Nowra Croquet Club

Playing in his first association croquet competition and only having played about five games of this challenging sport prior to the competition John Wood was a clear winner of the handicap singles championship, winning four out of four games with a net score of + 25 from runner-up Fay Lochrin with two wins +8 Closely followed by Colleen McIntyre on two wins +3.To make John’s win even more remarkable his handicap was reduced from 20 to 16 during the tournament

Another new player Judith Ramadge also acquitted herself extremely well. Judith was playing her first competition and won one game with a net score of -7 a great effort as this was the first time that Judith has played singles games  Judith gave John his hardest game of the competition nearly beating him, right up to the last turn Judith led until John made a three hoop break to defeat Judith by only one hoop

The scores were John Wood 20 d Margaret Sawers 7. John Wood 10, d Fay Lochrin 8 John Wood 15,d Colleen McIntyre 6. John Wood 10,d Judith Ramadge 9

Fay Lochrin 17d Margaret Sawers.15 Fay Lochrin 16,d Judith Ramadge 6

Colleen McIntyre15,d Margaret Sawers. 3. Judith Ramadge 6,d Colleen McIntyre 4.

Colleen McIntyre 5,d Fay Lochrin 3

Members were greatly saddened to learn of the death of a very popular member last week, Oie Malcolm Joined Nowra club in February 2005 and was immediately loved by all who had the pleasure of meeting her. Oie possessed a marvelous sense of humor and a positive attitude towards life Oie will be sadly missed by all who knew her. .

Congratulations once again to Tim Murphy, Tim recently won his block of the NSW open singles and he has been selected to play  in the NSW state team.

The first round of the bronze pennants was played at Jamberoo on Monday 19^th June. Nowra won two games to Jamberoo one. Fay Lochrin was the star of the day winning her game 18 to 4 against Diana Chafer. Fay achieved a milestone in her game pegging out ( this is the first time that Fay has ever pegged out in any game) Congratulations Fay Margaret Sawers won 12 to 11 against Marilyn Benson in a very close game which could have gone either way right up to the end.

Oie Malcolm and Colleen McIntyre lost to Len Chafer and Brian Colquhoun 6 to 4 but were in no way discarded as both played well.

The next round will be played at Nowra on Monday the 26^th June

The Garage sale held at the home of John and Dorothy Barker on the 10^th June was a great success raising over $600 for the Croquet Club, A big thank you to both John and Dorothy for allowing their home to be used for the sale, and to John and Shirley Deeves, Judith Ramadge and Margaret Sawers who helped on the day

Friday 23^rd June the croquet club was honored when Ken Boal visited for the day.

Ken, who belongs to Rich River Croquet club in Victoria, is the director of coaching for schools for Croquet
Australia. His job is to teach club members how to teach school students to play Croquet. Ken is a very talented coach, and is able to make the game of croquet a simple and enjoyable sport; he has his students playing the game in their second lesson. A most enjoyable day was had by all present.

Nowra Croquet Club

The local block of the Beryl Chambers memorial trophy handicap event was played at Nowra and Jamberoo over the last week. Two players from each club competed in the event.

John Deeves won in fine style winning all of his matches by pegging out.

On Monday at Jamberoo John accounted for David Simmonds 26 to 13

Friday at Nowra

Margaret Sawers 26 to 12 and David Probert 26 to 12

Margaret was second with two out of three wins beating David Probert at Jamberoo 26 to 14 and David Simmonds at Nowra 19 to 18

John will play in the finals of this competition at
Tempe on the 8^th to 12^th of June Best of luck John

On Saturday the 20^th May Nowra croquet Club held the biggest Morning tea for the cancer council. Club members supplied a large array of cakes muffins and other delicious goods for the event which was attended by Mayor Greg Watson and councilor Gareth Ward plus a number of visitors who tried their hand at a game of golf croquet all had a most enjoyable time and a grand sum of $492.00 was raised

The winner of the first prize in the raffle was John Wood ($20.00 voucher at Plaza Meats Bomaderry and second was Kevin Owen

Fay Lochrin has won the 16 and Over competition undefeated. Well done Fay. All games were closely contested with:

• 3 games won by 1 hoop.
• 2 games won by 2 hoops.
• 1 game won by 4 hoops.

