BOWLS
By MICHAEL HOLROYD
THE bowls pennant season is set to start this week after many disruptions to bowls during the winter months due to COVID.
The West Gippsland Bowls Division has officially combined with the South Gippsland Bowls Division to form the Strzelecki Bowls Region.
There will be two playing areas: Strzelecki North, which is the clubs in the old West Gippsland Bowls Division, and Strzelecki South which contains all of the clubs from South Gippsland.
Chris Ward from Traralgon is the president and Michael Holroyd from Newborough is the secretary.
Midweek pennant resumes tomorrow with a number of changes to the competition. Teams can have up to two men with a lady being required to skipper the rink.
Round one has some interesting matches.
Reigning premier Drouin host Trafalgar and with three seasoned skippers in Maureen Leighton,
Denise Hamilton and Sheryl Atkinson along with the vastly experienced Les Firth, Denis Throup, Mark Atkinson and John Leighton they will be once more aiming for top spot on the table.
Morwell travels to Traralgon RSL and will be aiming to play well on the RSL’s grass green which should be running well given the fine weather of late.
Morwell Club hosts Newborough and the home team will be hoping their home ground advantage is enough to bring them the points.
In the final Division 1 game Traralgon hosts Warragul and it will be interesting to see which green Traralgon play on as they have resurfaced two of their greens over the winter and have been very pleased with the progress made in developing the new surfaces.
Division 2 winners Moe host Traralgon and will be looking to provide a big upset with Traralgon losing a few established players over the winter.
Trafalgar hosts Drouin. Trafalgar may play on their new synthetic green or their renovated grass green which like the other grass greens is running quite well for this time of the year.
Morwell Club hosts Warragul who often finds the grass greens not to their liking.
Morwell Club needs to start the season off with a win to build up enthusiasm within the club after their narrow escape from relegation last year.
The final game in Division 1 sees Newborough travel to Traralgon RSL in what should be a keenly fought tussle as RSL has performed very well over the last two seasons and will be eying a spot in the top two teams this year.
Newborough will be looking for good games from prized Trafalgar recruit Tommy Lodge.
Strzelecki Bowls Region is following the lead of Melbourne Pennant in allowing players to practice on Saturday mornings on the rinks they are going to play in the afternoon. Games can only be interrupted for up to an hour before the game is declared over. The old 60 end rule has returned for games which have reached the stage where no further prospect of play is possible.
Bowlers are praying for a great season after a winter with very few games of bowls.
Clubs have been very busy ensuring players are eligible to play with the strict COVID regulations in place and the players are definitely keen to go.
