On Monday morning, April 19, in sunny weather, the semifinals and final of the Narooma Croquet Club's Golf Croquet Handicap Singles Tournament were contested on court 2 at Dalmeny Club.

Semifinal No 1 was a closely contested match, requiring the game to be decided at the 13th hoop, whereby Janet Jones defeated Dianne Sims 7 points to 6.

Semifinal No 2, similarly, was a close match with Len Favier snatching the lead at the 13th hoop, to score 7 points against Christine Stent on 6 points.

Thus the contestants for the final were Janet Jones and Len Favier. They played the best of three games to decide the winner. In both games 1 and 2 Len Favier had an early lead of 5-3 (game 1) and 4-2 (game 2), but each time Janet played the more consistent and skilled golf croquet to wear down her opponent, going on to win in each game, 7 points to 5 points in game 1 and 7 points to 4 points in game 2. Therefore Janet Jones regains the title of the 'Golf Croquet Handicap Singles' tournament she lost last year to Len Favier, and Len is the runner-up for 2021.

Association Croquet Handicap Singles Tournament (round robin format event). This tournament continued last week with two more matches - one on Thursday morning, April 22 and the other on Saturday morning April 24 - each match being played under conditions of a time limit of two hours and 15 minutes,.

On Thursday, Christine Stent (handicap 18) met Janet Jones (handicap 11), played on croquet court 2 at Dalmeny Club. With the respective handicaps Christine was allowed 7 bisques (extra shots). Christine Stent bravely battled out the match, during which Christine trailed by 1 or 2 points throughout the game, and was unable match the play of Janet Jones who won within the time limit on a score of 26 points to 15 points by Christine Stent.

On Saturday Janet Jones (handicap 11) met Pearl Hanson (handicap 18), played on croquet court 2 at Dalmeny Club. With the respective handicaps Pearl was allowed 7 bisques (extra shots). This match was amazing in that both players produced long breaks - Janet scoring seven hoops in a row with the red ball and Pearl scoring six hoops in a row with the black ball - a 'Big Break Game'. Consequently the match finished well within the time limit when Janet Jones reached the maximum of 26 points to defeat Pearl Hanson on 10 points.

Golf croquet

On Thursday morning, the regular round of golf croquet was scheduled on court 1 at Dalmeny Club with eight players competing in doubles matches, having been graded in two groups, those being groups A and B, in a format whereby there was a rotation of partners for each match. In the higher Group A, Dianne Sims was outstanding, figuring in three doubles match wins and no losses. In Group B, three players, Helen Stannard, Jean Phillips and Louise Starkie, figured in two wins each, with Helen just edging out her rivals with a higher average score. Detailed scores were:-

Group A

Game 2, Court 1 - Dianne Sims and Pearl Hanson 7 def Len Favier and Paul Chenoveth 5. Game 4, Court 1 - Dianne Sims and Paul Chenoveth 7 def Len Favier and Pearl Hanson 2. Game 6, Court 2 - Dianne Sims and Len Favier 7 def Pearl Hanson and Paul Chenoveth 5.

Group B

Game 1, Court 1 - Jean Phillips and Louise Starkie 7 def Sally McGourty and Helen Stannard 5. Game 3, Court 1 - Helen Stannard and Jean Phillips 7 def Sally McGourty and Louise Starkie 2. Game 5, Court 1 - Helen Stannard and Louise Starkie 7 def Sally McGourty and Jean Phillips 4.

Bermagui Dad's Army golf

Cheers president Ziggy

Narooma ladies golf

Last Monday was a 4BBB Medley Stableford event with 27 players. The winners were C Robertson and D O'Connor with 45 points. Runners up were J Walker and J Whyte with 44 points OCB. Balls to 40 OCB.

Wednesday was a stableford event with 40 ladies competing. Division 1 was 0-27 with Meridie Banson the winner with a great score of 38 off handicap of 14. Marion Brooks was the runner up with 35 off handicap of 26. Division 2 was 28-45 with some great scores from the winners. Robyn Giblett with 38 points OCB off handicap of 38 to Pam Shepherd off handicap of 37. Balls to 32 OCB. NTP on the 3rd was M Casswell, on the 9th V Connaughton and the 17th K Lawrence.

Narooma men's golf

This year's smallest Thursday field of 127 players was favoured by pleasant conditions and good scoring. In A Grade David Bennett enjoyed along overdue victory in parring the course and posting 39 points off his handicap of 3, while Ali Elmasri took second place on countback with 38 points ahead of Bill Durnan.

