By Casey O'Connor
Stanthorpe Mallet players were back on court over the past week, playing the Association, Golf Croquet and Gateball disciplines.
On Tuesday (21 Sept) Joy Newman, Jenny Tunbridge, Grace Howard and Heather Widderick started a game of Association Croquet only to have playing conditions deteriorate.
The weather turned positively arctic with a blustery and cold wind and the group elected to call it quits and return when conditions improved.
Anyone who was in Stanthorpe on the 21st would agree this was a very sensible decision.
What a difference a day can make.
The Golf Croquet group stepped out in much better conditions the very next day.
Shirley Evans (2), Liz Ellway (1) and Di Wren (4) played Jennifer Gleadhill (1) and Kathy Hopgood (4).
In a closely contested game Hopgood scored some accurate shots and hoop scoring while on the opposing team Shirley Evans played well from the outset scoring a hole in one.
Ellway (4) and Evans (1) were out-played by their opponents in the next game. Wren was in good touch scoring eight hoops.
Her partners Hopgood and Gleadhill each added three hoops to the total to give them a resounding win
On Friday, it was the turn of the Gateball brigade.
Joy Newman, Jenny Tunbridge and Heather Widderick teamed up and chose to play the white balls against the team of Sharyn Roser, Grace Howard and Les Williams who played the red balls.
In the opening game, scores were even until whites put four red balls out of play taking control of gates two and three.
Reds struggled to score after this. Newman and Tunbridge each scored an Agari which led the whites to a solid 15-10 win.
In the opening stages of the second game Whites held a narrow lead however the lead changed when Roser sparked a ball on to the peg for a two point ‘Agari’.
Red then took the lead with one point taking the lead by a point. In an exciting finish Newman played the final shot for whites scoring an Agari and in doing so secured an 11-10 victory for White.
In game three the players swapped colours for the remaining games.
Led by Sharyn Roser the White team got off to a good start despite reds guarding gate three to prevent their opponents scoring.
Whites went on to win the game 14-6.
Scores were neck and neck for most of the final game before the Red team gained control on the back of some accurate long shots and accurate play putting the white balls off the court.
Towards the end of the game, Widderick scored ‘Agari’ and Reds scored a 15-9 win.
