By Peter Brennan
The Pennant season is finally upon bowlers, with both the midweek and weekend competitions starting last week. On Tuesday the Yarra Junction Bowling Club travelled to Ferntree Gully for the opening game, played on a fast green in beautiful weather, with a tricky wind to make it interesting. The Junction bowlers adapted well to the conditions and scores were neck and neck throughout the day. In an exciting finish, Yarra Junction won two out of three rinks, and won overall by a single point. Away wins are valuable, and this one was very satisfying.
On Saturday, after storms, heavy rain, and floods, the weather gods smiled upon Yarra Junction and delivered another fine day for the opening weekend game, played at home against Yarra Glen. There were contrasting results on the four rinks, but Yarra Junction ultimately registered an impressive win, opening the season in fine style.
Owing to an influx of new members there is now a surplus of players, though not quite enough to field a second team. Hopefully, this trend will continue, so a second team becomes viable. In the meantime, in the interests of fairness, a rotational system has been introduced. This gives everyone a chance to play, and the rotated players play those in a similar position from Warburton, in friendly practice. So the green on Saturday was full, with three clubs represented. Yarra Junction prides itself on this spirit of fairness, inclusion, and sportsmanship, and hopefully the drift of new members to the club will continue.
U3A continues on Friday mornings, the Community Cup will commence soon, and Barefoot Bowls is not far away. In the meantime, the club encourages anyone who is interested to drop by. Thursday afternoon Social Bowls is always a good time to try your hand at this highly enjoyable sport. Why not come down to our beautiful spot by the river, and have a go.
