We had a ball at Belmont!

We came to Belmont last week to buy some shirts for my Friend Jonathan Knight. It was the closest club to our caravan park so we really wanted to play there. The club has a great sculpture of a bowl out the front.

We then came back and put our names down to play on Wednesday. We turned up to a lovely welcome. As we arrived, in the carpark we met Karen and Robin who were organising things for an upcoming event. We had a lovely chat with them about our trip.

Inside we met Bowls Director Kevin.

We sat and chatted with members for half an hour before the game. They were very friendly.

Mal got right into a deep conversation with Wally.

The club is unusual in two ways: first it has four greens.

Second they are all grass. They are absolutely immaculate. The best we've seen so far in Victoria.

Jean played on green A. Mal played first on B then moved to A.

They played beautiful 50's 60's, 70's and country music on the loudspeaker. We had two games of two-bowl triples twelve ends. Every player gets their own card because we change teams. Individuals win prizes.

Jean's first team was Ron, Jean and Terry

(Terry, Jean and Ron)

against Ken, Terry and Mave.

Jean got shot with her second bowl. Didn't last long. In fact they often had three or four and they were taken or cut down to one. Jean's team lost by five.

Jean's second game was with Terry and Rhonda

against Geoff, Frank and Dale.

Frank is an official measurer and he measured everything - even the obvious ones.

Frank was a card. We had good laughs. Jean's team was level with two ends to go and lost by two.

Mal's first game was on green B. He thought the were in for a hard day. The lead and second (he forgot their names and didn't get a photo) bowled short. Third end though they came good and put pressure on the opposition. They won by 6 shots. He was mortified to discover he'd have a different team for the second game.

Second game was with lead John and Mave

against Herb, Tom and Barry.

(Mal, Barry, Mave, Tom, John and Herb)

They played on green A and the team's bowls went through at 100 miles an hour. The wind was up and they couldn't get the feel of a different green. They were ahead for a while but lost by two.

When we came inside they welcomed us and told us to come back. We'll do our best but we still have 2,120 clubs to visit!

They gave first and second prize to leads, seconds and skips. We didn't win anything but had a whale of a time.

Belmont - such friendly, funny people