Umpy's Blog: Week two review and The Trashes

Sorry for the radio silence for the past few days, its been a busy week.

On Sunday evening all of the ITOs enjoyed a get together at a local Chinese Restaurant. It was great to see everyone having a relaxing meal and a good chat after the heavy officiating schedule in the first week.

Monday we all had a day off. I hired a car and collected it early. Daryl Rowley, Bob Penny, Angie Thompson, Sue Mates and I drove off into the Mountains. It was cool but clear and we were afforded some stunning views from various lookouts and waterfalls. In the afternoon we made our way over to Tamborine Mountain and visited a Glow Worm Cave which was interesting. We walked a short circuit of a creek and saw some Fruit Bats. The Gold Coast Hinterland really is a sub-tropical paradise.

We finished the day with a lovely meal at the impressive Tweed Heads Club just over the border in New South Wales. This club is just enormous with 4 outdoor greens, an indoor green and 4 restaurants plus a huge entertainment area. Famous for hosting the Australian Indoor Championships and the Golden Nugget Invitational.

It was back to the 5:30am alarm calls on Tuesday morning as the start of the second week of competition commenced. The sectional play rounds of the Men’s Singles and Fours together with the Women’s Triples and Pairs would see us through to Friday and the knockout rounds.

This week really was eat, sleep, bowl, repeat. With no real issues to deal with it has been quite a relaxed stress-free few days. I was again based at the excellent Helensvale Club.

Evenings have been spent eating either at Broadbeach Club or in town following our debriefs with the CTO and TD. Fatigue is setting in and the majority of ITOs are getting to bed early. Weather has been glorious with no rain. The greens at Helensvale have been fast as a result and estimates of 16-17 seconds in the mid afternoon has made for some challenging but high quality matches.

On Friday, after finishing early with the 2 quarter and semi-final sessions we held the all important Trashes trophy match at Broadbeach. The Trashes (a play on the Ashes) started at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth games as an Australia versus England single rink challenge match. We have contested the Trashes at each Commonwealth Games and World Championships since then. Needless to say the Aussies struggle on our heavier greens and we struggle on their faster surfaces and so the results have reflected the north v south hemisphere venues. I won’t share the score, it was too embarrassing!

This is the final weekend of the event. Saturday and Sunday we play the finals of each discipline and then Monday I have a day spare before commencing the long journey home.

I will review the finals and the overall event when I get home next week.