A Tatura native sits among the best of Australia’s para bowlers after the Australian Para Nationals wrapped up festivities in Perth.
Competing across October 7-10 at the four-day national carnival, Hill Top Bowling Club stalwart Greg Toy travelled with the Victorian contingent to showcase his wares on the rinks of Warwick Bowling Club in Perth’s north-western suburbs.
Toy, spotlighted by The News last month after news broke of his selection to pull on the Big V, duly won his way through to finals in the men’s B5-B6 singles category, claiming silver for his efforts.
Now fresh off knee surgery that he had put off in order to participate, Toy feels it was all worthwhile as he enjoys some well-earned rest.
“Personally, it was bloody fantastic,” Toy said.
“It was well worthwhile and a fantastic experience. The people at Warwick were awesome in welcoming us and Carol Protopapas was a fantastic manager for the para squad.
“I was very excited to have made the state squad, but I was absolutely ecstatic to have been second in the nation.”
Toy beat Queensland’s Bernie Wolland and NSW native Geoffrey Seton to advance to the knockouts with a clean record.
He made finals by scraping out a last-gasp win over Brett Sellars — advancing on the last bowl of the contest — to make finals.
He would ultimately be defeated by Tony Bonnell for the gold, not that there’s any shame in losing to a bowler with previous international experience representing Australia.
In the meantime, he balanced his singles goals with a 14-point pairs run alongside Josh Thornton, with the duo claiming a “fruit salad” in picking up one of every result, but missing out on knockouts.
“That was my first ever go in the state squad and, to be runner up, I was very happy with how I went,” Toy said.
“At least, happy in hindsight. I admit I was p*ssed off to lose at the time.”
One of the experiences Toy savoured most about his trip west was surprising onlookers who came into the para bowls scene with low expectations in terms of quality.
“Some of (the Warwick members) were amazed at our standard of bowls,” Toy said.
“Some people see the term ‘disabled bowls’ and say to themselves, ‘yeah, they’re just trying out there’.
“When they saw the quality on show, though, it was pretty eye-opening for some of them.”
Toy had many directions to pass his gratitude, not least to the medical staff that acknowledged his achievements in being selected for Victoria.
After all, they told him, “how many times do you get to play for the state?”
“They accepted that I needed to do this,” Toy said.
And, of course, there was the matter of returning to Hill Top for a welcome home from his clubmates.
Toy wouldn’t have preferred anything excessive or grandiose, though.
“They were absolutely fantastic; we have a club night on Fridays and they took time to say ‘welcome back to Greg Toy, congratulations on runner-up in Perth’,” Toy said.
“I had a couple of beers with everyone and I don’t think you could have asked for more.
“I was very well-recognised by Hill Top.”
Now, with his trip and much-needed procedure behind him, how soon can we expect him back in the thick of it at pennant?
Though Toy cannot easily estimate a timeframe and provides assurance he will recuperate for as long as necessary, he’s equally adamant he’ll be competing again before long.
“It’s not a case of if, but when.”