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We only found out about Memorial Bowling Club yesterday when we met some Pennant players. We decided on a Sunday rollup there. When we arrived we met Alan who's been bowling a year. He said he's working on his delivery to manage shoulder pain. (Alan and Malcolm) Alan says the club has put him in Division Four for one comp and Division One for the other. He's not sure how that happened. The club looks pretty new. We're told it's an amalgamation of two clubs. The club is sponsored by McDonald's. It has two 8-rink synthetic greens. The one we played on was the newer. A carpet surface. Again Jean's shoes melted. Though the green was quick, the line was pretty true. Another Mal arrived and we decided to play pairs. Mal's only been bowling ten weeks and bowls in the sevens. We played Mal and Jean against Alan and Mal. With new bowlers, we should have split us up. (Alan, Jean, Mal and Malcolm) Alan and Mal bowled brilliantly though, especially for new bowlers. We had some nice heads. The other Mal did some awesome skip shots but we were too good for them. Mal kept taking shot back. We won 14 t0 4. President Kevin McLean came down and Alan introduced us. (Malcolm, Kevin and Jean) Ballarat Memorial - new bowlers bowled well.

We'd visited most of the clubs within the city limits today to find out about social bowls. We put our names down at a couple. The only one we missed was Ballarat Bowling club, so we decided to roll up there. We decided to wait until after four to rollup at Ballarat because it's Pennants this arvo. The Ones were playing against Webbcona. When we got there it was Webbcona 73 to Ballarat 72 with one end to play on two rinks. On the closest rink the lead changed six times. When the last two skips bowled Webbcona needed three to win they got it. Very exciting. The club has two greens - one grass and a Synthetic with great signage. Afterwards Mal and Jean rolled up. It was pretty relaxed. Neither of us got shitty (which is unusual). Mal worked out the line and the weight. Jean bowled ok (that's why she was in a good mood) but Mal was too good. Played to 15. Final score was 17 to five. We had some chats with (and a bit of heckling from) a couple of Ballarat players. Ballarat - bad luck on the loss but thanks for the thrills!

After we settled in at the caravan park we took off for a rollup at the close-by Mt Xavier Golf and Bowls club. When we arrived, there were four people rolling up including Mt Xavier president Paul Forrest. Paul has been called Knackers for a long time. He skips division one for the club. There is just one green. It's OK, a little slow due to recent rain. It's patchy in places but ok to play on. We rolled up together. We were going to play first to 15. Mal was up nine to four when Paul called out and asked if we wanted to play triples. We jumped at the chance. Jean played lead with Paul and skip John against Helen, Mal and Helen's husband Stephen. It's Stephen's 68th birthday. (Jean, Paul, Helen, John, Mal and Stephen) Jean had a good day. Bowled within a foot of the kitty most ends and rolled jack almost every end. We didn't really pay attention to the score. John's team won by a lot. Mal had some difficulty. He did some magic weighted shots but mostly had difficulty getting the line. We hung out on 'the deck' for drinks after our game and waited to watch the Men’s singles final. Lots of other members turned up and Paul introduced us. Paul told us the club has around 64 members. They have three pennant teams for weekend and two for mid-week. Paul says everyone loves each other. The way they interacted on the deck we'd believe that. He told us they are moving to a new club house. We loved the memorial seat. We hope it goes with them. Mt Xavier - nice company on the deck.

Our last Bendigo club was South Bendigo for Nominated Jackpot Pairs on Thursday afternoon. We were told by Arthur at Strathfieldsaye to get in quick as they had limited space. We went in Wednesday and ours were the last names down. We met Anne Howe and had a lovely chat about the club and its history. We got there on Thursday and met Maurie who was very welcoming and engaging. We found out it was two sets of ten ends with a break in the middle. Teams then move to another rink depending on whether they win or lose. The club has three greens, one is out. The grass is nice. The middle rink is a small 4-rinker. We won our first game against Ruth and Kelvin. (Jean, Ruth, Kelvin and Mal) We had some nice heads even with the wind. Our second game was against Pete and Les. (Len, Pete, Mal and Jean) The wind was outrageous. Often all the bowls stayed on one side. The grass kept constantly changing. Jean bowled well despite this. She and Les had a great leads competition. Mal bowled brilliantly. He did some great weighed shots to take out shot bowl. They had no comeback. We won 14 to 4 but they were very gracious. South Bendigo - a great send-off.

Two clubs said on their websites they play Wednesday afternoon. We tried to ring both to put our names down. No luck - so we drove out. First to White Hills then to Strathfieldsaye. Nobody home anywhere. White Hills' greens were both closed. and there were blokes doing work on the clubhouse. We decided to roll up at Strathfieldsaye. They have two nice looking greens. We found the mat box. Jean wanted to practise weighted shots so we agreed not to score. Mal bowled first to give Jean something to aim at. He'd get shot and she'd try and take him out. In the beginning she just did it by feel and had around 30% success. One end she put the kitty in the ditch. Then Mal started to give her instructions and it all went to hell in a handbasket! She said "Nobody's ever been able to tell me how much grass to take!" On our way out we met Arthur Kendall who came for a rollup. Arthur told us he used to be a member of South Bendigo and ran Jackpot Pairs there on Thursday. We told him we planned to play there tomorrow. He advised us to get our names down quick because they have limited space at the moment. He told us he'd see us there. Strathfieldsaye - nice greens for a little club.

