Despite a gloomy start weatherwise, a sizeable number of members gathered at 9am for our Annual Bone of Contention Tournament. The BoC has been contested for many years between varying opposing groups starting with the Ladies v. Gentlemen. As a gender imbalance developed over the years, we now celebrate our cultural diversity with the born and bred Kiwis v. The Rest, or Natives v. The Settlers. Other terms have been used, but they may be a bit non-PC, so we will leave it there! The Settlers were represented by players from England, India, Ireland, Scotland and South Africa. The Dress Code required Club Colours to give way to colours of the players’ country of birth, providing a very colourful display of playing gear and accessories for the morning.
Scoring for the Match was limited to simply which Team scored the most points cumulatively with no regard for game points or ends won. The day started in the usual fashion with plenty of banter and Haven Humour flying around, but as the match progressed through three rounds with very close aggregate scoring, the noise level dropped and the tension level rose, to the point where a bystander might have believed there was a major title at stake. As the BoC is probably the most anticipated Competition of the season by Members - for all sorts of reasons – The BoC could be regarded as such. Members have been known to equate its significance as equal to rivalries between Auckland/Canterbury, All Blacks/Springboks, Oxford/Cambridge (boat race), NRL State of Origin, or Ford/Holden. That might be stretching things a bit, but you get the picture.
This year provided the closest result we have ever had with well over 100 points being scored in total with a 6 point win the Kiwis, and this year’s Captain, Karl Glen, is pictured with the Major trophy with Ian Little, The Settlers Captain with the Minor trophy. One of these years, The Settlers will be victorious, and celebrate with the same magnanimity as did The Kiwis this year. Hats off the to The Kiwis, Chaps and Chapesses, but as the man said, we’ll be back!
The event also marked our Closing Day for the 22/23 Season with the usual invitation to Sponsors and other supporters of the Club to attend afternoon tea and Prize Giving. We were pleased to see a number of VIPs able to attend and special thanks given to Stuart Weir (Chair - Birkenhead Licencing Trust), Neil Connell (Bowls North Harbour Board Member), Tom Edwards (President, Northcote BC) for giving their time to attend.
Prize Giving started with President Roy Parker expressing thanks to our Sponsors and VIPs and introducing our Match Convenor (Vice-President Dave Hilson) to announce the BoC winner for the day and make the presentations of Trophies and Cups for the Season. These are too numerous to be included in this report but will be itemised on a document included in the images attached to this report.
Regards
The Badger
Press & Publicity Officer
