PLAY commenced for season 2024/25 last Thursday in spite of the light drizzle that fell throughout the day.

The one Association game played in the morning saw Glenyce Kuilboer and Brian Mibus prove too strong for Lesley Schneider and Graeme Wallis, finishing with 15 hoops to seven.

There were two peg outs and one game timed out in the three morning games of Ricochet.

Helen and David Morrison pegged out ahead of Carol Anderson and Trevor Wilson, 26 to 22, while Vicki Allen and Mary-Ann Callinan were also successful in their game against Lorraine Rye and Helen Bell, winning 26 to 17.

In the third game between John Brader and Leonie Schurmann and Denise Stevens and Val Wallis, Brader and Schurmann were leading 20 to 16 hoops at the end of play.

In the afternoon three players competed against each other in their game of Association, with Mibus comfortably leading with 14 hoops, Schneider with seven and Graeme Wallis with six hoops when time was called.

In their game of Ricochet, Stevens and Anderson edged out their opponents, Brader and Bell, making 26 hoops to 23.

In the second game, Helen Morrison and Susan Mason managed to secure victory over Val Wallis and Rye, 26 to 23.

This was despite the failure on the part of both Morrison and Mason, hitting their two ball six times between them when both balls were located within hitting distance.

At the end of the afternoon’s play, the Southern Grampians Shire Council Mayor, David Robertson, opened the season after first revealing he was not a complete novice to the game.

He said he had played one game of croquet years before.

The new mower that had been purchased with the aid of a ShireCAROL grant was then unveiled followed by afternoon tea.

Saturday morning and a small group turned up to play one game each of Ricochet and Association.

Mibus and Helen Morrison came away with the honours in their game of Association against Kuilboer and Schneider, making 20 hoops to eight.

Rye and Val Wallis were overcome by Wilson and Tim O’Brien, 26 to 12, and due to the attacking style of play by O’Brien, it took Rye and Wallis 50 minutes for one ball to make the first hoop.

Scattered showers throughout the afternoon resulted in only one game being abandoned, with Mason making 14 hoops to Stevens and Callinan 12, before the players retired.

The other two games continued with players retiring to the shelters in between hits.

Cheryl Storer and Anderson pegged out before Helen Morrison and Bell, 26-21, with David Morrison sitting on the sidelines ‘advising’ both teams.

The game between Brader and Cicely Fenton and Margaret Roberts and Rye was timed out with Brader and Fenton leading, 19 to 10.

Interested Ricochet players can now enter their names for the proposed intraclub pennant round, which will commence later in the month.