social saturday...

...croquet on the court.

Willow on leather cracking at the adjacent oval with boisterous 10 year olds inspired by day three of the first Ashes Test and then the subtler (but no less competitive) tap of mallet on coloured balls (and that's a whole other story) at the riverside Croquet Club.

I wandered into the club as the morning's social 'Golf Croquet' matches were starting.
No haphazard walloping the ball through the nearest hoop but tactics awash with teams of two (or singles) playing their colour pairs determined by those  on the 'peg' (blue/red-black/yellow...green/pink and brown/white).

Coach A talked me through the basics before he had to rush off to a comp and then member E, sidelined by a dodgy hip, commentated the match closest to our comfy seats on the club house verandah.
An eagle eye on the game and wow there is some intriguing terminology! including : a Dambuster also known as a Barnes Wallis which ..yes..involves a skipping/jumping ball.