Embedded Files
Who are we?
Lake Mac Croquet Centre is the new premium croquet centre for Lake Macquarie in NSW. In April 24 it will be leased to the Toronto Croquet Club as its new home. This has taken 12 years of work by a very dedicated and hard working sub-committee that just never gave up in the quest for our own courts. As they say 'Rome wasn't built in a day'.
The clubhouse and 6 courts are located on the western side of Bill Bower Oval at Glendale, adjacent to Frederick St. Click here for a map and detailed car parking and public transport details.
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. The title picture above was taken when all the Santa Ana turf had just been laid in Jan 24.
So what the hell benefit is croquet?
To many people, croquet has an image of crinoline dresses, cucumber sandwiches, toffy noses etc. But it is nothing like that. We like to say "It's a nasty game played by nice people".
Croquet can be played by any age group and is a low cost sport to get into. A croquet mallet and flat enclosed shoes are all you need. Details on how to learn croquet, costs, get more info etc are all on the Toronto Croquet Club website.
When you do decide to take up the sport then a mallet can be home made, second hand or purchased new from about $200 and up.
Many people in the community could benefit with a sport that gives gentle exercise, social interaction and some real health benefits.
Or they can get really competitive in it, compete at other clubs and play at state and higher levels as a few of the Toronto members do.
There are other croquet clubs in the Greater Hunter area that are just as welcoming. Their contact details are on the Hunter Croquet website
Croquet NSW has a list of all clubs in NSW and the ACT with their contact details. Or click here to locate all croquet clubs in Australia.
About the Toronto Croquet Club.
Toronto Croquet Club currently has 75 members and have had around that number for years. We pride ourselves on being a friendly club and are very welcoming of anyone who wants to try the sport.
It is with a very heavy heart that we are moving from the Ron Hill Oval croquet courts, however it is not the first time that Toronto Croquet Club has moved to a new venue.
Most of our members are retired as our current Toronto 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 and is easy to learn.
A GC game lasts 40 mins. Toronto currently play 4 games in a morning from 8:30 to midday. When daylight saving is on we start at 8 am. 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 and double banked with primary and secondary coloured balls we can have a maximum of 48 players.at once. Or if we add the unpopular tertiary coloured balls then its a maximum of 72 players. Considerably more than tennis, football, soccer etc for the same ground area.
Toronto also plays 2 other croquet versions, with lesser numbers, Association (AC) and Ricochet (RC). We are keen to promote both these versions of croquet..
We also play Gateball (GB) on a reduced size court with 10 players per game. GB is a very fast game with lots of strategy and clever play..
Is croquet a spectator sport? It is if you know how to play that particular game but for non players its certainly not the excitement of cheering on the Matildas!
The Toronto Croquet Club has many accredited coaches who are always available to help new starters as well as experienced players.
The Toronto Croquet Club is really looking forward to not only playing at the new Glendale facilities but importantly getting the local community, of all ages and gender, involved.
We also have a fairly active Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TorontoCroquet/
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse