Major news of the week ending the 13th March 2022 was the floods.  The almost constant grey skies that we have endured this year built themselves into a crescendo culminating in a rain bomb/East Coast Low which dumped massed of water onto Bowral at the beginning of the week.  Members memories indicated it was the biggest flood ever.  Luckily the flood level ended up just 50mm short of entering the Club premises.  A few leaks in the Club, but by and large we escaped without major damage.  For the first time ever the flood waters reached a level above the green plinth and all three greens were submerged.  The two grass greens were of course saturated and there was a layer of silt residue deposited onto all greens.  The synthetic had some carpet lifting as you can see from Tony and Kate’s  photos which I have borrowed for your enlightenment.  The Club was closed Tuesday while damage was assessed  and both social and the first round of the Consistency Singles were postponed on Wednesday 9th March 2022.  The grass was still unavailable at the weekend which also meant a delay to the start of the Mixed Pairs on Sunday 13th March and this event is delayed by a week.  Maintenance had been carried out on the synthetic with the carpet pulled straight and the surface appeared to have been brushed.  This allowed social bowls to take place on Saturday 12th March with a couple of rinks left over for a bare foot group.  After the brushing the synthetic green played very well  but by the end of the afternoon with just the bowlers movement up and down the rink the speed had increased by a couple of seconds.

A brief run down on the social bowls which did take place with 18 bowlers which included  4 of our lady members.    Graham Denman, Peter Cornwall and Harold Wall had a three shot win by 19-16 over Graham Denman, Gary Madden and Arnold Lenczuk  having come back from a 10-12 deficit  after 14 ends.  A 5 shot end the next end placed them in a winning position.  Neville Tanner, Ian Crow and Peter Morales were pitted against Barry Werfel, Richard Denman and Don Coleman.  Another 3 shot margin game with again a comeback win for Peter’s team after trailing 11-13 after 14 ends and winning 19 shots to 16 shots.  The match of the day also featured a similar score line to the first two games with the Gordon Lewis team leading 13-10 shots after 12 ends to fade away to a 21-16 loss to Mick Flynn.  Mick was assisted by Terry Norwood and Graham Hunt while Gordon played with Andy Connor and Glen Giese.  Final match and Rita South, Lynn Boshier and Brain Porter led for the first 2 ends  and were level 4 all after 6 ends before Elizabeth Hall,  Julie Hayden and Robin Staples eased away to a 20-9 lead after 15 ends.  The Porter team had the better of the final 6 ends but could only pull back  to 15-22.  Everyone was glad to be back on the green again after all the rain disruptions and we even saw the sun.

Sunday 13th March was scheduled for the final of the Southern Highland Cup/Eric Plain Trophy.  Venue was Robertson, and despite I am sure receiving much more rain than Bowral they were able to proceed as they have a synthetic rink.  Only details I have is that  Bowral won all four rinks, two against Bundanoon and two against Robertson and won the trophy back from holders Bundanoon. I have neither scores or teams as it was not deemed necessary to post teams on the notice board.