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Canterbury (NZ) Croquet Association Inc NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2018
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In this issue: Editorial From the Website Manager Executive committee Sub-Committee Reports Clubs’ News Tiger Turf Matters and Dates to note Editorial Well, the croquet season is definitely on its way, in spite of huge swings in the weather. As I write this we are experiencing rain, wind, cold and snow in Canterbury, where last weekend was lovely sunshine. First up I would like to acknowledge and thank the many volunteers on CCA club committees. Our Association would not function without the willingness of many volunteers, who contribute many hours to ensuring that their club functions and that club members can enjoy their social and competitive croquet. Thank you also to those who have sent in articles for the newsletter. The latest GC Rules books have been distributed and thanks go to Tony O’Donnell for running a very successful rules training session on 22 September. Please note the comments from Brian Boutel on some of the rules. Most are really common sense, but are now Official Rulings. Thanks go also to Jonathan Hart and his tournament committee for organising the Interclub draws and distribution of necessary paperwork to Club Captains. CNZ have sent out an updated Database manual and the website is now a lot more user friendly. Please don’t hesitate to ask for assistance if you have any queries about updating your club’s details. Note that CNZ require all clubs to have updated their club data by 31 October. And with my treasurer hat on - please could all levies and outstanding rule book accounts be paid before the end of October. There is a CCA GC Singles Tournament coming up on 28 October and CCA GC doubles tournament in November. These are handicap tournaments and so anyone has an opportunity to win. That is the beauty of handicap tournaments, it levels the playing field so to speak. Please support these CCA tournaments as they have been sponsored and we would like to gain the
sponsorship again next season. They are fun, and great experience Names to Chris Clarke for the GC Singles tournament [email protected] and to Tony O’Donnell [email protected] for the GC Doubles tournament. Please note the dates for Coaching sessions for both AC and GC; training for coaches weekend ; and referees training in January. CCA are also in the process of organising a lawn maintenance seminar, and details will be sent out when dates and venue have been confirmed. Have you heard of Trugo? Apparently not many have heard of this bizarre sport unique to Melbourne which is a mix of croquet, golf, lawn bowls and the hammer. Players take a thick rubber ring, balance it upright, and then swing a rubber-tipped wooden mallet between their legs to try and hit the ring between two posts. Oh, and you do all this facing backwards, for some reason. The game is said to have been invented in the Newport Workshops by railway workers in the 1920s, and the first clubs were established in 1936. For those who may be interested in starting something here… https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-45326460
A colleague travelled to Kaikaoura recently and was intrigued by the paintings on the back of the sheds on the croquet lawn. Admittedly these sheds back onto the main road through the town - but may give some clubs an idea of how to promote our sport Wishing you all many happy days of croquet playing during the season.
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From your Website Manager Keep up to date with news from the Croquet Canterbury website Remember to check out the Croquet Canterbury website at croquetcanterbury.com to find out about competitions and other croquet activities in Canterbury. You can enter CCA tournaments using the form on the page for each tournament. In the right-hand column of each page, below the Latest News, there is a section headed Follow Blog via Email. If you enter your email address and click the Follow button, you will receive an email each time a new blog post is made. Blog
posts may include results of competitions or significant changes to the website meaning that you don’t need to keep checking the website to see if anything has changed.
