Croquet Club Blames ‘Big Money’ as Council Turns Its Back
Ballina Croquet Club has accused councillors of siding with “big money” over community sport, after an extraordinary council meeting failed to change its fate.
Speaking to ABC North Coast, club president Carolyn Reay-Young said the outcome exposed where priorities lay.
“It just shows that… council really doesn’t care about community clubs. When it comes to the big clubs, the big money, that’s where the voting goes,” she said.
The claim was not challenged during the interview, and no evidence was presented to support it.
The meeting confirmed Cherry Street Sports Club’s decision to move to a unified model, leaving the 90-year-old croquet club without its own dedicated space.
“Now we actually have nothing,” Ms Reay-Young said.
She said members were “pretty pissed off… really upset, just a bit lost” following the outcome.
Despite the setback, the Greens faction on council has indicated it will support efforts to find an alternative site for the club in central Ballina.
That could involve identifying public land where a new croquet facility could be established, with the club now looking at even a single lawn as a starting point.
Ms Reay-Young said the club had warned councillors for years it did not feel secure at Cherry Street.
“We were looking for land… saying that we didn’t feel secure there,” she said.
She also framed the dispute as an issue of visibility for older women in sport.
“It’s like older women in sport… are just totally invisible. We just get sort of ignored,” she said.
For now, the focus has shifted from saving the current arrangement to simply surviving.
Members have paid fees for another year and are organising ways to stay connected while searching for a new home to avoid playing at Cherry St Sports.
“We’re just hoping that something’s going to turn up somewhere,” Ms Ray-Young said.
Cherry Street Sports Club has maintained that all players remain welcome under its unified model, and that it funded and developed the croquet greens and clubhouse.
An older photo but a goodie. Of the 12 visible players, 5 resigned from Ballina Croquet Club in late 2020/early 2021 and joined Cherry Street Croquet.
Recently a Ballina Croquet member said most who have left them to join Cherry Street were troublemakers. That’s definitely not the case as all 5 have been wonderful members of Cherry Street, generously volunteering their time helping newcomers, school students, disabled, charity raising etc etc.
Sadly one of the 5 succumbed to to a short battle with cancer in the second half of 2025. Her family invited us to form a guard of honour at her funeral and we invited the sole Ballina Croquet Club member attending the funeral to join us.
One of the 5 will soon turn 94 and is our second oldest member. Another is in her 2nd year as President, another in her 4th year as our House & Social and the remaining member has given up his mallet making pastime due to ill health, nearly also giving up playing croquet. Thankfully Elfco Greenkeeping OK’d him to use his Wheelie Walker on the lawns and he’s back playing.
Cherry Street Croquet Club with the support of Cherry Street Sports Ballina looks forward to bringing croquet to the wider community.