CIGARETTE lighters had to be used to check the distance between bowls on a marathon opening day of the Warrnambool Bowls Club $10,000 Autumn Classic Fours yesterday.
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When play finished in the dark shortly before 7pm, 10 hours after it started, a Minyip combination was named day one winners.
The team, skippered by Mick Funcke, won all four of its matches yesterday, but superior shots up tally gave it the $1000 winner’s cheque.
The Funcke combination had four wins and was 39 shots up, edging out a Dennington team led by John Murnane (32 shots up), Warrnambool Bowls Club’s Tom Pemberton (30 shots up) and City Memorial’s Vince Moloney (20 shots up).
Warrnambool Bowls Club co-ordinator Paul O’Donnell said the Minyip team, a regular visitor to Warrnambool, had adapted well to the synthetic greens, which were a far cry from their usual slick grass surface.
Moloney’s team retained its undefeated record in the four matches despite poor visability in its final game.
O’Donnell said cigarette lighters had to be used to determine distances between shots in the end.
“One green finished under lights but Vince Moloney’s was way behind and finished in the dark,” he said.
“It was a hard day on the legs. You earn your money.”
He said play would start earlier today (8.30am) to avoid a repeat of the late finish. O’Donnell said 24 teams were part of the tournament which includes another four matches for each side today, with the highest eight money winners from yesterday and today progressing through to Saturday’s climax event.
He said all teams started from scratch today with no shots carrying over.