Newsletter

Good News! The grounds committee expect to open the court Saturday, 5th March 2005* and we are going to make a day of it. We encourage all members to come on the day and see the results of all the hard work. Golf Croquet will start at 9 am. BYO food and drinks for lunch starting at noon. The BBQ will be fired up for those wanting to cook their lunch. After lunch until dusk will be short Association games. So that we can all appreciate the entire lawn, the court will NOT be divided in 2 so there may be some sitting around but please come along and make a day of it.

* Weather is a big factor as to when the court will be ready for play. I will be updating the white board daily to confirm the opening date. The official opening will take place on a Saturday but the court may be open for play on another day.

The work so far

Paying Mal and Stuart to rip up and re-lay the lawn was only the start of the work. Thanks to the dedicated work of a handful of members an additional 150+ man hours has gone into the lawn to get it to where it is today. Nearly every day volunteer work has been carried out on the lawn. This included filling joins with soil, rolling & mowing.

To the members that have helped a very big thank you. I'd especially like to thank the spouses of members that helped: Don Sawers, Nicole Murphy, Geoff Lochrin & Jack Bethe. If I forgot anyone my apologies.

The work ahead

For at least the next 2 weeks daily mowing will take place at 4 pm. Kevin and I will probably be doing the bulk of the mowing and we could really do with some helpers. The helper will be required to do very light work such as clearing the court and emptying the wheelbarrow of grass clippings. The first week of mowing may take 60-90 minutes per day but after that no more than 40 minutes should be required.

Please go to the club house now and write your name on the volunteer sheet. If you would like learn to use the mower please contact me but note the mower is quite heavy.

During the next few weeks at least all members can help by removing the hoops after play. Use the new hoop holders Kevin made for us.

NSW Handicap Championship

This year the NSW Handicap Championship is being played in regions. If we have enough people from our club enter the event, we can hold a regional round. The winners of each region moves forward into playoffs with the final being played in Sydney. Regional play will be in April and May and the grand final during the June long weekend. Entry to the event is only $12.00. CNSW entry forms can be found in the competition folder.

General Meeting

Our next General Meeting is Thursday, 10th March 2005 at 4 pm. Golf Croquet will be played all day starting at 9 am. BYO food and drinks for dinner after the meeting. The BBQ will be started for those wishing to cook their dinner. The following is the current list for General Business, if you have anything to add please contact me.

• 31/3/2005, 3:30pm, School Staff introduction to Croquet.
• 10/4/2005, Open to public come and try Golf and Association Croquet.
• Ongoing lawn care and maintenance including possible removal of hoops after games.
• Winter Court Schedule.
• Records archival. 

Player Success Stories

Congratulations to Colleen who made her first five hoop break at Jamberoo recently.

The Canberra Regional Tournament was held Thursday 27th to Sunday 30th January. Nowra; represented by Tim Murphy and Margaret Sawers was the winner of the Wendy Davidson trophy. This trophy is awarded to the two nominated players from a club who score the most hoops during the tournament. Tim scored 123 hoops and Margaret scored 72 for a total of 195.

	Tim won A Block. He won 6 out of 6 matches and reduced his handicap to 7. Max Murray 21-11 David Simmonds 21-4 Carol Turner 13-10 Kevin Melksham 26-3 Johanna Pask 16-10 Leila Merson 26-8
	Margaret won C Block. She won 5 out of 5 matches and reduced her handicap to 14.Pat Koerber17-12 Peter Lloyd 13-6 Christine Payne 14-11 Jean Murray 22-8 Pat Hardiman 6-4

Full results can be found at the Canberra Croquet Club Web-Site. Thank you to Max Murray for the photos and more are available at the end of this page.

If you have any success stories to report, or any other story suggestions, please contact me.
Margaret Sawers

Lawn Renovation: 2 weeks on

The lawn is progressing very well. Around Wednesday we started to notice how the joins had started getting closer. In fact in parts its hard to see the join and we were very pleased with this. This morning we got a even bigger boost that things are going well. Stuart Miller came this morning to inspect the grass, help with the first mow and leave further instructions. Stuart was very impressed with the progress of the lawn. It was much better than he had anticipated. That was very welcome news. In fact he was so impressed he said so 3 or 4 times while we mowed.

The following is the intended schedule for the next 4 weeks. The dates are not set in stone and largely depend on the weather:

5/2 – 5/3	Daily rolling is still required. If possible would volunteers please roll the lawn in the morning. It is fine to roll the lawn with morning dew but if it is raining, or rained a lot overnight, do not roll. The aim at the moment is not to flatten the court but to push down and spread the grass. Therefore we have emptied the roller of all water and it is quite light to use. Use the big roller that is locked up. The small roller is very heavy and not suitable at this time. There are plenty of spots on the sign up sheet to volunteer for rolling. Click here for more details.
5/2 – 10/2	Daily mowing with the self-propelled Victa mower council have left us. Stuart has left very specific instructions on this phase of mowing so I will be doing it alone this week.
11/2	Spread fertiliser.
11/2 – 19/2	Daily mowing with the barrel mower.
19/2	Top dress the court.
21/2 – 5/3	Daily mowing.
5/3	Fingers crossed, but no commitment, the court will be opened for play. More than likely we will make a big do out of this; more details later.