The weekend of February 11-12 will see teams of Gateball players from across NSW coming to Lithgow for a competition. Gateball, a mallet sport recently introduced to the Lithgow Croquet Club, is gaining popularity in New South Wales.
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Although relatively new in Australia, it is played by millions of people throughout Asia and South America.
It is a sport for all ages and has everything to recommend it: teamwork, skills, strategy and speed. Each game lasts only thirty minutes and the pressure is on to play each shot within ten seconds.
“It’s the T20 Cricket of the Croquet world,” said John Park, the Australian Coordinator of Gateball, also a member of the Lithgow Croquet Club.
John recently returned from a trip playing in Korea. “It’s huge in Asia and growing in Australia.”
If you would like to see it for yourself, come along to the Lithgow Croquet Club, corner of James and Young Street, on Saturday 11th or Sunday, February 12.
It’s huge in Asia and growing in Australia
Games begin at 9am and go through to 3pm each day. Friday the 10th is a practice day from 2.30 pm. The Opening Ceremony of the tournament will be at 11:15am on Saturday.
Players will be welcomed to the city and then a ball will be hit through a ceremonial gate (hoop).
Over 40 competitors will come from across NSW and the ACT. Young and old players will be coming from such place as Young, Sydney, Newcastle, Jamberoo and the Gold Coast.
Seven teams will complete a round robin competition, followed by a seeded double elimination final.
Each team will compete in eight or more games over the weekend and the players will also be referees during their byes. It will be a big weekend of Gateball.
Club President, Cass Hawkins, can be contacted on 0481 093 941 or via the Club’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/lithgowcroquetcluband
Fun facts:
• This is the second regional tournament of any sort of croquet held at the Lithgow Croquet Club, which was established in 1955.
• The Blue Mountains Gateball Competition is an annual tournament. It was held at Blackheath until 2015.
• Gateball uses larger hoops (called gates) and smaller balls than traditional croquet, but that doesn’t make it any easier to hit the ball through the gate to score a point!
• Gateball was introduced to the players of the Lithgow Croquet Club in August 2015 by John Park and other enthusiastic local players in the Blue Mountains. Lithgow are fielding two teams this year in their second tournament.
• The Lithgow Croquet Club is enjoying a revival, with the number of regular players increasing from 8 to 38 in the last two and a half years..
About Gateball: Gateball is played on a rectangular court 20-25 metres long and 15-20 metres wide.
Courts are generally grass, but can also be clay, gravel or concrete. Each court has three gates and a goal pole. The game is played by two teams (red and white) of five players.
Each player has a numbered ball corresponding to their playing order. The odd-numbered balls are red and the even-numbered balls are white.
Teams score one point for each ball hit through a gate and two points for hitting the goal pole.
A game of gateball lasts for 30 minutes. The winner is the team that has the most points at the end of the game.
Visit
www.gateball.com.au
