Dubbo’s croquet club conducts several competitions each year. Rather than repeating the same formula, the guidelines for every competition are usually varied.

The Easter Weekend singles’ competition was organised around the ‘best-of-seven-hoops’ basis of the Golf Croquet code with a time limit on every game in order to maximise participation. This format bordered on ‘rapid fire’.

When assessing the results, the players’ respective handicaps were taken into account. Hence, Graham Bender romped in with the most hoops scored but the application of handicaps made the final outcome much more interesting.

For the Spring Singles’ competition, held on the October long weekend, the format reverted to the standard 13-hoop version of Golf Croquet.

In contrast to the rapid-fire best-of-seven, the standard game has a different mindset. Seven players in fine fettle and in good weather played out the day in standard 13-hoop games. A time cap of 45 minutes was applied in order to fit the event into the one day and meant not all games were decided with a seven-hoop winning result.

Mavis Grant and Ben Vang withdrew after smoko, having enjoyed a morning of invigorating play and worthy opponents. Their attendance ensured that a valuable repechage led to the final two rounds of the day.

Due to the small number of contenders, and the closeness of their respective standards, handicapping was not applied to determine the placings.

There were some outstanding shots, like the stunning jump executed by Tricia Shanks on hoop five of her first game for the day. She made the hit from two and a half lengths out from the hoop, cleared the hoop cleanly without touching the jawsed ball sitting inside the hoop, and carried forward stopping only a few metres in front of hoop six.

The table of results showed how tight the play was for the whole day; even those games which had a wide difference in the final scores were fiercely contested.

On the total number of hoops cleared, the first five places were separated by only four hoops which is less than a 15 per cent margin of the total possible hoops across the four games each competitor player.

On games won, winning scores, and hoops cleared, Ian McKenzie was the winner with Ross Smith a close runner-up.

North Stake congratulates both players and commends Tricia Shanks, Lillian Wallace and Kate Colwell.