By Ian Milgate
Healesville’s Open 4’s Bowling Tournament was played on Sunday 4 February.
February and what a cracker day it was.
Although it got hotter and more stressful as the day went on, it finished up being a great day for everyone.
The morning started off with a cooked breakfast of eggs and bacon on the BBQ followed by the President John Fitzpatrick and Adrian Beales warmly welcoming the bowlers and explaining the format for the day.
The tournament had a lot of local clubs attend, Boronia, Mitcham, Heathmont, Yarra Junction as well as our great country friends from as far away as Cobram, including Benalla, Paynesville, Kilmore, Stratford, Inverloch, and our inner city clubs from Thornbury, Middle Park and Craigieburn.
At the half time break the bowlers were provided with a magnificent lunch put on by all the lady volunteers, headed up by Leonie Fitzpatrick and Jen Beales.
It was reported that the food was 5 Star genuine country cooking, so well done ladies, it was very well received.
After very full bellies the teams were back on the green to complete their matches before it got too hot.
At the end of the game the players were all happy to get inside the air conditioned club house for a well deserved cold refreshment and more of that good old country cooking.
The results of the open 4’s tournament were very close, but the winning team goes to team Crocker winning the first prize and $1200 for their effort.
The second place went to team Sail $400
The third place team Rocket $200
Best game on Synthetic, Dick Strainer $100
Best game on grass, G. Howgate $100
Best Losing team, B Lacrhurst $100
The raffle was drawn and a lot of bowlers won some fabulous prizes provided to our Club from some great Sponsors who continue to support the Club.
Among them were Watts River Brewery, Four Pillars, Healesville Toyota, Oakridge, Chandon, St. Huberts, Rochford and Giant Steps.
A big thank you to all of them.
Everyone had a fabulous day catching up with old and new bowling friends and the day could not go ahead without the help of many, many volunteers, so a
great big thank you to you all for giving up your time to make this event a highly successful one.
And finally a big thank you to all of the bowling teams that entered the tournament and hopefully look forward to seeing you all again next year.
