Maldon, a young and friendly club

Mal rang at 8:15 and spoke with Peter the President to put our names down for a 9:45 start. It took 30 minutes to drive there from Maiden Gully.

We got there and met Peter and his wife Annette who is Secretary Treasurer. Peter was raking the ditch

and Annette was weeding.

It is a Synthetic green, quite old but there's no money to upgrade it.

Peter and Annette said the club has 40 members who were largely young (ish) and it is privately owned from a land donation 150 years ago. They don't charge green fees to Bowls Australia members. The members were lively, friendly people, excited about bowls and they bring their dogs.

Everyone lives nearby and just rocks up then they work out teams.

Three games of triples. They play 8 ends then have morning tea then six ends. Jean played lead with Melissa and skip Jim against Lead Roy (93), Angie and skip Annette.

(Annette, Melissa, Roy, Jean and Jim)

Jean played ok as did her team but they were outclassed.

Annette did some great skip shots. Angie kept stealing shot and Roy led like a champion. Lost nine to five. Second game with Jim, lost again by four shots against Dean and Darren.

(Jean, Darren, Jim and Dean)

Mal played lead with Sean and skip Karen against Serge, Melissa and skip Peter.

(Mal, Sean, Peter, Karen and Melissa)

Mal found the surface difficult. He had to send his Optimas out very wide. He said in particular the two women drew really well and Serge (a new bowler) also bowled well after a little instruction. Mal wasn't sure if he won his first game but skipped the second game against Annette's team and won.

A few people left so we swapped opponents. We played some pairs. On-green banter was friendly.

People talked about their lives and interests. It was nice.

We were chatting and Jean mentioned she's a coach. Jim said they don't have a coach and desperately need one. Jean offered to come back and give them a session on Sunday.

Maldon - we've made new friends.

POST SCRIPT

We went back for Jean to deliver a coaching session.

There was lots of chatter afterwards about the content so we hope they enjoyed it.

The gave us a lovely lunch and a Maldon badge for our hats.

Best wishes for your bowling futures Maldon!