Bowls shirts on display from as far afield as the Northern Territory and New Zealand at Pakenham Bowls Club on Saturday as competitors assembled for the annual playing of the prestigious Paky 5000.
However, despite the outward appearance of a national/international competition, there were no entries from interstate or overseas this year and it was a team from Yarrawonga which travelled the greatest distance to take part (although the guy from Talbot also had a fair trek).
Nevertheless, the Paky 5000 remains a premier blue-ribbon event, offering over $5000 in prizemoney and is listed by Bowls Australia as a National Player Rankings Tournament, which adds to its prestige.
In previous years, the Paky 5000 has been played over two days which meant that some competitors were required either to find accommodation on Saturday night or undertake a long road trip home and back again to front up on the Sunday.
For that reason it was decided that this year the 5000 would be a one-day event only, although the prizemoney remained the same.
On the subject of prizemoney, no tournament of this nature can get off the ground without serious sponsorship and the club was again fortunate to obtain major funding from Greenline, the company which constructed the magnificent Paky Dome over its top green.
Generous contributions were also made by a number of local businesses in the form of the numerous prizes which were raffled after the completion of play.
The format for the tournament was two bowl triples with four games of 10 ends (reduced from the previous 12) scheduled for the day, with lunch provided after completion of the second game.
Winners were awarded 10 points for a win, five for a draw, and one point for each end won.
There were prizes for first to sixth place with the winner collecting $3000.
Someone must have made significant offerings (or sacrifices) to the weather gods last week as Saturday was one out of the box, with blue skies, sunshine and very little wind, more like summer than mid-autumn.
With both greens full and barely a vest or jacket in sight, it was a very colourful spectacle to behold. In addition, there were no last minute snags (such as late withdrawals) for the organisers to contend with so the day went off without a hitch.
With serious prizemoney involved most players were very competitive, however they were also mindful of the fact that one of the first aims of the game of bowls is to have fun.
Consequently, all games were played in good spirit with occasional doses of humorous banter.
All good things must come to an end and at the completion of play there were (surprisingly) only two, four game winners on the day.
Taking out the top money with 70 points (that’s four wins and 30 out of 40 ends!) was the composite team of Thor Shannon, Wayne Lynch and Tom Harvor.
Second prize went to the Ringwood combination of David Goodger, Zac Woning and David Boulton with 64 points; while third prize was collected by Daniel Carroll, Dylan Morrison and Nicole Carroll with three wins and 56 points.
Fourth, fifth and sixth went to the composite teams of Dennis Throup (Drouin), Steve “Sticks” Ellard (Narre Warren) and “Rotten” Ronnie Dalton (Pakenham) respectively.
And so we bid farewell to the 2025 edition of the Paky 5000.
The event has again been a great success, thanks to the generosity of the sponsors and to the competitors who turned up to play an incredible day of bowls in wonderful spirit.
Many thanks go to the volunteers on the greens, behind the bar, in the kitchen and elsewhere behind the scenes who worked very hard to make it happen and the organisers who spent countless hours putting it all together.
Particular praise goes to David Laird who very bravely completed much of the latter stages remotely, only returning from a holiday break on Friday night.
If anything had the potential to go pear shaped; that was it!.
A special mention also goes to Peter Bowman, who kept track of everything on his trusty spreadsheet in addition to acting as the official umpire.
The Pakenham Bowls Club looks forward to hosting this tournament for many years into the future and would hope that the players from other clubs who have taken part will continue to come back to support the event and to enjoy our hospitality.
-Des Leigh-
