I was so looking forward to reporting on our ‘Grange’ Shield Tournament after our ‘Town of Trees’ Tournament was cancelled due to rain in July, only to have this tournament meet the same fate! The weather had been perfect leading up to the day so we were all hopeful. However, the skies opened up around 5am and only cleared for a lovely day after drenching the green with over two inches of rain. The greens were a mess, so the difficult decision was made once again. On checking our records we have only held one tournament in the last three years – instead of six – due to either Covid or rain. Hopefully, we have better luck in 2023.
Next on our calendar was the fabulous Melbourne Cup luncheon held at the Berry Bowling Club by the hardworking Pink-up-Berry volunteers. A great day was had by all including Rob Folkard winning the Best Dressed Male on the day. I thought well-deserved but I could be a bit biased. A massive $46,886 was raised during the pink up month for the McGrath Breast Cancer Foundation. A tremendous effort by everyone involved.
The month finished with our Consistency competition. It was a fun competition with a record 11 participants, two of whom hail from the Kangaroo Valley, Gillian Portener and myself. Sadly, the draw had us meet in the semi-final, so only one of us could progress to the final. After a very close match with a drawn end and the lead changing hands four times, on this occasion I was declared the winner. I then progressed to the final against Enid Hall. The match was held just in time to make this report. Another mammoth game with both of us vying for the coveted gnome trophy, so very serious. With the game changing hands six times and drawn on three occasions, the main difference that split the players was my allowing Enid to score a very accurate 10 points on end 22. Enid then continued to outscore me for all bar one of the final seven ends. I did manage to win the second last end, denying Enid immediate victory by being short of the 150 points needed to win by one point. This gave me one last chance to win the match. However, I had to win all 10 points on offer, which proved to be too big a task. Congratulations Enid on a well-deserved win. I will now graciously pass on the gnome to Enid, but hopefully only until next time!
Our only competition left to squeeze in before Christmas is Versatility triples. This is a fun competition that tests our abilities in playing each of the positions on the team. We all take a turn for six ends each to play Lead, Second and Skip, finishing in your usual position in the team. Unfortunately, due to illness and early holidays we only have three teams competing this year. As it wouldn’t be fair to have one team drawn as the bye and therefore progressing immediately to the final without having played a game, it has been decided that we will be playing this as a round-robin. This means each team has the opportunity to play against each other. The team with the best result will be deemed the winner followed by the next best as runner-up. I will look forward to reporting the outcome in my next report.
Deb Folkard
