The Gippsland Bowls Region pennant season is rapidly approaching, starting with the first midweek game being held on October 6, while weekend pennant will commence on Saturday, October 10.
This season the Orbost Bowling Club will have one side (division two) in the midweek pennant competition.
In weekend pennant, even though Orbost won the division one east area grand final last season, the club will not be able to enter a team in that division due to the excessive travel requirements created by the Gippsland Bowls Region combining the north and east playing areas into a single playing area.
The club will instead play two sides in division three, which plays within the east playing area.
One of the sides will be the grand finalist from last year’s division four who have been promoted into division three.
To acknowledge the approaching pennant season, the club will hold it’s Opening Day on Sunday, September 20 with a general meeting for all members at 11am followed by a barbecue lunch and an afternoon of bowls.
SOCIAL BOWLS
Last Thursday’s social bowls section saw two games of 10 ends arranged for the 14 players who attended.
Anticipating beautiful spring weather, the players were disappointed; with every end played, the clouds gathered, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped.
But they perservered, with the winners Ron Hatcher (skip), Steve Shorten and Dennis McCann.
Winter was back again for Sunday’s social bowls with players agreeing to defer the scheduled afternoon of Russian Roulette to next Sunday in case they had to retreat from the green due to rain.
The match committee quickly reorganised the bowlers into fours to play two games of 10 ends.
As it happened, the rain held off, although the strong and very cold wind did not make for perfect bowling.
There were two teams that won both of their games but after a countback, Bruce Kneebone’s team of Trevor Hawkey, Ralph Harding and McCann took the honours for the afternoon, winning by one point.
The next social bowls will be on Thursday and bowlers are requested to be at the club prior to 12.30pm.
DRILLS & SKILLS
With the pennant season rapidly approaching, Saturday morning saw the last Drills and Skills for now.
While not particularly cold and with no wind, the weather was overcast and definitely very damp, with the session having to finish early due to rain.
The coach, Hatcher organised the same setup as for the previous week, where several rinks were set up, all with different bowling scenarios and as the bowlers rotated through the rinks.
Hatcher would change the setup, effectively forcing the players to keep adjusting their bowling.