If you change your mind, or change your email, there is a link at the bottom of every email where you can remove your email from the list. You can follow past blog posts by clicking on the News link at the top of each page. If you have any suggestions to improve the website, please contact John Yarrall on [email protected]. John Yarrall Executive committee Ruminations of the President I’m representing all Canterbury croquet players at the Croquet N Z AGM in the coming weekend. Our association is awarded 11 votes, same as Wellington, and one more than Auckland. I haven’t made comparisons to all associations but possibly South Canterbury with 7 votes has a stronger membership base in proportion to the population. It is commendable that they have been able to assemble 130 players for the South Island Masters’ Games held this week. Most of our clubs are reporting fresh interest in our sport and growing membership. For the CCA, this growth is a blessing and a challenge. We are reviewing our policies and operations on how we support clubs to grow and may even give encouragement to the establishment of a new club in the East, as was proposed following the closing of South Brighton and Sumner clubs
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following the earthquakes. Feedback on how this can be supported would be welcome. Personally, I wish to see growth in the junior membership of clubs and the association. Last month, I visited Kapiti Coast to view the activities around the N Z Secondary School Championships GC Competition, a tournament of 72 players from throughout New Zealand. This was won by players representing Ashburton College and the runner up was Mt Hutt College. Canterbury representative teams from the Cashmere club performed formidably as first-time competitors and these players have been included in the National Junior Development Squad. The initiative to develop the junior game has been kick started with a practical introduction to croquet for Sport Canterbury staff members. This is to be followed up with High School Sports Coordinators being offered a programme to get kids interested. We would like 5 or 6 high schools getting behind this drive so that in March 2019, we can organise a credible local play off for our representative teams who will be assembling in Christchurch early September for the NZSSS Council tournament. Please assist the association with this endeavour, especially if you already have a useful relationship within your local high school. I would seriously like to see local players giving a boost to our CCA Championships. Bupa (NZ) Care Services Limited has generously contributed $1,000 for prize money and a contribution to club house expenses. This means entry fees have been reduced, and hopefully larger pools of players enhances competitive croquet. The first event is the CCA Golf Croquet Handicap Singles to be played at Cashmere on the 28th October. It is not too ambitious to expect 24 players to enter this tournament, and as it is only one day of the weekend I would expect many players to give it a go. Being a handicap competition, everyone has a realistic chance of taking home the cash. Looking forward to seeing you there, with your supporters as well, as spectators are just as important as the players for all sports. Until next time, I wish you all that your croquet gets better and better and your club is a thriving part of the community in which you live. Owen Evans (Contact mail: [email protected], Mobile: 027 431 0071)
Newest member For those of you who don't know we welcomed our son Eli Jonathan Hart into this world on the 10 Sept at 10 40 am, weighing 3.43kg (7.56 lb). After are few trips in and out of hospital all 3 of us are doing well and trying to settle into a normal routine. This is probably quite a rarity of a son / daughter being born into croquet circles in Canterbury. So as you can imagine I probably won’t be playing much croquet at the start of the season. But I will hopefully be back later in the season. The funny thing is he also has a cousin from Angela's (my wife) brother born a couple of days after Eli. This photo is of him being a couple of hours old.
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Sub-Committee reports Administration Action Group This group is currently working on the grant application form for new lawns. There is a request for clubs to send in photos of their honours boards to Mark O’Connell who has volunteered to be our Archivist and store data relating to clubs and the Association. Players Action Group About 16 Sport Canterbury staff and two young family members enjoyed Golf Croquet on Friday 28 September. The Assistant Regional Sports Director for School Sports Canterbury also attended. Chris was clearly a major attraction and spent time with every group on the lawns. Thanks have been sent to all involved in our promotion and I particularly appreciated the assistance of Hornby and Barrington club members who volunteered.
Lyn Dawson
Missing - 1 mallet The CCA is missing a small mallet like this one. It was made by George Wood and also labelled "2". It is part of a set of short-handled mallets and may have found its way into indoor croquet gear. Please text or call Lyn Dawson (021 0273 4516) if you can help. Tournament Action Group Interclub and Johnson competitions are under way. Marguaritte Rogers from St James Park Croquet Club writes On Sunday 23 September 2018 South Canterbury and Canterbury competed in the annual AC inter-provincial The Canterbury team was: John Yarrall, Owen Evans, Ian Campbell, Neville Turner, Leo Van Oosten, Alan Cook, Sally Jeffcott, Marguaritte Rogers (Captain), Patsy Clegg, Carol Kidd, Bruce MClay and Rosalind Thomson. A great day was had by all. So, Basil was once again retained by Canterbury after some well fought out games. A huge thanks to Raylene Coles and her team from the Waireka club who hosted and kept us watered and fed. A big thanks to the South Canterbury team who challenged Canterbury in every way.
Communications Action Group Spreading the word about Croquet: CINCH www.cinch.org.nz This a database created Christchurch City Libraries, who for many years have been collecting and updating community information (hence the acronym). It lists all the croquet clubs
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and they do remind people to update their details but you may want just check everything is correct. Age Concern Canterbury ageconcerncan.org.nz While not discouraging the young from playing, this is also a website that lists croquet if you search for it; bringing up The CCA . A small number of clubs are individually listed and I am sure they would be happy to receive other club’s details. You may also have some success advertising locally. There are a large number of small publications out there that offer free” What’s on” type advertising. The two key players here are of course: Stuff, with their Community Newspapers and who of course own “neighbourly”, their online local papers. Star media www.starmedia.kiwi who also publish a number of local community papers. I guess your mailbox at the gate is the best place to find out what’s circulating in the neighbourhood. Even local radio offers community notice space so that’s can be worth a try. And of course The CCA website! https://croquetcanterbury.com A great place to send people interested in the game. Not quite the same as the real thing however but superb for all the latest news and information. Sign up for John’s blog while you are here and then receive the latest news and updates via email. There are some great links as well, such as to Croquet New Zealand, Croquet Scores and The Yearbook . Topical are latest changes to handicapping for both types of the game as well as the new rules for GC, all of which can be found here. With all credit due to John Yarrall who does a superlative job as both editor-in- chief and webmaster. Mark O’Connell Clubs’ News Barrington Croquet Club We had our opening on the 1st September. The day was very warm, and then the weather packed up the following week.
