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New South Wales Gateball Championships 2008

Over 30 Gateballers assembled at the Mosman Croquet Club for the NSW Gateball Championships on 18-19 October. This was the first time the NSW Gateball Championships had been held in Sydney. Two teams from Victoria (the Bilbies and Brewsers) joined two teams from host club Mosman and one team from Canberra and Epping.

Saturday saw a busy program where the six teams played in round robin competition. The unpredictability of Gateball and closeness of competition was emphasised in the final round when the unbeaten Bilbies were involved in a topsy-turvy, extremely close match against the Mosman Gold team which included many players new to Gateball. The other noteworthy match occurred when the Brewsers completed a perfect game against Mosman Gold by scoring the maximum 25 points.

The Bilbies and Canberra qualified for the final winning 5 and 4 games respectively in the round robin stage. Canberra were able to reverse their earlier result against the Bilbies by taking control of the final early and holding on for victory. This is the third year in a row a Canberra team has taken out the teams event.

Saturday ended with a wonderful BBQ dinner provided by the Mosman Croquet.

Ten doubles backed up for the pairs event on Sunday. The two groups were tightly fought with Alec and Maxine Maclachlan from Melbourne leading home Daniel Casey and Gilon Smith from Canberra in Group A. Daniel and Gilon achieved a perfect game, the only one in the pairs competition. Glen Whitehead and Kristina Huynh from Canberra placed highest in Group B ahead of Sue Leitinger and Chris Langford from Melbourne.

The semi-finals saw Daniel and Gilon defeat Glen and Kristina in the first semi-final and Alec and Maxine come from behind in the other semi-final against Sue and Chris.

The final, in front of an appreciative crowd, saw a tight battle with few mistakes from either pair. Alec and Maxine took control early until a long range touch from Daniel swung the match. Alec and Maxine fought back late in the match but fell short by the smallest margin with Gilon and Daniel winning 10-10 on countback.

The weekend was highlighted by the idyllic surrounds and harbour views at the Mosman Croquet Club and the fantastic hosting by Mary Gibson and all the volunteers at the Mosman Croquet Club.

Plans were made at the end of the event to further encourage the development of Gateball in Sydney.

For photos of the competition, please click here.

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