Welcome to the Wellington Municipal Croquet Club
What’s Happening in November
GC COMPETITIONS
The Novice Singles (handicaps 10-16) starts with a “mini-tournament” on Friday & Saturday mornings 21st - 22nd November. Players have been organised into Blocks and play a round robin i.e. play one 13 point game - first to make 7 hoops - against every other player in the block. Block winners will then go into a knockout competition.
Gary has organised a schedule of matches with allocated times and lawns. There are 21 matches being played over the two mornings. There is space available on Lawn 3 on Saturday morning and on all lawns after 11:30 am for general club play.
There will be a similar arrangement for the Open Advantage Handicap Doubles. These Blocks also play a round robin of one 13 point game.
This event starts with a mini-tournament on Friday 28th November. Unfortunately we could only get 5 matches organised for this event, including one on Saturday morning, so there will be plenty of room for the normal club draw on Saturday 29th November.
If you have any trouble working out your advantage handicap, or are confused about the number of hoops you have to play to win, ask a more experienced player. They’ll be pleased to help.
Have-a-Gos
This activity is our major fundraising activity for the year and the income from it is what keeps your Subs at the very reasonable level they are. Have a Go is where we offer our wonderful Clubhouse and Croquet facilities (including BBQ) to companies who want to get their staff together for an end of year celebration. Our HaG Coordinator Jax Owen has done a great job this year and has managed to book at least 16 groups into the late November to late January period when the weather will hopefully be kind to participants. A Committee member will take the Lead for each HaG activity and they will call for volunteers from our members to help host each session. Group numbers vary from 10-15 up to 60ish so we will need a varying number of volunteers for each session. When you are asked to help please say yes as this is a way in which you can make an extra contribution to our club.
A schedule of the Have-a-Gos for November and December is on the whiteboard opposite the clubrooms door. Please add your name on the days you can help. You don’t need to be there the whole time. It spreads the load if we have different people opening up and locking up.
New Members
Welcome to all the new members who have recently joined the club: Russell, Wendy, Sharon, Jonathon, Tony, Daniel, Georgia, Danny, Kathryn, Penelope, Sandra and Ian. great to have you with us and looking forward to seeing you regularly on the lawns.
Interclub
Our teams in both the GC Teams and AC Doubles had mixed results this season and had to deal with some very difficult weather conditions.
Congratulations to Chris, Sita and Gary who finished second in their Block of the GC Teams.
Challenge Matches
The new GC challenge series proved a challenge in itself to organise and schedule all the matches that had to be played as evidenced by the number of defaults (by other clubs).
After a number of challenges and defences, at the end of the competition, WMCC ended up holding the Paul Skinley Trophy for the Open Grade. Well done Harps, Mark & Dick.
Receiving the Gold Buttons from Plimmerton Croquet Club
In the AC challenge series we are holding the Gold Buttons for the Intermediate Grade - congratulations Susan and Tony, and have one more game to play to continue to hold the Rudkin Brooches in A Grade.
What’s Happening in October
WCA Men’s & Women’s AC Singles Championships
We hosted this tournament on behalf of the WCA on the weekend of 11-12 October in what can certainly be described as less than ideal conditions! Fortunately there were no rain delays, but at one point the average wind speed over an hour was 75 kph. Play was certainly interrupted by players having to brace themselves against the wind.
Despite the difficulties there was some excellent play on show and spirits were high. Probably fueled by the excellent morning and afternoon teas provided. A big thank you to everyone who contributed in the kitchen, with the hoop relocation and setting and general tidying up around the grounds.
Players: Dick Smith, Graeme Fisher, Callum McKinnon, Susan Leuchars, Len Lea, Cherol Filbee, Peter Filbee, Alison Robinson, Kevin Fellows, Baubre Murray, Stefan Horrer, Sue Patterson
Photos of Players in action by Geoff Patterson
And on the afternoon of 7 October …. no it didn’t snow - it hailed!
WCA Men’s & Women’s AC Championship Singles
On the weekend of 11-12 October we are hosting this tournament on behalf of the WCA. Players are coming from Taranaki, Manawatu and the Wairarapa as well as local players from Wellington and the Hutt Valley. There will be no club play, but come and watch. There will be some very good croquet on show.
Remember that the hoops are being moved on Thursday so there will be limited play that day.
INTERCLUB STARTS
The various interclub competitions for this season start in early October. In the GC Wednesday teams competition we have 2 teams entered. Each team consists of 3 players from different grades playing levels singles and doubles matches. We also have 2 pairs in the AC Monday afternoon doubles competition.
Association Croquet Monday Competition - commenced Monday 6th October
Golf Croquet Wednesday Competition - commenced Wednesday 8th October
The draws have been published and are on the Club noticeboard (on the easel in the corner of the room). Draws are also on the WCA website, together with the rules, start times etc. All results will be published on Croquet Scores.
AC Mon (coming soon)
GC Wed
Good luck to all our teams!
CHALLENGE MATCHES
There have traditionally been a number of Challenge matches played each year in association croquet, between the various clubs in the region. This year there will also be a similar Challenge series for golf croquet, starting with a random draw to decide the “defenders” and “challengers” for the first round in each grade.
In AC Wellington Club will be defending the Rudkin Brooches for the 0 to 3.5 grade and will be playing challenges in 3 other grades during October-November.
In GC we were drawn as the Defender in 2 grades, 5 to 7 and 11+ - both of which we have lost to Paraparaumu Club.
In the Open and 8 to 10 grades we won both matches by default and will be defending them in mid-October. We will also be playing our 1st challenge in the 1 to 4 grade in mid-October.
CLUB COMPETITIONS
The draws for most events are up with a lot of matches to be played. Let’s get the competitions underway and avoid that last minute rush to complete events in March/April next year! A number of the events have completion dates for each round which will be strictly enforced.
We’ve already had lots of entries for the GC Novice Singles and Open Handicap Doubles, but entries for these events are open until 2 November.
Congratulations to:
Susan Leuchars & Tony Sutich - Successful Challenge for the Gold Buttons (AC Intermediate Grade) v Plimmerton
Harps Tahurangi & Mark Huttley - Successful Defense of the Paul Skinley Trophy (GC Open Grade) v Kelburn
Dick Smith - Runner-up Marton AC Open Singles
Alison Robinson - Winner WCA Women’s Singles
Baubre Murray - Runner-up WCA Women’s Singles
Harps Tahurangi & Mark Huttley - Successful Challenge for the Pollock Stars (AC Open Grade) v Kelburn
Mark Huttley & Dick Smith - Successful Defense of the Paul Skinley Trophy (GC Open Grade) v Plimmerton
Contact
➤ LOCATION
160 Alexandra Road
Newtown
☎ Phone
Club Rooms 04 389 7071
✉ email
wellingtoncroquetclub@gmail.com
Club Hire
The club is available for hire for work or private social functions and celebrations.
For full details visit our Have a Go page
Tournament Entries
As well as our own club competitions, there are many tournaments held by other clubs plus regional and national events. We receive lots of flyers about these which are all displayed on our pin board.
Details are also in the year book - copies in the clubrooms - and on the WCA website link here
Flyers for WMCC hosted Tournaments
Covid-19 Policy
Please continue to follow the public health measures advised by government under the Covid Protection Framework when on Club premises, and take care of yourselves at all times.
Frequently Asked Questions
Click the Index button in the footer below for the answers to your questions and more.