All players enjoyed the competition.

Scores in order of play:

Pam Owen 13 beat Colleen McIntyre 11
Fay Lochrin 7 beat Oie Malcolm 5  

Fay 7 beat Colleen 6
Oie 13 beat Pam 12

Fay 14 beat Pam 10
Colleen 8 beat Oie 7

Tim

Fay 7 beat Colleen 6
Oie 13 beat Pam 12

Pam Owen 13 beat Colleen McIntyre 11
Fay Lochrin 7 beat Oie Malcolm 5

Tim Murphy Won the Nowra croquet club’s Championships for 2006 undefeated.

In Tim’s farewell performance he defeated John Deeves 26 to 0, Margaret Sawers 22 to 11, Jean Pack 21 to 16 and John Gilhooly 21 to 16.

Jean Pack was the runner up only loosing one game. Jean defeated John Deeves 23 to 13. Margaret Sawers 26 to 1 and John Gilhooly 21 to 14. Jean who is the current champion of the Milton Ulladulla club has been playing croquet for four years and now plays off a handicap of 8.

Tim and his wife Nicky are moving to Canberra where Nicky has been transferred in her job as a journalist, although all members are sad to see them go everyone wishes them well in the future, The move will be good for Tim’s croquet game as five of the top seven players in NSW belong to the Canberra club (Tim being no 7) the strong competition can only help Tim to improve his game.

Tim’s service to the croquet club has been most impressive. In the three years he has belonged to the club he has:

• Served as treasurer for one year.
• President for twenty months.
• Taken over the mowing of the court aided by John Deeves and Kevin Owen.
• Helped the club to acquire a ride on roller which he has used regularly to the great improvement of the lawn.
• Set up a web site which is of great interest to members and other croquet players alike and with his coaching has improved the standard of other players in the club.

Tim began in Nowra as a beginner and in three years has reduced his handicap from 22 to 1/2 and he is now ranked 7 in NSW.

Margaret Sawers

It was a beautiful day for croquet today; sun was out but not too hot.

Everyone found the play difficult today. The winds over the past few days has quickened the court to very fast!

Tim struggled to get going this morning and could not roquet the "side of a barn". Unfortunately for Margaret she could not capitalise on Tim's misfortunes that was until much later in the game. Tim had got control of his game and was sitting pretty on peg and 4b with Margaret crossed wired at the peg and Tim joined up in corner 2. Margaret took the lift to B baulk and hit Tim dead centre. Then Margaret played possibly her best break ever to go from hoop 3 to 4b. Margaret finished the break with a great leave with Tim crossed wired at the peg and Margaret joined up near corner 4. With only 1.5 minutes to go Tim decided to peg out leaving Margaret to complete a 3-ball break and peg out to tie the game. Unfortunately Margaret's approach to hoop 3 did not go to plan and the game ended there.

Jean took on the two John's today for 2 wins. The recent coaching Jean has received is coming to the fore. She's probably not quite playing at her best but with the tricky conditions today is playing very well.

Probably the most critical match of the competition will be played tomorrow morning: Jean v Tim. The winner of this game is most likely to take out the championship.

I had to recall the scores from memory so they may be a little wrong but the winner/loser is correct.

Tim beat Margaret 22 to 11
Jean beat John G 21 to 14
Jean beat John D 23 to 13
John G beat Margaret 19 to 7

Summary

Tim, 2/2 wins, +38
Jean, 2/2 wins, +17
John G, 1/2 wins, +5
John D, 1/3 wins, -35
Margaret, 0/3 wins, -24