Category Archives: This ain’t croquet

For all my blogs that have nothing to do with croquet.
It may surprise you that I do have a life outside of croquet.

Petition for Naked Ranga

I encourage you to sign the petition below and partake of this wonderful ale when next at the Thirsty Crow Brewery in Wagga Wagga.      

Thirsty Crow hosting sporting champions

Wagga Wagga’s finest champions, past, present and “legends of their own lunch boxes” are celebrating their sporting championship status this afternoon at the Thirsty Crow.

Thirsty Crow’s brewer’s head

Head brewer Craig Wealands wasn’t known for his sporting prowess on the field, however he has honed his skills to providing all sporting champions the finest of ales to toast their achievements.
And he has a trophy to prove it.
So being the good sport that he is, Craig has “Sporting Ale” on tap for all sporting champions to enjoy.

Croquet Champion Jim Nicholls
enjoying a “Sporting Ale”

 So come on down to the Thirsty Crow to watch our finest footballers this weekend, bring your trophies, and embellish the great moments, both on and off the field (pool table or dart board), that has made Wagga Wagga Australia’s greatest city of good sports.
Given that Two Bird clubs, Hawks and Swans, are competing for the title, it is only fitting that I take my “Best part for a Canary played by a Budgie” trophy

“Canary played by a Budgie” trophy

3 & under becomes 10.56 and under

Record rainfall throughout the Riverina and Southern Tablelands of NSW caused the local dams (Burrinjuck and Blowering) to reach capacity within 2 days. Having been about 80% capacity, after 150m to 250mm of rain in the catchment area the dams were overflowing at un-precendented rates.
On Saturday 5 March we abandoned our local croquet as we could see the storm rolling in.

By the time Monday came around there had been plenty of rainfall in the catchment area upstream from Wagga. This caused major flooding in the Murrumbidgee. The river level quickly rose.

At 9.30pm all residents in the Wagga Wagga CBD received evacution orders and busily began packing, moving, lifting furniture before 6am Tuesday morning.

Having spent the night at my friend’s place (Thanks Bill) spent the day takng in the water views around Wagga Wagga. Amazing to see so much water…

Kangaroos “swimming for it” across kilometres of waters.

 

Wagga CBD protected by a 10.70 metre levee bank. The integrity of the levee could not be guaranteed, hence the evacuation. The river was tipped to peak at 10.90 metres.

 The train travelling across the Murrumbidgee at Wagga Wagga.

 

 

Every sheep for themselves… inovative ways to keep dry

 

And all over NSW the rain was falling and causing problems

Approximately 80% of NSW was flood affected, of which 80% of the water will flow into the Murray Darling basin to South Australia.

 

After a hectic few days of packing, sleeping on foreign couch and finally getting back to work, decided it best not to play in the NSW 3 & under. Whilst it was to prepare for the Eire Cup, nothing like some rest was required to get prepared for the 10 days of croquet ahead in Perth.

Thirsty Crow’s brewer night (how to prepare for team practice)

Thirsty Crow brewer - Craig Wealands

Decisions, decisions…
Local brewer, Craig Wealands, invited me to join in the festivities of the Thirsty Crow’s inaugrual brewer night. Should I pass up the opportunity and get to team practice early and refereshed?? or should I attend and celebrate Wagga Wagga’s first Continue reading

Sightseeing in Wanganui, NZ

Having not qualified for the doubles knockout, and then losing to Aiken & Harps in the first round of the knockout plate, I was fortunate to have James Abernathy take me on a tourist drive of Wanganui.

Overloking Wanganui towards croquet lawns

Wanganui is a town of 45,000 people which does not have a major industry and therefore is a welfare town with a large population of retirees and also a younger families. Wanganui has one of the hottest ratios of schools per head of population in New Zealand.

James took it to one of the only two operational lifts within a hill in the world. We had to walk 500 metres in a tunnel to the middle of the hill before taking the lift. At the top of the hill one has a fantastic view over the township of Wanganui.

Tunnel into hill

Of course one has to visit the beach when travelling in the middle of summer. The beaches on the west coast of New Zealand are a little different to what of experienced in most places around the world. There are no golden sands or gentle waves lapping the shoreline.

Tree lined Wanganui Beach

Instead one is greeted with black sand and plenty of timber as far as the eye can see. Being on the west coast of New Zealand the seas are quite rough, and whilst there is plenty of opportunity to get a good catch the treacherous seas turned plenty of fishermen away.

Only 10 kms to go… until a (very) icy cold beer

No I haven’t been running a marathon as part of my preparation for the NZ Open.
The real marathon men are Cas and Jonesy, the guys who paddled from Australia to New Zealand, and are now just 10 kms from walking all the way to the south pole unassisted.
They have been trekking now for the last 61 days. You can follow their progress on CasandJonsey website, although I must admit, it looks like a heap of squiggles on a white piece of paper.

What’s this got to do with croquet?
Continue reading

Convening a Happy Play Fest

As if I wasn’t busy enough I am covening SOACT’s 2012 Ten x 10 Play Fest.

Wagga Wagga was recently named the “happiest place in Australia” so it’s only natural that SOACT (School of Arts Community Theatre) will be producing a Ten x 10 “Happy” Play Fest in June 2012.

The format of the Tenx10 Play Fest, which features ten 10-minute plays, has proved very popular with both audiences and participants in recent years. 

SOACT’s Play Fest is part of the rich tapestry of what makes living in Wagga Wagga such a delight.

For more details visit the Tenx10 Play Fest website.

Down to Tasmania

Having spent the last couple of weeks finalising moving and catching up on work; was great to head down to Melbourne and experience something different and board the “Spirit of Tasmania”. Dwayne McCormack and Alice were also on board. Was able to get some sleep are however not the best due to my land legs. Continue reading