By Garry Lewis
The Wednesday Night Barefoot Bowls Triples Competition concluded last week with a wonderful evening of bowls. The Finals were played over 6 ends each with several draws requiring an extra end to decide the winner in the knockout format.
In the top 8 division, last season’s winners, the Pensioners, played the Moonshiners in the Grand Final. The Moonshiners gained the initiative early and held on to defeat their more experienced opponents, 9 shots to 3. The team of Clint Muratore, Brett Turner and Brian Turner was excited to win and have their names engraved on the trophy sponsored by Professionals Yarra Valley Real Estate.
In the minor division, the Grand Final was played between Giddy Gout and Bellevue Bowls. In a thrilling finish, the Giddy Gout team of Grant Adams, Cameron Padgham, Christian White and Rodney Woods (Emergency) held on to win by one shot, 6 shots to 5.
Well done to all 14 teams for their efforts throughout the season! The improvement and enjoyment displayed by everyone was the highlight of a wonderful season of barefoot bowls.
The final event of the Intra Club Competitions, the Pairs Championship, was held in front of an engaged crowd for just over three hours at the club on Thursday evening.
It was a game of extremely high standard between the father and son combination of Steven and Chris Lord and their opponents Chris ‘Scratcher’ Neale and Rod ‘Bear’ McKail. The lead changed several times as neither side could pull away.
In an amazing finish, Steven and Chris came from behind to achieve a wonderful victory. Coming into the 16th and final end, they were 3 shots down overall and trailing by 2 shots in the head with just Chris to play his final shot.
Amazingly, Chris managed to get through the maze of bowls and trail the jack towards two of their own to level the scores. Hence, an extra end had to be played.
With this, they surrounded the jack and held Bear and Scratcher out in an incredible game played with great spirit from all players and a high level of skill.
