Glendale

Photos and details about the Lake Mac Croquet Complex at Glendale are all now located in their own Google Drive. Just click here to access it. 

Work is getting underway (at last!) on a new croquet complex in the Bill Bower Sports area at Glendale. There's still a lot of work to do and just what it will be called is still to be decided, probably 'Lake Macquarie Croquet Centre'.

The intent is for a new clubhouse with all new courts that will have proper drainage and lighting. 

Our existing courts at Toronto were in fantastic condition, prior to 2022 that is. In 2022 they have been largely unusable due to the heavy and frequent rain.  Currently it only takes a few mms to render then out of action for a few days.

A sub committee headed by Alan Graham have been working with Lake Mac Council, firstly on the plan for it at Cockle Creek and now on the new site at Glendale.  Below are the latest documents about Glendale.

So what the hell benefit is croquet?

To many people, croquet has an image of crinoline dresses, cucumber sandwiches, toffy noses etc and I can assure you it is nothing like that. Its played by any age group and is a low cost sport to get into.

There are many people in the community who could really benefit with a sport that gives gentle exercise, social interaction and some real health benefits. 

Or they can get really competitive in and play at state and higher levels. The Toronto Croquet Club has10 coaches. We are really looking forward to not only playing at the new Glendale facilities but importantly getting the local community, of all ages and gender, involved.

A few things about Croquet and the Toronto Club.

• Toronto Club currently has 75 members and have had around that number for years.

• Most of our members are retired as our current courts restrict us to play during the working week. We would LOVE to get younger players involved in the sport.

• Golf Croquet (GC) is the most popular version played in Lake Mac / Newcastle.

• A GC game lasts 40 mins. Toronto normally play 4 games in a morning from 8:30 to midday. We do this on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. (A player typically racks up 4-5000 steps in playing 4 games so it is great gentle exercise for any couch potato.)

• We can fit up to 8 players per court for each GC game. Normally we fully use 4 courts, double banked, sometimes 5.

• With 6 courts at Glendale we could have a maximum of 48 players. Considerably more than tennis, football, soccer etc for the same ground area.

• Toronto also plays 2 other versions, with lesser numbers, Association (AC) and Ricochet (RC).

• We also play Gateball (GB) on a reduced size court with 10 players per game.

• Is croquet a spectator sport? It is if you know how to play the game but for non players its certainly not the excitement of the Matildas or even close to it!