Jean contacted the Stanhope club on Facebook to say we were coming. She didn't get an answer but we turned up anyway to a friendly welcome. We saw two guys and said we were there for a rollup. We convinced them (Ben and Butch) to have a game with us. We played three bowl pairs. Mal and Jean against Butch and Ben. (Ben, Butch, Jean and Mal) Butch is the volunteer greenkeeper and the green is immaculate. The best we've seen. We complimented him on his great work. Butch told us he used to play in the ones but is now in the threes. Ben skips the ones. You could tell. We didn't bother paying attention to the score because we got a shellacking. We thoroughly enjoyed the game and the company. Every time we got shot Ben drove us out. Jean called out "Don't you break my bowls!" (Ben's light blue bowls headed for Jean's) We liked their dial-a-score board. We met Tim who said he read the message on Facebook but didn't know how to respond to the question about social bowls because they don't really have it. A few other boys came down to play a championship game after our rollup. Some beautiful bowls played. Butch's wife Jenny runs the bar. Butch proudly boasted she has 13 singles championships under her belt. Butch told us the club won Pennants for decades. With the bowls we saw played, we believe that! Stanhope - a champion club.

So when we went to Woodbury we met some guys from Marong. We communicated with them via Facebook and they told us to come Tuesday for a rollup. We arrived and immediately Andrew recognised us. He and Les invited us to roll up with them. (Les and Andrew) Members there told us Andrew is the greenkeeper. He's done a great job. There are two greens. One's just been lasered. The green in front of the club had a pretty true line. Jean teamed up with Andrew and Mal with Les. (Mal, Andrew, Jean and Les) We decided to play 11 ends. Mal and Jean played lead. The score stayed pretty even until Mal and Les scored a four and they skipped ahead. On the last end it was 8-7 their way. Jean and Andrew had shot to make it even then Les came in and took it. They ended up winning by three. After the game we had drinks outside. Andrew (a Division One player) gave Jean some great advice on how to learn to play weight. There were lots of people rolling up. Many wished us a great time on our travels. Marong - we didn't want to leave!

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!

We went to Woodbury for a rollup. They had a catch up Pennant game going on when we turned up. Unusual for a Monday. It was mid-week Pennants. The club has one green which is in pretty good nick. Pennant games were Woodbury Twos against Marong and Sixes against Bendigo. The twos only had two teams and for one, Woodbury only had three players. The Marong Twos skip was a girl, Chavaughn Hayes. Her Dad is President at Marong and she's been bowling since she was nine. A girl skip is also unusual (in our experience, perhaps not in Victoria). She bowled very well. Again good shots played. One Marong skip Stephen, did a drive to pick up two shots. His third tipped his hat and called him a superstar. Marong Twos won. They had an advantage with two extra bowls. After the game we chatted with Barry who organises social bowls. He said the club was bought by the racing club. Barry said to keep their pokie licence clubs must support local sport so Woodbury Bowls Club, which leases the green, is well looked after. They are getting a new clubhouse. We had our rollup. Jean couldn't get the weight, so she didn't pay attention to the score. Mal won by lots. Woodbury, thanks for the loan of Mat and Jacks!

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!

We forgot that Saturday is the first day of Pennants for the region. We turned up at Eaglehawk and watched the second half of the twos while we waited to roll up on the green. Like always in Pennants there was some great bowls played. Some beautiful drives! Eaglehawk was a good 20 shots up against Bendigo East. The final score was Eaglehawk 83 to BEBC 72. East got a bowl on the last end to draw the rink for a rink win and a draw. Eaglehawk has two grass and one synthetic green. We didn't want to play on the synthetic after Jean's shoe-melting episode at Kangaroo Flat- which is why we waited for Pennants to finish. For our rollup, as usual Mal scored first with a three. Jean was convinced soon she'd nail the weight. Bowling towards the carpark she did, and Mal couldn't work it out. The other way Jean had no idea and Mal nailed it. Weird! At ten all we decided to play to 15. Mal did better but Jean snuck one in to be one up. It was enough for Mal. He pulled shots out of (well you know) to take the win. Jean was annoyed so didn't take note of the final score. After our rollup we went inside and there were a few Pennant guys still there. We chatted with Con about Banjo Patterson (Mulga Bill from Eaglehawk), chooks and, of course, bowls. Con said all their grades won today so they put free beer on. Eaglehawk - a nice Pennant win.

We came to North Bendigo because we were told we could get someone to roll up with after 4pm. Trouble was there was a singles final on and everyone was there to watch that. It was Paul and Justin with President Jason as Marker. (Paul, Jason and Justin) They had one rink set up with a scoreboard for the match so we rolled up on that until the boys were ready. Someone said "You won't find better greens anywhere in the region ". We'd believe it. They were beautiful. A little quick as they'd just been rolled. Lots of grass one way but true line the other. Our rollup was fun because we had an accidental audience. They kind of watched us and made a few comments along the way. (Joy, Val, John, Mick, Neville, Graham and others) It's only a small club and we met three of the five lady members (including Joy and Val). They were friendly and funny. Mal sat and chatted for a while with John who used to work for Bowls Australia. They knew some of the same people. It was a quick rollup on a fast green. Mal scored first as usual but Jean soon worked it out and rolled her short ends. When the boys took over the rink it was Jean 12 to Mal nine. A rare win! The final game was interesting. Some lovely bowls played. North Bendigo - we stayed for happy hour and watched the final for a while. Good game boys!