After three weeks of agonising waiting, players will finally make their return to bowls greens across the region after the Goulburn Valley Playing Area confirmed this Saturday’s weekend pennant fixtures would be going ahead.
For every weekend pennant division bar five, Saturday will mark the beginning of season 2022-23 with the first two rounds cancelled due to flooding across the region.
For division five bowlers, the season will resume at round five, with round three and four fixtures falling victim to the inclement weather.
A return to normality after a testing fortnight for all in the Goulburn Valley, association secretary Stephen McGregor explained why the decision was made to return to action this weekend.
“We have bitten the bullet and if the rain stays away, hopefully, this weekend we can finally get back to playing some games,” McGregor said.
“We didn’t get the heavy rain we expected the last few days so most of the greens will be in good nick and able to be played on, the forecast is also reasonable for the rest of the week, so we just decided to see what happens.
“The majority of roads are also back open which was another big factor behind our decision to come back this weekend, meaning that players will be able to travel to their matches with minimal problems.”
Although the floodwaters have receded from the large majority of clubs, there are still a handful of facilities that remain out of action, including Seymour and Mooroopna Golf.
As a result, some matches will have to be shifted to allow players from those flood-affected clubs a chance to get onto the green, with the message from the association being that flexibility is required to get the season off the ground.
“Clubs have been asked to utilise what facilities are available with the clubs that can play on their greens supporting those that can’t,” he said.
“We are confident everybody will chip in and help out and get all of our players back on the green, whether that is rescheduling matches to Friday night and Saturday morning or swapping home games.
“The association is determined to get the season under way and the feedback we have gotten from all clubs has been very positive in making that happen.”
Midweek pennant bowlers will have to wait another week for their return, with no matches scheduled for Tuesday (November 1) due to the Melbourne Cup public holiday.
The GVPA also released an updated state events schedule on Tuesday after a number of scheduled tournaments were postponed.
The major change to the program comes with the region finals, which after initially being slated to occur before Christmas, have been pushed back to Sunday, January 29 and Sunday, February 5.