Cometh the year’s end, cometh the celebrations.
At their recently held AGM on 28 November, the members of the Noosa Croquet Club certainly had reason to celebrate a successful 2024.
Evidence abounded that, over the previous 12 months, the club had been true to both its vision and its mission as they appear in its strategic plan. The vision is to be recognised as a successful and reputable sport and recreational club that significantly contributes to community life on the Sunshine Coast.
A flourishing membership of some 75 playing members and a healthy bank balance to boot, both attest to the success and reputation of the club across the entire region. In fact, its enviable reputation extends across the entire nation. Evidence for this claim is provided by the feedback that was received from so many of the competitors and officials who were involved in the inter-state test matches of the National Golf Croquet Championships that the Noosa club co-hosted over five days in early September.
It’s worth mentioning in passing that so-called golf croquet is one of three different codes of the game. Ironically it bears little resemblance to the game of golf itself beyond the shared aim of hitting a ball with a stick (a mallet in croquet versus a club in golf) to reach and score at a specific target (running a hoop in croquet versus sinking a putt in golf). It is, of course, much more complicated than that not least because in golf croquet the essential hazard is not a bunker or a lake of water, but your competitors who have license to hit your ball out of the way with one of theirs. Croquet has been described as a mix between chess and billiards played on immaculately groomed grass lawns with a touch of golf and lawn bowls thrown in.
The complex challenge for any croquet club is well captured by the strategic mission of the Noosa club: to provide opportunities for players at all levels of skill, from beginners to experienced players, to enjoy the different codes of the game of croquet at a club which is renowned for the quality of its outstanding facilities and friendliness, support, and hospitality of its social environment.
Taken together, all of these elements represent what is perhaps best described as the club’s culture with prominence given to the concept of ‘duty of care’ for each member by all members. The aim for everyone is to feel that they are part of, and actively contribute to the culture of an inclusive community of people united in their love of the game of croquet, whether their primary motivation is to play socially or to compete in formal competitions and tournaments. Competitions are held within the club, including internal championships across three handicap divisions as well as in the inter-club league within the region, held also across three divisions.
In 2024 the Division one golf croquet club championship was won by Galina Makarova, the second Division by Dan Stewart while the third Division champion was Richard Brown. In the interclub Sunshine Coast competition, the Noosa club was placed second in the low handicap division competing for the Pam Shepherd pennant and third in the Pat Habner plate competition for beginning players. Noosa were winners (for the second year in a row) of the Bill Bray Shield for intermediate handicap players.
While these results are tangible evidence of success in competitions over the year, playing host for six days to the National Golf Championship Tournament in particular, provided less obvious, but perhaps even more significant evidence of the success of the club through the strength of its culture. Mention has already been made of the compliments that were showered on the club for its role as one the Sunshine Coast’s co-hosts for the Nationals. The successful organisation and conduct of that event at the Noosa club is a testament to the spirit of collaboration that marks its culture with approaching half of the entire memberships being actively engaged as volunteers across a host of duties during that esteemed tournament.
By any relevant measure 2024 was a successful year for the Noosa Croquet Club and all indications are that 2025 will bring similar outcomes.