Have a good number attending GC & AC croquet, with new people joining up which is very pleasing. In August the club put on a lovely afternoon tea for Betty Lakes 90th birthday; what a great achievement and she thoroughly enjoyed herself. Interclub has started for AC & GC croquet. It is the first time we have put together a GC team and I am sure we will all gain valuable experience, and enjoy meeting new members. Some of us also helped out at Hornby Club for the Sports Canterbury afternoon two weeks ago and found it very interesting, and the feedback seemed quite positive. Ann Miller . Cashmere Croquet Club Cashmere Croquet Juniors A very busy time for our junior team with lots of practice before we headed to Waikanae for the National Secondary Schools Tournament held in September. With only 12 months of golf croquet under their belts the 'boys' were certainly looking forward to the challenge and the opportunity to play against like-minded youth. The tournament comprised of 36 pairs split into 6 divisions - top 16 teams into the championship round and others into plate round. James and Josh played some great croquet finishing a creditable 9th overall in the championship round with Levi and Myles a well deserved 3rd in the plate and 19th overall.
Myles and James
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The next competition for them was the United Spring Handicap Singles Tournament. Against some very experienced competition the results were outstanding - Josh winning 7 - 0 in the final, Flynn 3rd and James 4th. To finish off a great 6 weeks, Croquet NZ advised Josh, Flynn, Myles, Levi and James they had been selected for the 2018 Junior Youth Development Squad. We wish them well for the NZ U21 Golf Croquet over Labour weekend in Matamata.
Gay Jones Diamond Harbour Croquet Club Good News from Diamond Harbour Our season has already started and the really good news is that we have already attracted 3 new members! This may not seem to be headline grabbing news but when we have 8 regular players it is a huge percentage increase. If any members of other clubs have friends or acquaintances living in the Diamond Harbour area, please encourage them to come and have a go at our small (but growing) club Euan Godfrey Fendalton Park Croquet Club We had a very successful opening day on 1 September. The day started with a $10 lunch supplied by our catering committee and contributing towards our fund-raising ventures. The weather played its part with sunshine making for enjoyable croquet and two members Marjory Clements and Alan Chapman, who have health issues hitting the first balls to officially open our season. An item in the Fendalton-Waimairi-Halswell newsletter encouraged a community response of wearing the loudest shirt on 28 September and making a donation towards assisting deaf children to hear and speak. The committee decided to make 29 September a community “loudest shirt”
day at FPCC and encouraged members to make a donation. It was hugely successful with a wonderful array of “loud shirts” - the effect on the greens was delightful and colourful.
Members were amazingly generous and we have been able to send a substantial donation to The Hearing House. A comment was passed at the neighbouring Bowls during the afternoon, by someone to one of their executive members - “Scruffy lot over the fence”. If only they had known what fun we were having Our club rooms underwent refurbishment with the exterior being painted and the spouting replaced and painted. We are grateful for the great facilities we have. We hosted the delegates meeting on 15 September and it was heartening to see such a good turnout by Association members. Wishing you all a happy and successful croquet season. Vilna Gough-Jones
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Holmes Park Croquet Club We had a great turnout for our Opening Day on 8th September. Sheila Walker, one of our Life Members, ran the first hoop. We were privileged to have Jenny & Chris Clarke attend.
We welcome several new members to our club. We have had good attendance and members are enjoying themselves. Our grounds had a spruce up thanks to a pre-season working bee, and our old mower shed has finally had a facelift by two members of a local community group. Janet Slack Hornby Croquet Club Saturday 1st September was our Opening Day for the new season of 2018 - 2019. We had 22 players on that day. Alan organised a variety of games for us to play and we had a delicious afternoon tea together .
Who would have thought Alan Belcher was in touch with his heavy metal music!!!
