After the brilliant weather we’d experienced over the previous weekend, what was served up for the PAKY 5000 on Saturday and Sunday was a little disappointing. Nevertheless, although the weather gods may have attempted to put a dampener on the event by producing the cooolest weekend so far this year, combined with occasional annoying drizzle (for those not under the protection of the dome), Pakenham’s premier two day lawn bowls tournament was a huge success yet again.
With over $5000 in prizemoney, this blue ribbon event attracts quality bowlers from across the greater Melbourne area and from across the state, with entries this year from as far to the east as Sale and Paynesville, from as far north as Lake Boga and of course there was a strong local contingent. The PAKY 5000 is also listed by Bowls Australia as a National Player Rankings Event which adds further prestige. With a full house of 32 teams, a number of which were composites, there were more than 30 clubs represented, including “Tiger” Wood’s Merrylands team which flew down from Sydney for the weekend and Jack MacNab’s trio of young Scots.
No tournament of this nature can get off the ground without serious sponsorship and the club was again fortunate to obtain major funding from Greenline, the company which constructed the magnificent Paky Dome over its top green. Generous contributions were also made by local businesses, individuals and the club itself to provide the numerous prizes which were raffled over the weekend.
As is often the case nowadays a couple of teams withdrew at the last minute and one (without even the courtesy of a phone call), simply did not turn up which caused some initial disruption to the meticulously planned draw – however these problems were soon resolved and with the addition of some quickly organised scratch teams (which actually performed very well over the weekend) the day proceeded without any further hitches.
The tournament consisted of seven games of two bowl triples, each of 12 ends, with four played on the Saturday and three on the Sunday. At the end of day one, the top end of the leader board was quite crowded – there may have been only one four game winner but there were ten teams (including four from Pakenham) with three wins and one with three and a draw – Sunday was therefore set up to provide some pretty fierce competition.
As is customary at this tournament, day one was capped off with a free sausage sizzle and a corner to corner shoot out. Although light hearted and fun, this is always a hotly contested event with entrants attempting to qualify multiple bowls for the final, usually accompanied by a great deal of sledging from the other competitors and spectators, although for some reason that element was a little subdued this year. After the dust had settled the top money was collected by Steve “Snags” Clifford from Parkdale while second prize went to Gus Macisaak from Yarraville Footscray.
Day two kicked off slightly warmer than Saturday but looked like delivering a little more drizzle. With so many teams still in the running, competition, as expected, was fierce although all games were played in good spirit. When the lunch break came, there was only one game left to play and one chance left to win yet nobody seemed in a rush to finish their meal and get back into it.
After the break, as the last game progressed, it was easy to identify those teams which still had a chance of collecting prizemoney as they continued trying to make every bowl count while other players had relaxed and were at times resorting to some odd or experimental shot selections. However by mid afternoon it was all over and time to tally up the scores.
The prize for best first day performance (not collecting a major award) went to the young Scots trio of Jack MacNab, Jordan Slaven and Chris Carswell while second day honours were collected by Brett Spurr, J. Toohell and Lyn Quigg.
The competition for the overall prizes could not have been closer. Just missing out, in fourth place overall, with six wins and 108 points was “Nifty” Nev Brown’s team. Also with six wins but with one additional point which earned them third prize, were Yarra Glen’s Matt O’Brien, Kirsten Day and Barry Ward (not the first time Matt and Barry have been in the winners’ circle at Pakenham). Picking up second prize was the composite Clayton/Pakenham rink of Alan Veitch, Geoff “Voota” Van Vugt and Terry “TMac” McRedmond, also with six wins but 110 points.
To cap off a great weekend of bowls in Pakenham and to make that trip from Sydney so much more worthwhile with a $3000 bonus, the overall winners with six wins and 111 points were Merrylands’ “Tiger” Wood, Heath Lewis and Edy Williams. When making his acceptance speech, “Tiger” reiterated the words of President “TMac” and the other winners in thanking the sponsors, event organizers, the many volunteers, all the other competitors and of course his own team mates. He also mentioned that his home club was currently investigating the possibility of constructing a dome similar to Pakenham’s and that our major sponsor, Greenline, had the front running for the supply and installation.
The PAKY 5000 has again been a fantastic tournament, thanks to the generosity of the sponsors, to the competitors who turned up to play two great days of bowls in wonderful spirit, the organisers who spent countless hours putting it all 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 Faye Ritchie and her crew who toiled away in the kitchen – it was a wonderful effort to produce hot lunches for over one hundred hungry mouths two days in a row – Saturday’s roast in particular, was outstanding.
Des Leigh