Sport

Benalla Croquet Club celebrates 30 years

By Contributed

Nov 17, 2023

Thirty years celebrated: The players who took to the turf to celebrate the milestone at the Benalla Croquet Club.

In October 1993, two weeks after devastating floods, Benalla Croquet Club held its inaugural open day on its current site in Ackerly Ave, on the grounds of the Benalla Lawn Tennis Club.

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Now, 30 years later, on Thursday, November 16, Benalla Croquet Club celebrated its 30th anniversary with a Golf Croquet Social Day.

Sixty players from the surrounding area and as far away as Brimbank and Ballarat arrived to play in two divisions.

Thanks to the dedicated croquet grounds team and curator Adrian, the courts were in superb condition.

Cutting the cake: Marcia Elliott had the most important job on the day.

Pleasant, windy conditions helped keep the pesky flies at bay while the games were fought in great spirit.

During the lunch break, Marcia Elliott, 1993 president and now a life member of Benalla Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, spoke about what it was like back in 1993 when she first began to play croquet.

Association Croquet was the game played then, taking around 2.5 hours to play per game and employing many shot styles.

Soon after, Golf Croquet became the predominant game — a much faster game, allowing more people to play on the court simultaneously.

Marcia performed the honours by cutting the three-tiered, cream-filled birthday cake.