VRI is the Victorian Railway Institute. Jean rang Monday and left a message to put our names. We didn't hear back but decided to turn up anyway.
Vice president Peter tried to ring to say they'd start at 11 (due to the heat) but Mal left his phone in his bowls bag so we didn't get the message. We turned up just before 12:30 - too late.
(Mal and VP Peter)
When we arrived they were just finishing up.
Jean chatted with John Dullard President for a while and asked about the club's history.
The clubhouse was built in 1886 as station masters house. It used to be that every railway employee would join the VRI.
The bowling club was created in 1966. Now the railway is mostly contractors so there are few bowling members left. One ex-train driver and a former guard. That's it. It now has 40 members. Though they are small, they've been in Pennant finals the last few years.
We were impressed that on a really hot day there were two members out raking and weeding.
The club has two small four-rink greens.
The grass was nice but it hadn't been cut and rolled for a few days so it was quite slow.
We rolled up. Mal was doing well. When he was 7 to 4 we agreed that, because it was really hot, we'd play first to ten. Though it was slow, we had some tight heads.
Then Jean scored a few and it was eight to seven Jean's way. Mal got cranky and started to drive. His bowls went in the ditch and Jean scored a three to win. Mal threw his bowls down and said "That's it!"
Jean's working out the secret!
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