On Monday morning, with the clock winding down and the final stroker on his team in position to gain an advantage with a 3-foot touch, 83-year-old Warren Wong perked to the sound of uncertainty.

"I don’t think I can make this," the stroker said with nervous giggle.

"That’s a negative attitude," Wong said, tapping his well-tanned forehead. "You have to be positive. Don’t think, just do it. It’s a piece of cake!"

The stroker responded with by knocking her ball against the opposing red ball, earning her the right to spark the other ball off the playing green.

Score one for positivity.

The final tally was of little immediate consequence. A scheduled friendly between the Oahu Gateball Club and their visiting counterparts from Niigata, Japan, isn’t until March 8, and there is still a full five months before members of the Oahu club heads off to Japan to compete with 96 other teams in the World Gateball Championships.

Indeed, the game was just one of several played at Ala Moana Beach Park on Monday, where the club meets three times a week.

A variation on croquet, gateball was developed in Hokkaido, Japan, in the late 1940s and is now played by millions of mallet-wielding enthusiasts around the world.

Wong and club president Sharon Legacy were working with the state Senior Medicare Patrol, educating seniors about the dangers of Medicare fraud, when they were introduced to the game by a co-worker.

"At first I thought it was a game for old farts," Legacy says, laughing. "Then I found out how hard it was."

Both Legacy and Wong became quickly enamored of the game’s balance of skill and strategy.

"The movements are gentle but they take skill," Legacy says. "I like the game because you have to use your mind. It keeps you sharp."

The club has about 15 active members ranging in age from 30 to 85 years. The players come from a variety of ethnicities — Japanese, Chinese, Samoan, African-American — and from a wide range of backgrounds.

Legacy likens her involvement with the club to joining a church group. During breaks between games, members chat over light refreshments. Some enjoy socializing off the field, as Legacy did last week when she had lunch with a pair of Japanese snowbirds who play with the club whenever they are in Hawaii.

"It’s just a friendly get-together and a chance to be outdoors having fun with other people," says Legacy. "That’s important in today’s world."

Check out @IncidentalLives on Twitter. Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.