Part 1 Introduction
Monday the 5th August 2024 was to become a Busy day at Gaythorne Bowls Club, as we were hosting the VETS competition.
For those of you that need more information of the process I have provided a brief overview.
Some 26 teams of four Bowlers, all over 70 years of age were due to descended on the Club to compete in their weekly competition. This competition held every Monday at a different club was in my opinion one of the most competitive I have ever seen. The level of bowling competence was very high and the competitive spirit was in evidence along with the wonderful camaraderie between players.
Brian along with his team of helpers had completed all the time-consuming hard work to get Gaythorne set up.
The tables were in place and set for lunch, Linda was ready with the raffle and Cookie was set up with the money card.
The Gifts and publicity information from our sponsors: -
Alex Gow Funerals were also placed on the tables.
See https://www.alexgowfunerals.com.au/
Thanks also to our other sponsors
Marty & Sandra Sanderson Gaythorne club members from Value First Realty at https://www.valuefirstrealty.com.au/
The Kitchen crew had arrived and were busy setting up for the production of the Gaythorne Lunch speciality Pie, Mashed potato and mushy peas.
The bowling stuff was also completed, Scoreboard set up and score cards ready all that was needed was the bowlers.
Part 2 Signing In
About 9.00am the bowlers started to turn up, the skip from each team paid the Green Fees and selected his score card from the blind pile.
As the competition was set up to provide cash prizes for teams as follows:
- Highest score from Both games
- Second highest score from Both games
- Highest score from First game
- Highest score from Second game
The special score card provided information on both of the games.
The next step was to have the skips name and team added onto the Main score sheet.
From the score sheet the skip was able to find out:
- What bowling rink they were on for the two games
- Which teams they would be playing for each game.
As this process was proceeding the raffle sellers were flat out completing their own transactions with the bowlers.
Towards 9.30 am the bowlers started to head towards their rinks and get their gear out to commence play.
As usual there was a bit of a common glitch with the host Club being asked to provide players to the visiting clubs. This time we provided some 3 or 4 players, but just before the start bell it was realised that one Club had not turned up at all.
This through everything into Chaos as the carefully planned Playing schedule set up for 26 teams would not work for 25 teams.
Quick discussion between Brian and the VETS main organisers allowed the day to continue with Gaythorne providing a composite team.
Bowling commenced.
At the end of the first game the bell was sounded and the teams made their way into the Clubhouse for lunch and liquid refreshment.
Part 3 Lunch
The routine for lunch worked out over many years was that once the teams were seated the Lead and second went up to the Kitchen and collected two meal each and delivered these to their team. This works well and prevents Chaos at the Kitchen.
When most people had finished eating and the empty plates delivered to the kitchen the Raffle and Money Card winners were drawn with lots of enthusiasm from the winners and moans from the rest of us.
Part 4 Second Round
After a short breather the second game started and the fun commenced again.
At the end of the second game the Gaythorne Score recorder was under real pressure to produce results as quick as possible.
The process was:
- The winning team received 2 bonus points plus the number of points by which they won for each game
- At the completion of the second game the Bonus points were added up and only teams with 4 points were considered for Winners of Both games award
- The next step was to add together the number of points won by the winners of both games.
- The winners were then declared and the cash prizes handed out.
Gaythorne would like to thank all those from the VISITING CLUBS who turned up to what was a great day of bowling and we hope everyone had a wonderful time.
The Club would also like to thank all those people from Gaythorne Bowls Club who worked so hard to make the day a success.