The first club event of the year will be Australia Day on Sunday 26th January 2025, following the usual format.
We’ll start around 11.30am, have a ‘bring-a-plate’ lunch and follow with a gold coin type game of bowls.
Please put your name on the sign-up sheet on the notice board with the type of food you can bring and a tick if you would like to bowl. You are welcome to bring friends (plus their plates).
Our Open Days, Sunday 6th and 20th October from 11am to 5pm, are just days away now. Flyers have been distributed around the neighbourhood and we’re hoping for a good response. If you know someone who has expressed an interest in lawn bowls this would be a very good time to bring them along to the club. There will be coaching, a sausage sizzle, a raffle and bar facilities. All members are encouraged to come along and share their experience and enthusiasm with those new to the game.
We’re certainly not going to predict the next steps in the daily dance between pandemic and precautions but at the time of writing members may access the green with strict limits on numbers and household mingling, although access to the clubhouse is for the use of toilets only. You’ll find a covid-19 update on this website but please check your email inbox regularly as these updates are rapidly superseded. We’re taking small steps but that’s quite appropriate because if you take a big step on our fast surface your bowl will likely end up in the ditch!
Following our successful 2019 Succulents Sale several members were motivated to strike new plants for sale the following year – but 2020 brought unforeseen challenges. The sale that year was cancelled as a deadly virus confined everyone to their homes. Meanwhile the once baby succulents kept growing and dividing and growing and growing; taking over verandas and patios, spare rooms and living spaces. Well meaning horticuluralists were trapped indoors with a rampant vegetative invader. The world had not known such horror since the Day of the Triffids! Thankfully relief is at hand and we are able to announce our 2021 Succulents Sale. The sale will be held on Sunday, March 7th from 10am to 4pm at the Albert Park Bowls Club, St Vincent Gardens and is a COVIDSafe registered event. This year, expect more plants, expect bigger plants, and expect the usual low prices. These really do make attractive low maintenance additions to your home … unless of course you try to grow 500 of them in a highrise apartment!
Congratulations to all of this year’s Champions and Runners-Up, as shown in the table below, and especially to Ben Mantynen, Club Champion and Kylie Murphy, Ladies’ Champion.
| Championship | Champion(s) | Runner(s)-Up |
| Club Singles | B. Mantynen | A. Singh |
| Ladies Singles | K. Murphy | M. Rolls |
| Club Pairs | M. Stevenson & W. Gill | B. Mantynen & R. Oakley |
| Ladies’ Pairs | C. Rafferty & M. Keenan | B. Beedle & C. Greenhatch |
| Mixed Pairs | R. Oakley & J. Tesoriero | C. Rafferty & M. Pelzer |
| Club Triples | M. Stevenson, M. Scriven & W. Gill | S. Gill, R. Oakley & G. Atkins |
| President’s Handicap | B. Toll | T. Edmonds |
| Club Proportional | J. Kibblewhite | K. Edgar |
| Ladies’ Proportional | J. Kibblewhite | M. Keenan |
| Club Minor | B. Toll | R. Magnusson |
| Club Novice | R. Magnusson | L. Chaloner |
Our resources page links to a list of open and ladies’ champions dating back to the 19th century as well as a list of all singles and pairs champions since 2000.
The very latest edition of our Parkers newsletter can be accessed here. Read about the upcoming tea party in support of the Cancer Council where you can say farewell to a stalwart of our club. ‘Who is that stalwart?’ you might ask – none other than our quirky fading carpet. Some might say, ‘good riddance’, but be advised, there will be no prize for the first person to say ‘I miss our old carpet’. Also in this edition is a fascinating timeline of our club’s history, an introduction to Albert and notification of a sale of succulents in the Spring. Succulents? – is that what’s been growing on our old carpet?
If you’re reading this post then you will have spotted that changes have been made to the members area of the APBC website, which is now called the ‘Clubzone’. The good news is that members no longer need to enter a password to access a wide range of useful content. This change is part of an overall redesign of the APBC website, which will be going live in the near future once our avid designers have agreed on the final style and structure. Nevertheless the Clubzone has been given approval and is where members will come to read the latest news or notifications or to search for club or bowls related information that might be of use to them. We’re excited that this will be yet one more way to strengthen the community of our members.