Author: Chris Baraciolli

What a great night for Barefoot Bowls. The weather gods worked their magic thankfully, and we had light winds and sun. Everyone had a great night with lots of laughs and giggles. Many bowls on the wrong bias, short and in the gutter but no one was upset.  The night started with enough competitors to run 3 rinks. 24 willing and enthusiastic participants were split into teams of 4. Most couples were able to stay together, and we made the teams as even as we could.

The competition boys had two teams that were pitted against each other, and without doubt the most sledging was coming from their rink. It would seem that one stacked team of previous bowlers had the other team heckling and berating to put them off. Final scores would go on to prove that these tactics were unsuccessful.

Beers and wine either helped or hindered some players’ performance, but there was no one there to test for performance enhancing, so there were no penalties.

The night finished with a few more drinks and we used the club’s BBQ to cook dinner. I must say that the Belmont Bowls Club looked after us very well. For those who couldn’t attend we will definitely run this event again, probably during Spring later this year.

Let the social crew know if there are any ideas to run similar events during the year, group night outs are great fun and help bring the club together. A big thankyou to the Belmont team of volunteers. Steve who explained the rules and Jenny for organising the night for us. I think there were a few who enjoyed it so much they may play in the next season of Belmont barefoot bowls.

The 2024 Colac show n shine is on the 2nd of March at memorial square in Colac. The event is put on by the Colac RSL and supports a worthy cause. See the flyer and their website for further details:
Colar RSL website

Competition Report January 2024 – Graeme Ruby

Another year starts and we are straight into it. The full Calendar is on our website with the first event the first round of the State Hillclimb Championship at Rob Roy just completed on 21^st Jan. Most of the regular competitors have been in correspondence over the secret enhancements being done under cover. I’ll plead guilty to one small change. At last years Rob Roy Historic I found I lost time on the first turn as I ran on to the rev limiter half way around the corner and found it was most exciting to try to change gear at this point with sideways action in aplenty. I tried to change early but found the performance sluggish and also held it against the rev limiter also slow. So I added 200rpm to the revs and bingo on Sunday made up .4 of second in the first section of the Climb. Brendan has been playing with rear spring rates at least that what he admits to. The long awaited arrival of previous competitors Jason Demko and Daryl Speakman seems to be getting closer with rumoured works going on respective V8’s. Another rumour is progress on Shane Gezuns car. Meanwhile the Midget brigade gets stronger and more experienced and will soon be taking on the front runners.

On that note one of the best performers at Rob Roy was Craig Ballinger in his lovely little yellow Midget. He drove very well getting quicker each run and even managed to psyche- out experienced campaigners with his comments about the new chicane where he doesn’t brake. I have trouble staying on the normal track without braking let alone the 20-30 mph chicane. I think it worked on Brendan Sullivan who completed a very solid second round run of 33.47 but did not improve after that. Rodney Mayes who hasn’t been on track for a while bought out the little K series powered Midget and ran consistently for his first run at Rob Roy. Best performance of the day was from Pete Castelow in the lovely TVR which bellowed up the hill against very tough competition from Datsun 240Z and 260 Z. Pete hadn’t been to Rob Roy for many years so to knock two seconds off his time on the final run was a good effort. Perhaps the eye opener for me was the large contingent of Toyota 86’s and MX5’s and just how competitive the MG’s were. Geelong Local Tom Kenworthy won the class on his final run with a 30.63 in his race MX5. (Dad Max was founding MG member) Second and third were two Toyota 86’s in 31.4 and 31.5 with myself next in 31.7.

Our next event is the Khanacross and Motorkhana at Avalon which is a shared event with MGCC Vic on 11 February. Arrival 8.00 .Starts at 9.00
We are looking for people to help us with timing and cooking.

Next event Breakwater grass Motorkhana 27/2.

Graeme 043889445