Winter Bowls now a Doncaster Tradition
Winter Bowls now a Doncaster Tradition
We may be in the early stages of summer pennant, but Doncaster Bowling Club’s very successful winter bowls programme hasn’t been forgotten. The club’s winter bowls competition has gone from strength to strength and is now an established tradition for members and visiting bowlers.
The 2015 Saturday two bowl triples challenge grew from eight weeks last year to 10 weeks this year, and attracted two more teams.
Doncaster has been able to offer winter bowls as well as its summer programme following replanting of the back green with tif dwarf grass.
The Saturday competition, complemented by the Wednesday triples progressive jackpot, proved a hit with our own bowlers and visitors, with teams entering from Kew Heights, Ivanhoe, Heidelberg Golf, Rosanna, and Montmorency (two teams).
Ringwood Mazda was the sole sponsor of the Doncaster winter bowls programme.
The Saturday competition consisted of 28 teams, playing two games of 13 and 15 ends.
The winning team with 90 points was Doncaster’s Peter Johnson (lead), Keith Kirby (second) and Gary Baird (skip). Each picked up $100.
Equal second with 85 points each were Kew Heights skipped by Tom Ristic and Montmorency skipped by Ron Coe. Each team collected $150.
It was disappointing but perhaps not surprising being winter that weeks nine and ten were washed out by rain. Seven ends were played on week ten before the weather closed in.
Phil Rock and Robert Bateup did a great job organising each Saturday’s event, ably backed up by Gary Baird, John Broadfoot, Irene Garrett and Sandra Dyer.
The other side of the winter bowls coin was the Wednesday jackpot.
Peter Demeris and Carl Giardina organised this event. They did a first class job, and had great support from Fran Broadfoot, Diane Phelan, Debbie Code and John Broadfoot.
On most weeks, we had 10 rinks playing 13 and 15 ends.
The clubhouse was filled with interested players after competition ended each Wednesday awaiting the jackpot draw. Each team arrived at its entry number by adding their scores for each game together, win or lose.
You could have heard a pin drop as Carl rotated the barrel then drew a numbered ball.
Two teams (six players) went home with $180, while other teams picked up $81 and $105 each.
By the last game of the season the jackpot stood at $405, won by Geoff Allen, Bev Warman and Elva Mason, each taking away $135.
Many visiting bowlers remarked on how successful Doncaster’s winter bowls programme had been, and that they were looking forward to coming back next year.
Peter Johnson.