Bendigo Croquet Club

It’s taken a bit longer to get to this stage than expected, but things are now starting to ramp up! Looking forward to seeing our new courts and car park take shape. Hopefully we are back home later this year.

We have been advised that Searle Bros has been announced as the head contractor for the major upgrades to our club, funded by the Victorian Government’s Regional Sports Infrastructure Program.

Upgrades include 2 full sized croquet courts and improved accessibility and circulation around the site.

These upgrades are a huge win for our club. This will give us more space and better surfaces to play on so we can keep expanding our membership. It will also make our venue more welcoming and accessible for everyone.

To all our club members and supporters, you can keep updated about the project here:

Regional Sports Infrastructure Program – Bendigo Bendigo is poised for a major transformation in its sporting and events facilities, delivered through the Victorian Government's Regional Sports Infrastructure Program.

Today we moved into our temporary home in preparation for our courts being rebuilt later this year. We were lucky to be able to move into the former VRI Bowls Club at the Bendigo Train Station, which is now leased to Let’s Chat Park, a mental health charity.

While only a few people were willing to head out into the rain, most of us were happy to enjoy a chicken and salad lunch in advance of the annual Anzac Biscuit challenge.

Judges this year were impressed with the diversity of entries, with the winning biscuits demonstrating a commitment to perfection, each weighing in at 30g exactly. Well done Jenny B!

For the next 6 months we are playing at 10am on Saturday’s and 1pm on Monday’s and Wednesday’s. Turn up 15 minutes before if you want to join us.

Today we hosted the Central Victorian Challenge, with six local clubs represented. The competition was played using the Advantage Handicap system and it made for some very close games. The result was very close (for second place!), but the strength of the Maryborough duo of Alex and Colin shone through and they took out the title with 5 wins. On 3 wins we had Bendigo, Quarry Hill and Maldon, with Bendigo taking out second place on net hoops. Kyneton and Eaglehawk rounded out the field.

This is one of the last times our lawns will be used, as we are moving to our temporary home (at the former VRI Bowls Club at the Bendigo Station) over the next couple of weeks. We are looking forward to coming back in late 2026 to some fantastic new lawns and many more competitions.

It was great to see the Croquet Social Club crew back on the courts last night, with some familiar faces and plenty of first time croquetters! If you’re young and fun and want to give croquet a crack, seek out Croquet Social Club to see when their next event is on!

Today it was our turn to host the annual Bendigo & Boort Croquet Clubs Challenge. Well, not only did we turn on the weather, but we also tried to trick our opponents with three different sized A Courts. Court 3, aka “The Beast” caught a few players out with 31 yards between hoops 1 & 2 (& 3 & 4). Despite this, we still had 6 players win all three of their matches.

The winners of the day were Roger (21 hoops / + 11), with Gwen and Joy tied in second place (21 hoops / +9).

A great weekend of Association Croquet (AC) at Boort Croquet Club. Section winners🥇 Phil DeAraugo (Bendigo) and 🥇 Damien Hadfield (Kyneton); and runners up🥈 Kerry Cullen (Colac) and 🥈 Fred Littmann (Deniliquin) are pictured with President Carmel Allison and TM Ian Potter. Both Phil and Damien are recent converts to AC from GC under the tutelage of Tricia Devlin (Castlemaine).

The first of our Club Championships was decided today with the Open Champion (GC Level Play) decided after a round robin with five players. With many close and competitive games, Phil DeAraugo defended his title and came out on top with 3 wins and +7 hoops. Brian Loughran was runner up, just 2 hoops behind (with 3 wins and +5 hoops). Mandy Banks finished in third place after knocking Brian’s ball through hoop 13 when attempting to clear! The one time you don’t want to nail a clearance dead centre!

Our Handicap GC Club Championship will be played on September 15, and our Division 3 GC Club Championship will be played throughout September. Good luck to all players.

Congratulations to two of our members, Mandy and Phil, whom have made the Victorian side! Both have only been playing for a handful of years and are continually improving their games (and imparting some of their learnings on the rest of us). Best of luck in the Interstate Shield. Go Victoria!

Well done Roger and Brendan on winning today’s ANZAC day singles comp. Bickies all around!