Games can last two and a half hours.

“The games were played in a spirit of friendly competition, with some good-natured banter and plenty of smiles.

“The competitors appreciated the work that had gone into preparing the lawns, they were in superb condition and running quite fast.”

Eighteen players were seeded into three blocks of six in a round-robin format.

Gary Bennett made a clean sweep of all five games, including some against a lower-handicapped opponent, and finishing on top of Block C.

Andrew Sillar won three games and lost two, including one particularly hard-fought game against a more-experienced Sydney player, which was only decided in golden point.

By Thomas O’KEEFE