CROQUET
Drago Yelavich added another silver badge to his trophy cabinet after recently winning the premier division of Northland Golf Croquet Silver Badges tournament for the third consecutive year.
After an early departure for Whangarei on the day of the event, Yelavich faced five opponents contesting the premier division (eg
for players of a 0-3 handicap) title and won his first four games, beating George Depree (Kensington) 7-1, Evelyn Christensen (Maungakaramea) 6-5, George Smith (Doubtless Bay) 6-5, and Rilla Jeffs (Kerikeri) 6-5. Despite a narrow loss to his last opponent, Tangi Kirkman (Whangarei), when she made a long distance hoop to take the game 6-7, Yelavich still emerged as the clear winner being the only player with four wins. It also added to the silver badge victory he had enjoyed in the annual provincial association croquet tournament in March where he beat Helen Wilkinson in a 'Best of 3' competition.
Yelavich's former Kaitaia Croquet Club stablemate Margaret Manning reviewed the other results from golf croquet event, noting the players in the intermediate section (4-7hcp) played six games each, and the eventual winner - after a great deal of maneuvering, blocking and jump shots - was Jan King (Whangarei), adding to the two silver badges she'd won previously in the primary division.
Drago Yelavich's Kaitaia stablemate Patricia Macpherson was also in Whangarei contesting the primary section (8-12hcp) of the tournament. Having won a silver badge there a couple of years ago, Macpherson he played eight games but was not able to overcome formidable opposition. The end of the day found three players left with five wins each but it was Jean Kent (Waipu) who eventually prevailed to win her first silver badge with wins over Shirley Cox (Kensington) 5-4 and Richard (Kerikeri) 2-1.
