Beryl & Theo Crowley Memorial Day – 2023

Jackets, vests and beanies were the order of the day at Pakenham Bowls Club last Sunday, as players gathered from near and far to commemorate and celebrate the wonderful contribution Theo and Beryl Crowley made to the club over many years.  They were both life members, as is their son Gary (Crow) a long time servant of the club who carries on the family tradition.  The Crowleys are not just icons of the Pakenham Bowls Club – they were an integral part of the foundation on which it was built.

Despite the cold Southerly and the threat of rain (which never came, fortunately) the greens were almost full, with a sizeable representation from Pakenham as well as bowlers from Cardinia Waters, Garfield, Koo Wee Rup, Warragul, Narre Warren, Berwick, Cranbourne, The Dandenong Club, Yarram and as usual, a strong contingent from Port Welshpool, in recognition of the relationship created between the two clubs when Gary’s brother Geoff (dec) established an outpost of Clan Crowley in that town and later became a life member of its bowls club – and of course Peter Jonas, Gary’s nephew and Theo and Beryl’s grandson, came up from Trafalgar and brought a team from that club with him.

There were no sheep stations on offer (although the prize money provided by the Crowleys was not to be sneezed at) and with the emphasis being on fun, nobody took the day too seriously and there was quite a lot of laughter and frivolity (encouraged).  Although an occasional player was spotted measuring, dire but unspecified consequences were threatened for calling an umpire.

As with all tournaments however, there must actually be winners and there seemed to be an awful lot of them, with prizes for outright first, second and third as well as best first, second and third game winners (not collecting a major prize) – one of the Port Welshpool teams was amongst those best game winners.  There were also two tables of raffle prizes (mainly donated by generous members) and it seemed to take almost as long to distribute those as it did to play three games of bowls!

The major prize for the day was collected by the only team with three wins and that was the composite four of Peter Ellis (now Warragul) with Pakenham’s “Stormin” Norm Box, Allister Stewart and Val Moore.

Gary Crowley acted as MC for the day, ably assisted by Peter Jonas.  Gary is not getting any younger so he did have a sizeable sheaf of papers to aid his memory but he had trouble reading his own writing at times – whether that was due to emotion or advancing age was anyone’s guess.

As is customary on this day, Faye and her band of helpers provided a splendid afternoon tea which kept everyone occupied while the organisers worked out who was taking home the prizes (and it took an inordinate amount of time to work out – there was lot of food but it had almost disappeared!)  It was pleasing to see that members of the Crowley family who are not bowlers also attended for the presentations and a family get together.

Well done to tournament director, TMac and all the other volunteers who helped make this another successful event.  This was the thirty-ninth “Crowley Day.”  Hopefully, next year being the fortieth, everyone will turn up again to enjoy what will be a major milestone.

Des Leigh (Grizzly)