Night Owls a passion for Waikerie crew
For a group of Waikerie bowlers, Night Owls is a serious passion.
Darren, Ian and the rest of the Brew Crew team, who won the State Night Owls finals, continue to strive to grow an already booming social bowls program at their beloved Riverland club.
Darren is proud of the size that the Night Owls program at Waikerie has grown to in recent years.
“It started out a few years back, Ian decided he was going to take over organising the Night Owls at our club just to promote it a bit more,” he said.
“It was always a great event and we only filled in every now and then, but Ian took it upon himself to go out and get a few sponsors and local businesses on board, not only to donate a few little items, but also to get a team involved.
“When the team numbers built up we ended up with a full couple of greens and it ended up being a great event.
“The whole of Waikerie has come on board and has really started to enjoy something that is just awesome.
“It’s not a game you need to be a professional at to have fun, anyone can play good or bad and have a great time.”
Ian said he and his team wanted to make the most of the opportunity to take part in the state finals after another big season of Night Owls at Waikerie.
“We finished up winning the Night Owls at Waikerie and I knew this event was on,” he said.
“I watched the calendar and when registrations opened, I thought I would get the guys to come down and have a bit of fun.
“At Waikerie we are lucky enough to have a dome over two greens and it is a magnificent set up.
“It is great to see when we have 128 players on a Tuesday night, people just love the camaraderie and to have a beer and a feed and have a laugh with each other.
“It is a really fun atmosphere and when people play social bowls they can then go on to play for the club down the track.”
Darren emphasised the benefits for clubs if they put the time and effort into promoting their Night Owls programs.
“Out of the Night Owls next year at least four or five players out of 32 teams will probably go on and help out with the pennants.”
“Yes, it is one of those sports where if you are working full time you don’t always play, but we will fill in and then go on to be a pennant bowler.
“Not only that, we have a facility that we were lucky to organise with state government funding, a facility that surpasses 90 per cent of South Australia. “We have brilliant greens and with the dome it doesn’t matter what the weather is.”
