IT’S often been said that age is no barrier – be it young or old – to playing competitive lawn bowls, with six competitors aged over 90 proving the adage is as true as ever recently.
While the weekend and midweek pennant competitions are between seasons, that hasn’t stopped clubs from hosting various weekend tournaments, with the Racecourse Bowls Club holding their Tasco Triples tournament, where 66 competitors across 22 teams competed.
Bruce Horsburgh, Mary Hooper and Rod Wardle may have won the event, but it was Alan Marshman, 91, Keith Burrage, 91, Max Parsons, 93, Graeme Clark, 92, Ken Duthie, 91, and Roy Jones, 93, who were the real winners.
The six bowlers all competed and grabbed the attention of everyone in attendance.
While all six, along with fellow nonagenarians Bill King and Les Gray, are regulars around the local bowling scene, rarely are they all seen competing at the same event.
Having spent more than half his life playing the sport, Marshman continues to bowl on a weekly basis, with his love of the game and the competition it provides matched only by the friendships he has made along the journey.
“There’s two or three reasons why I still play, but socially, it’s amazing the number of people you meet and become friends with,” Marshman told The Guardian this week.
“You meet a lot of terrific people and not just local people, but when a tournament or carnival is on, you meet people from all over Victoria.
“I’ve met some amazing people in my time, some of who have become lifelong friends.
“It’s also excellent exercise, it’s amazing how much walking you do during an afternoon and when you get to my age, it helps free your body up and I definitely benefit from the exercise.”
Marshman continues to play pennant bowls for the Swan Hill Bowls Club, with the veteran bowler competing in City’s Division 2 pennant team last season.
He also competed at the club’s recent May/Autumn carnival, with the 91-year old proving more than competitive against bowlers less than half his age.
“I try to play twice a week, but I’ll only play competition once a week at this time of the year, but once the weather warms up again I’ll play two or three days a week,” Marshman said.
“I bowled for three days out of the 10 at the May/Autumn carnival and it was just lovely to see the greens full with people.
“Carnivals like that are when you can make a lot of friends, I’ve made quite a lot friends from down around Ballarat and Warrnambool that come up every year, and when they turn up they welcome you with open arms and I always wonder what have I done to deserve such happiness. but its a terrific feeling.
“We had our successes, but we also had our disappointments, but on average, I think we won more than we lost.
“But it’s not about winning, it’s about the people you meet and the friendships I’ve made, I really do feel like the luckiest person around to have met the people I have.”
For Norm Smith, who is one of the Racecourse Bowls Clubs organisers of the Tasco Triples, it’s always a joyous sight seeing Marshman and his fellow nonagenarians competing, with the veterans also consistently giving their much younger counterparts “a run for their money”.
“They are all held in great reverence by all the local bowlers and they’ve all been good players in their own right for a long, long time,” Smith said.
“They’re certainly not a handicap to any team that they play in and in fact, Graeme Clark and Alan Marshman win quite a lot of events and Sunday tournaments.
“Keith Burrage is a damn good bowler too and Roy Jones is another one in our club who’s 93 years old and he does a wonderful job.
“Everyone looks forward to playing with him when he plays and Ken Duthie, they’re all terrific blokes and they are great to play with and to be honest, they’re all people to look up to really.”
