We arrived in Bendigo about 10:30. We weren't going to play - settling in - but Jean discovered there was a club near Anaconda where we had to buy some new steps for the caravan. We went to Golden Square on spec.
Gunter and Brad were rolling up. They welcomed us and asked about our trip. Mal joked around with them.
(Brad and Gunter)
Mal was very impressed with their heads.
The green was nice. Weight was good, line was quite narrow. The wind affected it badly.
Jean took first blood and made it short ends. At one point Mal said "These short ends are doing my head in ". He was cranky, swearing and bowling short and narrow. Jean kept winning.
Then at 15 to 11, out of the blue Mal scored a three, cheered up and remembered how to play bowls. It was 20 to 16 Mal's way. Jean said "If you are still ahead after this end you win. Jean scored a three. Mal whipped around, shook her hand and said "Thanks for the game.
If we'd gone to 25 Jean definitely would have won!
We went inside for a drink and met Frank Thomas. Frank has been here 28 years and bowled all that time. We talked about his health issues, the floods, towns around AFL, AFL, AFL and of course bowls.
All the bowlers having a drink inside joked around with Mal. The club put out cheese and bickies for the bowlers which was lovely.
Mal was very impressed with their sign about bowls dumping.
The President Alan Slingo pressured Mal to break our rule and come back next Wednesday so we might do another post.
We stayed for the raffles and Alan welcomed us officially.
Golden Square - very hospitable!
POST SCRIPT:
As agreed we went back on Wednesday for a game of triples.
It was quite strange. They didn't have enough for three games of triples - only 15 players so we played each game with a triple and a pair. The triples bowled with two bowls and the pairs with three. The triples lead always rolled the mat. The pairs skip always bowled last.
It worked fine. Jean played second with Terry and skip Jeff. First game was against a pair Eddie and Wal. Jean really enjoyed chatting with Eddie who was a comrade and former Secretary from the Bendigo ALP branch about all things Labor
Mal played second with Alan and skip Harvey against Bill and Don. In the second game we played each other. Mal and Jean competed. Each time Jean got shot, Mal took it off. Jean's team ended up winning though! What was interesting was that of the fifteen players, nine of them played with a bowling arm.
Again it was Jean and the blokes but we had a riot!
Comments