On Wednesday 19th September we had a Fun Day at Hornby. Thank you to the 32 players from other clubs who entered and enjoyed playing at Hornby. Many of our club members provided raffle prizes and food for morning and afternoon
tea which helped to make it a successful day for our club. Hornby Croquet Club has entered a Division 1 and Division 3 team into the CCA Golf Croquet Interclub Competition on Friday mornings. Four of our members are taking part in the South Island Masters Games in Timaru during 8th, 9th and 10th of October. Hopefully this year we will be able to play in fine weather. On Wednesday 12th December Hornby Croquet Club is having a 7's competition. 7's is a game that Alan Belcher made up and is an easier and shorter form of Golf Croquet. The players who came to play last year enjoyed the experience. Please consider entering later in the season. Now that the season is in full swing hopefully the weather will stay fine and allow us to enjoy playing croquet and meeting each other in fair competition. Annette Wilson Kaiapoi On the 14th August the Kaiapoi club held a luncheon at the Good Home Cafe at Pegasus . The food was delicious and we had a good turnout of members.
On the 22nd of September a working bee was held in the morning at the club rooms, sprucing it up for the seasons opening in the afternoon. Again a good turnout of members.
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Arline Grimshaw played the first ball to open the new season.
The 29th September saw us hosting a group of school children. They were very keen to try their hand at croquet. Comments heard were -gee it’s harder than I thought; I think this is fun; I’d like to come again. Another successful afternoon. We have teams playing in the inter-club competitions, they are enjoying themselves. It’s always nice to catch up with people from other clubs and to renew the friendships formed. We had teams in the South Island Masters. They did very well cleaning up most of the competition. That was exciting for them and us as a club. The future is looking exciting; we have new members doing their six week trial time and two new members joining after Christmas. All is well. Jan Chisnall President Rangiora Croquet Club
We had our opening day on 8 September. The photo shows our two oldest members Leith Newell and Audrey Burnett running the first hoop.
On four small lawns, there were 32 people playing and more people waiting for a game. It certainly is a case that we need to develop extra lawns. We are excited to start Interclub games and have two GC teams and one AC team and three Johnson teams. This season we are hosts to some community events starting with the Rangiora Police v Rangiora Fire Brigade. It should be a lot of fun and showcases what we can offer. Our lawns are in tip top condition and if you’re passing why not pop in. We would love to see you. All the best for a good season. Carol Kidd St James Croquet Club St James Park has enjoyed the first month of the new season, basking in the spring sunshine and happy to welcome five new members to the Club. We are looking forward to the extra challenge of interclub and meeting up with old and new friends in the process. We have three invitations for members of other Clubs:
1. AC players from any Club are welcome to join us every Friday afternoon free of charge – at 12.55 for a 1.00 p.m. start (unless slightly delayed by the morning’s GC interclub).
2. On Wednesday, 21 November, both AC and GC players are invited to our Fun Day. The first 16 of each code are guaranteed a place. Please let Jenny Vartha know if you are interested – Phone: 3598325 or E-mail: [email protected]
3. Beginners’ Day at 1.00 p.m. on Sunday, 2 December. This is the first time for far too long that we have hosted this occasion and we are determined to make it a happy social and croquet experience for your newbies and, hopefully, at least one senior member of your Club. Please “Save the Date”!!
Margaret Lane
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St Martins Croquet Club St Martins have bought forward the Bev Stechman to the 24th February because of 2 lawns being closed for maintenance. St Martins members are looking forward to another busy season of Tournaments and Fun Days. Our opening was on 8 September and we have since welcomed 4 new members. Thanks to the Hornby Club for the first “Fun Day” enjoyed by all. Our “Fun Day” is on Sunday 21st. Oct. with a “Mad Hatter” theme. A team from St Martins is going to the Masters Games in Timaru and we look forward to playing some great croquet with other Clubs from around the South Island. The condition of our lawns has been an ongoing problem but a restoration programme implemented by our Chairman, John Borner, has dealt with many issues and our lawns are looking great. Cheers and good hooping. Shirley Perriton United Croquet Club United Spring GC Tournament United’s Spring GC Tournament returned this year as a one-day tournament, involving both open and handicap events and jointly managed by Tony O’Donnell (also playing) and Chris Clarke.
Flynn Moses-Jones (Cashmere) 3rd in handicap. James Duggan (Cashmere) 4th in handicap. Tony O’Donnell, runner-up open. Bruce McLay (United) runner-up handicap. Jenny Clarke (United) winner open. Josh Winter (Cashmere) winner handicap
Four players contested the open event, played as a double round robin. Jenny Clarke of United won
with a 6-0 scoreline and Tony O’Donnell (also United) took second place with three wins.
With ten entries, the handicap event was played as two blocks of five, followed by playoffs between equivalent place-getters in each block to decide overall standings. Half of the entries were young players from Cashmere Croquet Club.
Both Josh Winter (Cashmere) and Bruce McLay (United) were unbeaten in their respective blocks. In the playoff Josh was untroubled to triumph 7-0 in the playoff for first and second place going to Bruce.
