Judy Stewart says watching two top-quality division one players battle for the South West Croquet Association golf croquet title at Warrnambool was a learning experience for those on the sidelines.
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The Warrnambool Croquet Club president said the pair's matches were a highlight.
Portland's John Murfett won the best-of-three series at the Cramer Street venue from Terang's Catherine Humphrey.
Stewart said they had experience, talent and strong hand-eye co-ordination.
"The matches between John and Catherine in particular were a very good standard of play and you could learn a lot from watching them," she said.
"Like anything there is a lot of practice that goes into it.
"Their game is at a different level.
"They can hit a ball away from a long distance, they can go through the hoop from a longer distance and their strategies for how they set up the lawn leave themselves in a good position."
Stewart said those in attendance on Saturday enjoyed the competition.
"It was only really recently we discovered we were allowed to have spectators (after COVID-19 restrictions relaxed) but because the other clubs were coming from longer distances, only the players came from their relevant clubs," she said.
"But we had a pool of Warrnambool spectators that came to watch and that was particularly good.
"Most of the group know each other from over the years.
"It was just really lovely to be back sharing lawns and seeing each other and finding out how croquet is going at each of our clubs."
Terang, Portland, Koroit and Warrnambool were represented.
Division two went to Warrnambool's Peter Burke with Terang's Brian Beard second.
Warrnambool's Diana Sargent took out division three from Koroit's Karen Milroy.
The golf croquet championship was scheduled for late March but was delayed due to COVID-19 lockdowns.
The association croquet - a longer format of competition - will be played at Warrnambool on Saturday.
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