From The Mat – November 9, 2017

Just in case anyone has been trekking through the deserts of Africa over the past week and has not heard the news, torquay is now officially the best club in Australia according the Bowls Australia.

After being runners-up last year, we have gone one better, beating Rockhampton Bowls Club for the title thanks mainly to the innovative way in which we have approached waning memberships. A big part of that was the introduction of the twilighters competitions on Wednesdays and thursdays.

Chairman Mac smith said the honour of being recognised at a national awards night was brilliant for the club and emphasised that the award was culmination of years of work by many volunteers.

“Everyone who has put in effort to turn this club around should give themselves a pat on the back. You all deserve it,” he said.

On the pennants front, several of our saturday teams are performing well after four rounds.

Division 1 is third, with Alan sampson’s rink showing the way with three wins and a tie while Division 2 is battling in ninth place.

Division 4 also holds third place, with the Albert Wight rink undefeated in four outings while Division 6 is holding seventh place.

the Division 8 side is just outside the top four, thanks to a large degree to the efforts of Lindsay Harrington’s rink which has won three of its four matches. Division 9 is in sixth spot while the Division 11 draw has been redone after two teams pulled out. this section will now consist of eight teams.

In MidWeek competition, the Division 1 side sits fourth, Division 2 is sixth, Division 5 is seventh and the Division 6 squad is sixth.

Off the greens, bookings are now being taken for the legendary New Year’s Eve bash which again will feature Cool Change, a brilliant Little River Band cover group.

In the past couple of years this event has been a sell-out within a week of tickets going on sale and it is shaping that way again. the theme this year is “Heroes and Villains”. Get in fast or miss out.

And while on the festive theme, bookings also are being taken for barefoot bowls Christmas break-ups.

the revamped restaurant is also going great guns, with the tuesday night “Parmi and a drink” deals starting to take off.