United Spring AC Tournament United’s Spring AC Tournament returned this year with open and handicap events on Saturday 29 and Sunday September 2018 and was managed by Chris Clarke.
Handicap place-getters: Lyn Dawson (3rd), Bruce McLay (2nd), Kaleb Small (first) Open place-getters: Jenny Clark (first), Ian Campbell (3rd) and John Yarrall (2nd)
The weather on Saturday was glorious but there was a chilly wind on Sunday morning which died down for the afternoon.
Both the open and handicap had six entries from nine clubs in Canterbury and South Canterbury. Both events and were played as round robins. Jenny Clarke of United was unbeaten to win the event. John Yarrall of United was runner-up, losing only to Jenny. Ian Campbell of Barrington Park was third. Kaleb Small of Waireka, South Canterbury won four of his five games to win the event and earn a handicap reduction. Bruce McLay of United, Lyn Dawson and Elmwood and Trish Dolan of Waimate, South Canterbury, had three wins, but Bruce was runner-up on net points.
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A thank you to Margaret Stoddart Retirement Village for sponsoring the event and the GC Spring Tournament held two weeks ago. United Golf Croquet club doubles competition A Golf Croquet doubles competition was held over a few weeks in September 2018 organised by club captain Pam Hurst. The premier division (0-6) had three pairs and was played as a block. Tony O’Donnell and Bruce McLay won their two games to win the event. The intermediate division (7-11) was played as a knockout and was won by Lena Metcalf and Lovena Sparks. The primary division (12-16) was also played as a knockout and was won by Libby and John Dickie.
Trial for control of starweed Starweed is rampant on the area between lawns 1 and 2 so United Croquet Club is starting a trial on its treatment. Strips have been marked off and each will be given different treatment such as Banvine, Grazon, weeding and turpentine. John Yarrall Tiger Turf There have been a few posts over the past few years about artificial lawns, so I thought that I would write to say that Jenny and myself played recently on the best artificial lawn I have ever seen.
The lawn is situated at Russley Village which is an up-market retirement village in Christchurch. The lawn is 5/7 size and is also used for bowls and crazy golf. We estimate that it ran at about 10 seconds, but was likely to increase in pace as the sand settled into the fibres. It is also possible to increased lawn speed by rolling. The hoops were Atkins placed in concrete blocks with plastic sleeves. They were set at 3 3/4" and presented an adequate challenge to run for Jenny and
myself, without being too difficult. I would recommend hoops at between 3 7/8" and 4" for normal club play. The turf has an underlay beneath it especially for croquet and this gives a pleasant feel both for walking on and for croquet strokes. We were both able to play jump shots without difficulty. The setting was absolutely delightful. The lawn was "sunken" - a bit like Sonoma and we were fortunate that it is cherry blossom time, so the surroundings were idyllic
Jenny Clarke and Geoffrey Naylor
The lawn has been provided thanks to the work of Geoffrey Naylor who has been a resident at Russley Village for 3 years. The company responsible is called "Tiger Turf" and they have used their bowls turf called "Supergreen" but have also included a 4mm underlay specifically for croquet. From a maintenance perspective, it requires "brushing" at least quarterly and the application of an anti-bacterial spray and/or algaecide. The lawn has a 7 year guarantee and has an expected lifetime of 25 years. Only time will tell whether or not there is excessive wear in the hoops that would mean that new patches of lawn would be required to avoid rabbit runs. The lawn was extremely flat and even paced. It occupies a central location at the Village, visible from the restaurant and bar and will hopefully become the standard by which artificial croquet lawns are judged. Chris Clarke Matters and Dates to Note 1. Next Delegates meeting is on Tuesday 11 December 2018 at 7.00pm at Elmwood Croquet Club
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2. Greg Bryant coaching on 7, 10 and 11 December for AC and GC
3. Greg Bryant training for coaches on 8 and 9 December
4. Jenny Clarke is running referee training in January. Please send names to Jenny or Chris by end of October
5. CCA GC Singles Handicap tournament 28 October
6. CCA GC Doubles Handicap tournament 25 November
7. CCA website is croquetcanterbury.com
8. Please send any material for the next newsletter to Vilna at [email protected] by 20 January 2019 for publishing end January. Newsletters are published end August end October end January then March/April
9. The next Executive meeting is at 3.15pm on Monday 5 November at Fendalton Park Croquet Club. These are open meetings, unless matters need to go into committee, and members are welcome to attend as observers.
10. The CCA calendar is given below.
CCA sponsors
