Some say lawn bowls is for the elderly, ladies and gentlemen who have passed their prime.
But you would be hard-pressed to find young people capable of partying as hard as Lancefield Bowls Club members were on Sunday night.
Lancefield prevailed by eight shots in the Central Highlands Bowls first division grand final on Sunday afternoon, beating Bacchus Marsh.
For Lancefield, it was a repeat of the successes of five and 10 years ago.
In an intense match, Lancefield trailed by six shots at half-time before launching a second-half comeback – including four and five-shot wins in the dying ends – that secured it the title.
Peter Linehan and Mark Godbolt led the triumphant rinks, winning by 15 and three shots respectively.
Michael Linehan and John Bamford’s rinks went down by six and four shots.
Gordon Charles, 69, was part of the “old grey nomads” rink, skipped by Bamford. He has been playing at Lancefield for 34 years and said he and his teammates were “jubilant” when he spoke to the
Weekly late on Sunday night.
“It’s just absolutely tremendous,” he said. “To be able to win it in this competition, where there are five or six teams that are pretty strong … it’s just a damn good feeling, and the older I get the bloody better the feeling is.”
It was hard to hear Charles over the cheers in the background – and during the Weekly’s short chat there were a number of raucous, colourfully articulated celebrations that can’t be put into print but were nevertheless well earned after a season’s toil.
“At the start of the season we didn’t think we’d be able to take top spot and take out the flag,” Charles said. “We knew we’d be competitive, but to win is massive.”
For Charles, a septuagenarian come the end of September, it was extra special.
“The atmosphere is just fantastic and in 34 years it hasn’t changed,” he said. “I don’t even live here – I’m from Sunbury – but we’ve got a great culture.”
