After the Easter weekend’s singles competition and end of daylight saving, it was back to normal for Dubbo Croquet.

Tuesday is a popular playing day, with 24 competitors the maximum our three courts can accommodate at the same time. The draws for partners and opponents produced some interesting combinations.

The results of all games are scrupulously recorded to keep handicaps up-to-date and to track individual progress, with these results also fed into the end-of-year calculations for personal recognition.

Wednesday evening’s training, coaching, and practice session has now moved to Friday mornings, but the afternoon’s “Cards Gang” continues. The game played at that time is called “Crowns” and newcomers are very welcome to come along. Previous playing experience is not needed.

Thursday morning offers the “Aussie” code. Last week’s draw had Darron Wilson running blue-and-black against the partnership of Bruce Seddon (red) and Charles Campbell (yellow). Darron has phenomenal roqueting skills, but was outfoxed by Bruce’s cunning and excellent placement. Charles' contribution of hoops run was a great improvement on the previous week!

While they were playing Aussie, the other two courts were used for the “Golf” code and we were glad to see Wendy Whitely back on the green after a long(-ish) lay-off.

Andrew Jay and Kate Colwell had an epic match against Ben Vang and Lillian Wallace, with the former finally taking victory 7-6 after a thrilling seesaw of “one-ahead, draw, one-behind”.

Friday was reserved for three beginner players moving onto the next stage of their course, on this occasion, under the direction of coach Tricia Shanks.

Tricia welcomed two people who expressed an interest in the game; she certainly had a full plate as Jenny, Pauline, and Lyn have progressed rapidly and were ready to move on to further skills and strategies.

Nineteen played on Saturday with some intriguing and skilful games across doubles, singles, and one-versus-pairs. Graham Bender played Ben Vang, winning 7-4, then struggling to reach a 6-7 loss. Stan Ellis made a strong win as a single player against the pairing of Beth and Wendy (7-3), then was trounced 1-7 by the coupling of Ingrid Stufano and Mavis Grant. To round out the week, our Sunday evening session has moved back to 6pm.

Newcomers, and anyone else interested, are welcome to come along and try this ancient sport, with initial coaching on a no-cost, no-obligation basis.