WORKING AND WINNING….CHAPTER TWO. – Doncaster Bowling Club

 

This is the email Dinesh sent explaining his three days of competition……

 

Here is some information on the South Pacific Bowling Carnival held in Suva this week.

It is a pairs and fours carnival. I only played in the fours. After two days of pool matches our side made it into the finals. We won the semi-final beating a strong side from Wagga Wagga, NSW.

In the final, it was a close affair but we went down to the local champions 12-15. We won $2,000 in prize money as the runners up, while the winning side collected $4,000.  I played lead and our team members were Dinesh Balgovind, Som Padiachi, Abdul Kalim and Ratish Lal, a former world number 3 ranked player. 

The competition is very trying. Pool matches were played on day 1 and 2. Day 1 had three games of 15 ends, day 2 three games of 15 ends and all the finals on day 3. It always rains in Suva. However only one person wore a raincoat. No prizes for guessing who that was! The greens were running around 10 to 12 seconds so a lot of weight was required, and most of the time your opponents try to play ditch to ditch but our team handled the conditions relatively well. There were teams from Australia, New Zealand, PNG and Fiji of course. 

It is a carnival in a true sense. Apart from bowls there are themed social events most nights – a Chinese night, a Fijian night and Indian night, followed by the Gala Presentation Night.  I only went last night to the Gala Presentation Night which was enjoyable. I found that it was important to concentrate early in the game and adapt to the conditions. I admire the local bowlers who taste success playing in totally different conditions (fast greens and cooler weather) overseas.

 

Lyn writing again.

I have played in this Carnival, and yes it is this daily tropical downpour which leaves the greens running at 10+. So for 90 bowls bowled each day you have to have stamina. The women play ditch to ditch too. Dinesh will return with envious arm muscles. Also his team had a small mention in the sports section of the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation. ( See bottom photo below, the extract from FBC news.)

This article was a combination from Dinesh, Champa and Lyn.