Social twilight program leading to pennant success for Torquay

TORQUAY Bowls Club is up and about ahead of its premier division knockout semi-final against Queenscliff on Saturday at 1pm.

President and premier division player Joe Issell said it was a wonderful achievement after being promoted to the Geelong Bowls Region top tier this summer.

“The last four years, we played in four grand finals and won three but for various reasons (such as) Covid and the GBR restructure it took us until the third win, that the GBR gifted us that spot into premier,” he said.

“We did feel like we had the form in division one before we got promoted.”

Issell said every week was tough at the top level and it would be the same again against Queenscliff at Eastern Park in Geelong.

 

“We’ve played them twice this year and they’re going in as red-hot favourites but we don’t mind going in as the underdog,” he said.

“We’ve got nothing to lose and we’ve played a lot of finals at a high level … they’re quite a young team and we’ve got a lot of experience.”

Torquay has enjoyed a strong summer with five of its seven weekend pennant teams and five of its six midweek sides playing in finals.

“So 72 per cent of our players are playing finals,” Issell said.

The president pointed to the club’s booming twilight program on Wednesdays and Thursdays when talking about Torquay’s much-improved midweek success.

Issell said the club attracted 120 people each night to the ‘entry level, social but serious’ program which has been going for almost 20 years.

“Fifty per cent or more of our pennant bowlers have come through our twilight program,” he said.

Torquay face Leopold in in division two, St Leonards in division 8 and Geelong RSL in division 12 in their other semi-finals this weekend.

Midweek pennant semi-finals results:

Div 1: Torquay defeated Ocean Grove 52-50

Div 3: Torquay defeated Eastern Park 70-49

Div 6: Torquay defeated Leopold on rink count back (63-63)

Div 7: Torquay lost to St Leonards 69-32

Div 8: Torquay defeated St Leonards 43-36