Big Bash at Garfield
Garfield Bowling Club held its first Big Bash tournament on the weekend.
Attempts to do so in the last two years had been impacted by COVID, so everyone was happy to be bowling on a beautiful sunny day without a lockdown in sight.
The Big Bash is a new format for bowls, recently introduced in World Bowls television. It consists of teams playing five quick games of six ends, with points available for touchers and for closest to the jack. The four highest scoring teams played off in semi-finals and grand final.
The tournament attracted 16 teams from across the district and as far away as Dandenong and Traralgon. They fought it out in the round robin section to see who would progress to the finals.
The four finals teams were “Tom Terrific” from Garfield, “Cunning Keith" from Berwick, “Maleficent" from Garfield, and “Dennis the Menace" from Drouin.
“Tom Terrific" and “Cunning Keith" dropped out in the semi-finals, leaving “Maleficent" and “Dennis the Menace" to fight out the four-end grand final.
The ultimate winners were the “Maleficent" team, consisting of Jan Johnson, Malcolm Newham and skip Ivan Gibson. The Dennis the Menace" team, of Colin Finger, Denise Hamilton and skip Dennis Throup were runners-up.
Tournament director Damian Brick reported everyone seemed to enjoy the new format of the day, despite some confusion over the new scoring system. He thanked the many Garfield members who assisted in making the day successful and the sponsor of the day. He added that small clubs need good sponsors to continue to flourish.