By Peter Brennan
It was a week of contrasts for Yarra Junction Bowling Club. The midweek team finished the home and away season with a match against top of the table Lilydale, at Yarra Junction. The conditions were good, a Cinderella type of day, and Junction managed to win two rinks and lose one, winning overall. This cements third place, and since the finals system was changed this year this gives them a home final. To explain, in the past first has played fourth and second has played third, with the winners playing off in the grand final. Now a double chance has been introduced, familiar to football supporters of a certain vintage, whereby first plays second, the winner going through to the grand final, and third plays fourth with the loser eliminated and the winner playing the loser of the other game for the right to play in the grand final. This better rewards the top two teams. The two semi-finals are hosted by the higher-placed team, the preliminary and grand finals are played on neutral venues. So Yarra Junction will host Eastwood Golf in a sudden death final, and the club wish them luck.
The weekend team had a mountain to climb in their first final, having finished fourth. They had to travel to Yarra Glen, a prospect that filled no one with joy. The green at Yarra Glen is narrow and slow, and very difficult for anyone not a local to play well. And so it turned out to be, with Yarra Junction enduring possibly their worst defeat of the season, a slaughter of epic proportions on all four rinks, and elimination from the finals. It was not a good day, and the club congratulates Yarra Glen on a masterly performance. Chastened and humiliated, the club draws the curtain on the weekend season, with thanks extended to all those who participated. All hopes now focus on the midweek team.
But life goes on, and Barefoot Bowls goes on every Friday evening, and another season will come and maybe new members will wander into the club and make all the difference. Yarra Junction Bowling Club is nothing if not resilient, and welcomes everyone with an interest in bowling. In the meantime, it is still there in the midweek competition, and the chance of a pennant is still alive.
