Diggers set to dig up turf

Fred Hall sets his sights on the jack at Diggers last Sunday.

CHRIS ISON

FOR George Farrow and the other regulars who love a roll up at the Diggers Memorial Bowls Club, last weekend was the end of an era.

The club marked the occasion of playing the last official tournament on turf at the club with bowlers from a variety of clubs celebrating with the hosts.

While bowls was enjoyed, the results of the tournament mattered little as it was the occasion that bowlers wished to share.

Farrow said work at the club was scheduled to start at the end of this month when the greens, one at a time, would be dug up and replaced by a synthetic carpet, similar to the one at the Rockhampton Bowls Club.

The turf has served the club well and Farrow said Sunday’s tournament was held 27 years, almost to the day, after the Diggers Memorial Bowls Club was formed.

He said on March 5, 1973, the name of Diggers became Diggers Memorial Bowls Club.

Appropriately two years later, on Anzac Day 1975, noted sportsman Ollie Howden got work on the greens under way and then the official opening was conducted by the president of the Central Queensland District Bowls Association, Bob Hetherington, when he rolled the first jack on May 2, 1976.

On Sunday it was Rockhampton Regional Council’s Graeme Brady who brought down the curtain on a small piece of club history.

Cr Brady presented prizes to winners of the day’s competition, but unfortunately it was the visitors who took home most of the spoils.

Benn Coombes’s team from the Capalaba club was the winner, while the skip for the runner-up was Harry Merry of Yeppoon.

Diggers Memorial did manage to secure third place through a team which Michael Vagg was skip. A North Rockhampton team skipped by Trent Smalley finished fourth.

Farrow said once work got under way it would be about four to six weeks before things get back to normal.