Competition against foreign teams
helps improve skills Heading for the next World Championships
By inviting Japanese and other foreign teams to the last 2 Australian Championships
in 2000 and 2001, as well as through exchanges with foreign teams, the Australian
players skills have suddenly improved. At last year's World Championships two
Australian teams; the Wombats and the Wallabies (both the names of Australian
animals) participated. Their croquet style striking, technique which produced
accurate ball control, surprised the crowd. The Wallabies, consisting of members
selected from 2 blocks in Melbourne, possess very high skills. Made up of members
mainly in their 60s and 70s, the team which is extremely skillful was chosen as
the best team at the national croquet championships in 2001. On the other hand,
the Wombats also from Melbourne are an energetic young team with members in their
30s and 40s. Normally, the teams practice both croquet and gateball 3 times a
week on the respective courts. But when a GB tournament approaches, the teams
get together for outdoor night practice under floodlighting. With this kind of
preparation they participated in the Word Championships only for both teams to
fail to get past the preliminary rounds. However, the Wombats had a 2 win 1 loss
result this failing to reach the finals by a small margin.
"In the previous World Championships, we failed to win even one game, so
I think we have made a big improvement. Using our experience at this tournament,
we intend to set our goal on winning the 2006 World Championships," said
captain Keith McLeod. |
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Croquet striking style is accurate. Striker is A. M. Smith of the Wombats (46)
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Tim Stagg(34) of the Wombats |
Wombats' female captain, Sue Leitinger(38)
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The young Wombats who put up a good fight with a 2 win 1 loss result
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The Wombats brought their mascot Wombat form Australia hoping it would help them
to win |
The easy-going Wallabies are popular with the Japanese players
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