Sport
18 January, 2024
Bowlers set to converge on Highland Society for themed Charity Round in Victorian first
The idea of a themed round with all teams in one place has been a hit across Australia, and now, lawn bowls wants a piece of the pie. Having seen the success of initiatives such as the AFL’s Gather Round and the NRL’s Magic Round in the...
The idea of a themed round with all teams in one place has been a hit across Australia, and now, lawn bowls wants a piece of the pie.
Having seen the success of initiatives such as the AFL’s Gather Round and the NRL’s Magic Round in the country’s two major sporting codes, Bowls Victoria put out the call for clubs to consider a themed round of a similar magnitude.
It was the Bendigo Campaspe Goldfields playing area which put their hands up — and now Maryborough are set to benefit, with Saturday’s 11th round of the weekend pennant, as well as Tuesday’s 15th round of the midweek pennant, hosted in its entirety by the Maryborough Highland Society.
The round will be renamed Charity Round, with all green fees, as well as other donations, set to go to the Maryborough Cancer Research Centre.
Some rules will also be relaxed for the weekend, to allow for creativity and colour to be shown on the green, with players urged to dress up for the occasion.
According to Highland Bowls president Tony Lacey, it’s going to be a great occasion for the club and the competition.
“It feels absolutely magnificent. I think we have every club coming in for the morning and afternoon on Saturday, and the morning on Tuesday,” he said.
It’s something that is echoed by Bendigo Campaspe Goldfields bowls region president Vicky Tierney.
“It’s excellent. The board came up with the idea and ran it across the region, but Goldfields came on board, and all the clubs have joined as one, so it’s great that they’ll not only donate their money for cancer, but also to a local charity,” she said.
“It’s great that people can come along and watch everybody play. It’s great that the Highland is hosting both days, and congratulations to the clubs for all agreeing to it.”
So, how will it work?
Saturday’s action will see division two bowlers start the day at 9.30 am, followed by division one at 1.30 pm, while Tuesday’s midweek pennant round will play out as normal, with a 9.30 am start.
Lacey explains the rest.
“It will be a normal pennant round, with four teams on our A green, and four teams on our B green. It will be normal with the fixture, and the results will be the same. We will all meet after the round in the morning, and the same will happen in the afternoon,” he said.
Lacey offered an insight into how Charity Round came about, and what will happen with donations.
“Bendigo suggested the idea. We took it up and told them what we would do. They suggested that we find somewhere for a charity to send our money to, so we decided on the Maryborough cancer clinic here, so all the money raised on Saturday and Tuesday will go there,” he said.
“A lot of the money will come from the green fees which is paid every week, and there will also be raffles on the day, so all the money that is picked up will go there.”
Raffles include prizes for bottles of wine, while Member for Ripon Martha Haylett will also be in attendance, according to Lacey, with a hamper organised as well.
“It’s great to have our local member of parliament come in, Martha Haylett, and it’s great that the Highland Society is putting on a feed in the morning and afternoon on Saturday and Tuesday morning as well,” he said.
“It looks like there will be bottles of wine organised, as someone is doing that. Martha Haylett will organise a hamper, which we decided will go to the best dressed person.
“Players don’t have to be in uniform on Saturday, they can wear whatever they wish. Our club has decided that we’ll still be in uniform.”
According to Tierney, the themed round meant that they were successful in getting an exemption to relax rules around uniform for the weekend.
“The rules are very strict in bowls, but we applied to Bowls Victoria for an exemption not to wear bowls gear for this round, and we got it,” she said.
“We made it so that people can wear bright colours to represent cancer research. There’s so many — prostate with blue, yellow is cancer, pink as breast cancer and there’s another 10 or so. We want the greens to be really colourful, that’s the idea.”
Tierney hopes that this becomes a regular occurrence, not just for the goldfields region, but across the state, of which Maryborough is the first to play such a themed round.
“We want it to be an ongoing thing, maybe not for cancer all the time, as there’s lots of great charities, but we thought we’d start with cancer and go from there,” she said.
“We thought of something a bit different. Bowls is a game that we all go and play, but we just want to mix it up a bit.
“Bowls Victoria has meetings with all the club presidents and secretaries, in the 16 regions across Victoria, and Pat Schram, the president, brought it up that we are the first region to do something like that.
“A lot of clubs have commented on what a great idea, and I think there will be more than one region taking that up next year.”
Tierney also believes it will be good for lawn bowls in the area going forward.
“We need everybody on board. Bowls in this area in particular is a bit older than Bendigo and Campaspe, so it is hard to get younger people on board, but this is good for the sport, and who knows what will happen,” she said.
The final word goes to Lacey, who believes it’s a credit to the greens at the Highland that they’ll be able to handle as much traffic as it will over the next week.
“It’s great to have the two greens running very well so that we can fit the whole lot onto both of them,” he said.
“It’s going to make things so much better. There will be people in the sport in the beer garden watching on, so it will just be magic.”