Getting Active – sporting clubs
On this page, we have posted information on some of the many sporting clubs in our local region.
Mitcham Tennis Club
Mitcham Tennis Club is a community tennis club with 5 courts at the corner of Whitehorse Rd and Dunlavin Road, Nunawading.
Our friendly club offers the chance to join us for social tennis (any age or ability), competition, coaching (juniors to adults). Play as much tennis as you like for a low annual membership fee.
Our courts are also available for general public booking from our website (Book a Court).
Website: https://play.tennis.com.au/mitchamtennisclub
Camberwell Magpies Cricket Club
The Camberwell Magpies offer a unique pathway through the Australian cricket system; starting with the Junior Blasters program, through to the Master Blasters, our 10 Junior teams and into the four Senior teams. In 2019/20, the Club fielded its first junior girls team, the Blazers, who won the premiership in their first year in the Inner East Girls Cricket (IEGC) competition.
The Club is based at the Camberwell Sports Ground (CSG), which is located on Camberwell Road (on the corner of Bowen Street) and is shared with the Old Scotch Football Club. The CSG hosts First and Second XI matches and club training on Tuesday and Thursday nights during cricket season. Our Third and Fourth XIs play at Watson Park in Ashburton. To find out more go to our website at https://www.camberwellmagpies.com.au/about-cmcc
Camberwell Hockey Club
Camberwell Hockey Club is the largest hockey club in the state, with over a thousand members, fifty+ playing teams. To find out what they are doing and how to join them, click here.
Kew Croquet Club
We at the Kew Croquet Club are keen to attract new members to our sport. Our club is set in beautiful heritage premises in Victoria Park.
Croquet is an absorbing game involving mallets, hoops and balls. It is excellent for hand-eye coordination and strategic thinking. At Kew, we play 3 variants of the game plus the related Gateball.
Games include a social version unique to the Club called Kew Croquet. This is the version introduced to high school students and at corporate team-building and social events hosted by the Club.
The Club has players skilled in the original croquet sport of Association Croquet and the newer version called Golf Croquet. Association Croquet is the traditional, tactical croquet sport which is somewhat like billiards on grass. The newer game of Golf Croquet is simpler to learn but also requires good skills in using mallets to position balls accurately, hit an opponent or run a hoop. It has been described as akin to snooker on grass.
The fourth mallet sport played at Kew Croquet Club is Gateball, a 30 minute team game with players having just ten seconds to play their ball. This game uses a smaller court and ten smaller balls to play through three gates. This mallet sport was developed in Japan after WWII and is played by over ten million people across the world. If Association Croquet is like billiards and Golf Croquet is like snooker, then Gateball is akin to chess on grass.
Tennis, golf, and hockey players bring transferable skills to Croquet and progress quickly in the game, but even those with no previous sporting experience beyond their school years learn to play successfully. Training is a mix of formal and informal with more experienced players helping new players during social games. More formal training is available for each sporting code along with many online resources.
The Kew Croquet Club is located in Victoria Park, 500 High Street, Kew. If you would like to become a member, run an event or just have a go, get in touch with the Club by email at kewcroquetclub1@gmail.com or write to The Secretary KCC, 500 High St, Kew 3101 Equipment and training are supplied for beginners. More information can be found on our website at Kew Croquet Club.
This article uses information from an article by Clare Newton, previously published in Eastsider News in June 2023 and updated by the club in August 2026. Clare’s article on the clubhouse is available on the Eastsider News website here: https://www.eastsidernews.org.au/culture-and-creativity/architecture/architecture/
Gateball
Kew Croquet Club
Gateball is a mallet sport similar to croquet. It is a fast-paced, non-contact, highly strategic team game, which can be played by anyone regardless of age or gender. Although relatively new in Australia, it is played by millions of people throughout Asia and South America.
Kew triumphs over adversity to win 2022 National Gateball Championship
Neither COVID delays nor unusually long grass could hold back the Kew team at the 2022 National Gateball Championship. The contest was held April first to third on the Gold Coast. Kew won all nine games they played, including an eventual 11-9 triumph in the final over a strong Southport side.
The Kew team had been beaten grand finalists at the previous National championship in 2019 and their captain had plotted a course to go one better in the next contest. However, 2020 and 2021 were not the smooth years of training and improvement originally envisaged. COVID restrictions frequently prevented the team from practising and from attending tournaments beforehand. Indeed, COVID delayed the National Championship by six months.
So it was with an air of heady freedom that the team embarked on the tournament. Unlike previous years, the tournament was held at a multi-purpose facility with excellent amenities, but uneven lawns with very long grass. The difficult lawns meant non-standard tactics were rewarded, with success found by the teams best able to adapt to gateball played on such an unusual surface.
Unreliable lawns also meant depth of talent in a team became a major factor. Here Kew excelled, with all team members playing to a very high standard and different players coming to the fore at different times.
After a moderate start involving close wins over weaker teams, Kew hit their straps on the second morning, playing as best as could be done in the conditions. Kew beat a strong Canberra side in the block stage before winning a semi-final over the Toronto Macs and the grand final over Southport Red.
The Australian Gateball Championships have been held on eleven occasions, generally every two years, and the win by Kew is only the third time that an Australian based club has won.
For more information, go to Gateball Australia at https://gateball.com.au/wordpress/ or Kew Croquet Club at https://croquetvic.asn.au/clubpage.php?clubnameclicked=Kew