Needing a social outlet to escape the daily work and domestic grind of dairy farming with her husband Ken on the outskirts of Terang, Fahey took up badminton and later joined the town's croquet club.

"I really had never played sport," she said yesterday.

"The only sport was with the neighours (growing up in Cressy) when we milked cows by hand. I could always get the most froth on the milk."

Fahey, 75, served as secretary and president during her 42-year involvement with Terang badminton, which ended last year, and retains an ongoing association with Terang Croquet Club.

She recalls triggering a chain reaction after choosing croquet as a new sporting challenge in 1994.

"My friend came with me and her friend said 'where are you two going?' and she said 'wait for me'. Then she had another friend so the four of us were new to the sport."

Fahey, Margaret Wadelton, Bernice Adeney and Glad Adams increased the club's membership by 33 per cent overnight.

"They couldn't believe their luck when four beginners walked in."

Fahey was appointed secretary withing six months, a position she holds today.

Club members quickly learned not to tell their club administrator something wasn't possible.

She was able to source funding for a watering system, saving a club member the daily inconvenience of 2am visits to the greens to turn off sprinklers. In 1997 Fahey and Gwen Hindhaugh joined forces to achieve another mission impossible: establish clubrooms for $500.

The dynamic duo submitted a $250 tender to relocate a room from the Gnotuk school.

To their delight and surprise, the tender was accepted and with the assistance of members and the town's service clubs the building was transformed into the club's new social and administrative home.

"It was the best thing because all of a sudden croquet was something . . . we had rooms," Fahey explained.