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Pakenham’s premier two-day lawn bowls tournament was conducted last weekend with the PAKY 5000 taking place at the Pakenham Bowls Club.
With over $5000 in prizemoney this blue-ribbon event attracted quality bowlers from near and far. This year, for the first time, the tournament was listed by Bowls Australia as a National Player Ranking Event, thus adding further prestige.
No tournament of this nature can get off the ground without serious sponsorship and the club was fortunate to obtain major funding from Greenline, the company which constructed the magnificent Pakenham Dome over its top green.
Generous contributions were also made by local businesses and individuals who provided the numerous prizes which were raffled off over the weekend.
It would be wonderful to say the event went off without a hitch but in an all-too-common set of circumstances a small number of teams withdrew at the last minute. This threw the meticulously planned draw into disarray and caused heartburn for the organisers – in particular David Laird who puts in an enormous amount of time and effort to see the event run smoothly.
The withdrawals caused further hiccups as the tournament progressed, but despite that issue the show went on and was a great success.
The tournament consisted of seven games of two bowl triples, each of 12 ends, with four played on Saturday and three on Sunday.
Day one was quite cool and a number of competitors who wore shorts may well have regretted that decision. Many kept their jackets on thus covering the variety of colourful uniforms on display.
In past years some of the highly rated teams have struggled to put wins together against sides which have punched above their weight, but in general that was not the case this year and by the end of the first day it seemed that the cream had begun to rise to the top.
Thor Shannon’s composite Brighton/Heathmont rink was the only four-game winner but there were five teams with three games and two with two wins and a draw.
Day one was capped off with a free barbecue and a corner to corner shoot out, generously sponsored this year by the club treasurer Brenda Hilton and her company, JBM Bookkeeping.
Although light hearted and fun, this is always a hotly contested event with entrants attempting to qualify multiple bowls for the final, urged on by a great deal of sledging from the other competitors and spectators.
In the end the money was collected by Brad from Cranbourne (doesn’t anybody have a surname nowadays?).
Day two kicked off with a light shower but was noticeably warmer than Saturday.
Teams that were high on the leader board set about consolidating their positions, while at the other end of the scale those without a win on day one sought to gain some credibility. This mission was a success with every team walking away from the tournament with at least one win.
It may have been the luck of the draw but one of the round-seven games could not have been better scripted. With a perfect six wins under the belt, Thor Shannon’s team were to face former winner Matt ‘The Athlete’ Creighton’s crew who at that stage had four wins and a draw.
It is a pity that this game was not played on the ‘TV Rink’ as there were some great bowls played. In the end Matt’s team won convincingly by 15 to 7 thus elevating itself to second on the leader board but without dislodging Thor’s mob from the top spot.
Matt’s was one of only two teams which won all three games on day two.
When all scores were counted and recounted, third place overall was taken by the composite team of Dok O’Keefe, Mick Coram and Nichole McKenzie, while second went to former winners Matt Creighton, B Ward and Mathew O’Brien (Croydon/Yarra Glen).
Prizes were also given for best first-day and second-day wins with locals Geoff ‘Voota’ Van Vugt, Tom Van Vugt and Terry ‘T-Mac’ McRedmond collecting the day-two prize.
However, with six wins including two absolute massacres, there was one clear winner and that was the composite Brighton/Heathmont team of Thor Shannon, Nick Dawe and Lucas Protopapas.
Bowls’ president T-Mac presented the prizemoney to the winning team, with Lucas – on behalf of his team – reiterating the words of the other winners by thanking the sponsors, event organizers, the many volunteers, all other competitors and of course his own team mates.
Apart from the early teething problems the PAKY 5000 was once again a fantastic tournament, thanks to the generosity of the sponsors and to the competitors who turned up to play two great days of bowls in wonderful spirit.
Thanks also to the organisers who spent countless hours putting it the tournament together and the volunteers on the greens, in the kitchen, behind the bar, and elsewhere behind the scenes who worked very hard to make it happen.
A special mention to Jeanette Laird for her work behind the bar (she froze on day one) and to Club Secretary David Laird who puts in a huge amount of work without the reward of playing in the tournament.
And finally, a huge vote of thanks to Faye Ritchie and her crew who toiled away in the kitchen. Given the cooler than usual conditions, everyone pinned their ears back and tucked into the hot roast lunch on Saturday.
As for Sunday’s offering, one player was heard to say, “I’ve been playing bowls for donkey’s years and I can’t remember a better feed than that!” – Des Leigh.