Mark Anderson also parred the course with 37 points off a handicap of 1. A three-way countback on 39 points was needed to find the winner in B Grade where Peter Elliott prevailed off his handicap of 20 ahead of Wayne Rollings and Michael Commins.

In C Grade John Hasler registered clearly the best score of the day with 42 points off his handicap of 22 ahead of Jim Doel and Wayne McMillan on 39 and 37 points respectively. The NTP winners were Graham Tasker on 3, Scott Ker on 9, Andrew Voormeulen on 14 and Michael Pollock on 17 while the ball competition went down to all on 33 points.

The good field of 158 players found the course to their liking and scored accordingly on Saturday. In A Grade Allan Maddison came out on top with 40points off his handicap of 12 , one point better than Paul Mood and Adam Harris from Gold Creek with Scott Ker missing out on countback after going round in two under par. Mark Elmasri parred the course in posting 38 points.

The B Grade scores were enviable with Neil Towers prevailing on 42 points off his handicap of 14, albeit on countback from Chris Eardley. Rob Russack finished third with 40 points on countback from Michael Wuttke-Hayes.

In C Grade Chris Matthews finished on top with 39 points off a handicap of 26, with Hugh Crawford in second place on 37 points and Gordon Roberts in third place with 36 points on countback ahead of Lee Lewis. The NTP winners were Glenn McInerney on 3, Brett Thompson on both 9 and 17 and Jenny Wuttke-Hayes on 14, while Ricky Falconer was rewarded with a substantial eagle's nest after holing his second shot on the 10th. The ball competition went down to all on 34 points. RGI

Narooma men's bowls

Winners' circle

We had a good turnout on Wednesday with 48 bowlers making up seven rinks of triples and one rink of pairs. Winners were decided by lowest winning score and this week the winners were Warren Bender, Peter Hawker and John Downie (skip) who were down seven to 13 after 11 ends before they picked up four shots on the last two ends to grab a 17 all draw but won on ends against Bob Murphy, Peter Murton and Les Waldock (skip). Second place went to Allan Chisholm, Neville Butt and John Scott (skip) who led 12 to eight after 11 ends and squared the second half to run out 18 to 15 winners against Allan Chisholm (swinging lead), Greg Ryan and Peter Dillon (skip). Graham Cummins had the first resting toucher at 12.50.

On Saturday the winners were Gail Palmer and Janet Murphy (skip) who were in front 11 to seven after 11 ends after being 17 all after 19 ends they regrouped to take the last two ends for a 23 to 17 win against Tony Fryer and Mick Cavic (skip). On Sunday we had 24 bowlers for four rinks of triples. Winners were decided by lowest winning score and first place went to Leo Winter, Bob Murphy and Terry Lewis (skip) who were down nine to 17 after 11 ends before they upped the tempo and picked up two shots on the last end to beat the luckless Rob McIntyre, Clare Cork and Warren Bender (skip). Second place went to Alison Maloney, her dad Des Spackman and Greg Maloney (skip) who combined admirably to lead 14 to three after 11 ends and continued their good form to take their match 22 to eight against Kaye Whiffen, John Downie and Janet Murphy (skip)

Major singles

Two Major Singles games were played over the weekend. Les Waldock was up against John Breust and in a high-quality match, John got away to a good start to lead 16 to 10 after 12 ends. Les came back to lead 19 to 16 after 15 ends and they swapped the lead on four occasions over the next seven ends where the score was 25 all. On the final end, John led 28 to 27 before he picked up three shots to take the match, 31 to 27. In the other match John Downie played Peter Jones and this was a tight match with the lead changing five times over 16 ends and the scores were then tied at 16 all after 17 ends. John then put a few ends together to lead 28 to 18 after 25 ends and he shared the next four ends to take the match 31 to 20.

Pennant results

Our Grade 4 Pennant Team were at away to Malua Bay Grade 3 on Saturday and were defeated 10 points to nil, no matches to three and 86 shots to 39. Results were - Peter Robson, John Roche, Col Armstrong and David Herman (skip) lost 11 to 27; Tony Palmer, Dennis Maggs, John Scott and Jeremy Seaton (skip) lost 10 to 37; and James Baker, Les Waldock, Greg Ryan and Garry Carberry (skip) lost 18 to 22. Our Grade 6 team were away to Braidwood and went down 10 points to nil, three matches to nil and 68 shots to 47. Results were - Steve Murane, Peter Tinson, Graham Cummins and Mitch Mitchell (skip) lost 20 to 23; Neville Butt, Allan Chisholm, Peter Dillon and Peter Jones (skip) lost 16 to 18; and John Redman, John Voytas, Gary Murane and John Downie (skip) lost 11 to 27.

To ponder

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.

Jestyer Weight