Sport
21 September, 2023
Highland Bowls Club mark centenary
The Maryborough Highland Society celebrated their centenary season of lawn bowls at the club in style on Saturday night, having marked the 2022-23 season with premierships in both division one and division two of the Saturday competition. The club...
The Maryborough Highland Society celebrated their centenary season of lawn bowls at the club in style on Saturday night, having marked the 2022-23 season with premierships in both division one and division two of the Saturday competition.
The club held the centenary gala dinner at the Highland Society, where a highlight of the night was naming their teams of the century.
With long-time club stalwart Greg Shay compiling a book about the history of bowling at the Mary-borough Highland Society, with the greens opening in 1923, the club now has a complete record of all the key events in their history in the sport.
The club was formed in 1879, starting in 1885 playing at what is now known as Phillips Gardens, having been named after Henry Neville Phillips, a long-serving Town Clerk from 1888 to 1935, as well as a pioneer of the club.
The ladies bowling club was then formed in 1936, before the first pennant season was played in 1967-68.
Notable achievements over the years include the Victorian State Fours win by Shirley Birkett, Anne Ingham, Heather Connolly and Alison Smith in 2001, as well as Ingham and Smith’s Dot Jenkinson Ladies Pairs Classic win in Mildura in 2004.
Norm Hunter’s achievements in winning 13 consecutive Victorian titles with the Blind Bowls Association from 1981-1994 was also celebrated, while the history of the club prior to moving to the Highland Society was also celebrated.
When naming the team of the century, the club chose members based on a point-scoring system, with weighting applied to winning the club champion award, as well as Champion of Champions. Premiership wins, particularly as skipper, was also taken into account.
Skippers for the men’s team of the century were Andy Brumby, Col Rogers, John Simmons and Paul Adcock, while in the women’s team, Leanne Wallis, Gwen McMahon and Alice Clarke were named as skippers.
In total, the club has taken 19 premierships in the top division of the Saturday Midlands Bowling Association competition, eight more than next best, Maryborough Golf.
The club also leads all-comers in the midweek, or ladies, pennant, having taken 17 premierships.
Bowls president Alan Muggridge commended the work of Shay, who tirelessly spent many hours compiling the book.
“Greg was grateful to The Addy for the amount of information that he got, and he wouldn’t have been able to compile the book without it. It was a very big thing to get it done,” he said.
Having taken out the division one and two Saturday flags was important to Muggridge, who felt it was fitting to celebrate such an important year by clean-sweeping the competition, while narrowly missing out on the midweek competition, going down to Dunolly Blue.
“The two flags were an important part of celebrating our centenary year, we were absolutely thrilled with that,” he said.
Muggridge says the club members will be honouring the centenary season for years to come.
“There will be a few centenary shirts at the club this year from our members,” he said.
