Sparkling display in showdown

Bette Bull of Rockhampton is all concentration yesterday.

ALLAN REINIKKA

THEY breed them tough when it comes to mallet sports with Saturday's bleak conditions failing to deter competitors in the Gateball competition at Rockhampton Croquet Club.

Players from around the state are in Rockhampton for three weeks of action in the mallet sport disciplines of gateball, golf croquet, ricochet and the traditional association croquet.

First up was the gateball and Rockhampton club spokesperson Ethel Hughes said the wet weather hardly mattered.

“We played in between the showers, in mallet sports you always carry your wet weather gear,” she said.

While Saturday was damp, on the other two days the competition lived up to its name of “Winter in the Sun”.

Hughes said visitors who also attended last year's national event at the same venue wondered what Rockhampton will offer next as that competition was staged with bush fires raging just outside the city.

During three days of high quality competition, there was a teams event and a doubles competition with visitors winning in both sections.

In the teams event, a Brisbane combination triumphed.

The team McIlwraith was the winner but which teams gained the minor places was not so clear cut.

“The teams finishing second, third and fourth were decided on a countback as they all had three wins,” Hughes said.

The countback favoured Ipswich, relegating the two Rockhampton teams to third and fourth place.

“There were some magnificent games played,” Hughes recalled.

In the doubles event, Rockhampton came even closer to getting a winner.

The competition was played in two blocks with the winner of each section playing off in a final.

Block one featured the Rockhampton duo of Norm Bull and Greg Featherstone winning through, beating Toowoomba couple Joslyn and Paul Reynolds to the place in the final.

Meeting them in the big match-up was another couple, Geoff and Bev Percival from Ipswich.

The win by the Percivals prevented it being an all-Rockhampton final as they won through at the expense of runners-up John Dargel and Eric Hughes.

In an exciting match, the Ipswich couple pulled away to win 14-8.

“All the semi-finals and the final were very close games,” Hughes said.

The two Rockhampton sides met in the semi with Featherstone and Bull beating Dargel and Hughes on a countback after being level 13-13.

“For the countback, they see who went through the most hoops,” she said.

The action moves to the Coast next weekend and golf croquet and ricochet.