In 2005 Elaine Hancock was elected as the inaugural president of the Lakes Entrance Croquet Club and held the position for 11 years.
During her time, she led the club from establishing temporary courts at the Lake Tyers Reserve, where they played on the football/cricket oval, to the new courts in Lakes Entrance that members enjoy playing on today.
Plenty of hard work was carried out to establish two full-size croquet courts at Lake Tyers, then three
fresh new courts and a clubhouse in Lakes Entrance.
During Elaine’s tenure with the club she played in many tournaments, pennant competitions and achieved a qualification as a golf croquet referee.
After playing golf and tennis for many years, croquet was her sport
of preference in the latter years of
her life.
Following the passing of Elaine in 2022, her daughter Fiona Donohue approached the club to offer an annual memorial trophy to honour Elaine and her service to the club.
With this in mind, the idea was to conduct a round robin challenge with the eventual winner being awarded the trophy each year with a generous contribution from Fiona.
Last Sunday, under pleasant weather conditions, Lakes Entrance Croquet Club held the 2025 Elaine Hancock Memorial Challenge Day with 16 members competing in a round robin challenge with the format being high/low handicap doubles pairs.
They played each game to the best of seven hoops with seven games being played by each pair during the day.
While most games were close and went to the seventh hoop, the overall winners were Corry Schreuders and Helen Rasmussen who won five out of their seven games.
They narrowly beat Alan Drayton and Faye Kleehammer by two
net hoops.
There were three pairs who followed, finishing on four wins and three losses.
A special mention to May Beveridge and Peter Berlingeri who persevered and finished the seven games with respect to Elaine’s legacy.
If anyone would like to come and experience the game of golf croquet, the club is holding a ‘Come and Try’ Day on November 23 and 30 and December 7 from 9.30am to noon.
