No go: Scheduling issues have dashed Kyabram’s hopes of securing bowls legend Alex Marshall for a one-off marquee match. Pictured is Alex Marshall (left) alongside Paul Foster at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Photo: AP Photo/Gurinder Osan
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GURINDER OSAN
Imagine if Steve Smith strolled out to the middle of Deakin Reserve, Cristiano Ronaldo lined up for a free kick at McEwen Reserve or Rafael Nadal sent down a serve at Shepparton Lawn Tennis Club.
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While these events seem far-fetched, a similar situation could have transpired in the Goulburn Valley Playing Area weekend pennant division one bowls competition when Kyabram approached the league about recruiting Scottish bowls legend Alex Marshall for a one-off match on Friday, February 18.
Widely regarded as the greatest bowls player of all time, Marshall’s record speaks for itself, claiming a record-breaking six World Indoor Singles Championship titles, five Commonwealth Games gold medals and seven World Outdoor Championship gold medals.
Currently in Moama preparing for the upcoming Bowls Premier League event, the 54-year-old agreed to suit up for the Bombers in a marquee Friday night match at Kyabram Bowls Club in round 13, where keen bowls fans from across the region could come down and watch the world champion in action.
But with a trip to Tallygaroopna already scheduled for that weekend, Kyabram chief of selectors Glenn Fields outlined the hurdles that stood in the way of getting the event off the ground.
“I think it would have been a great opportunity for the league, to have the most decorated player in the world play for a little local club, it is like getting Tiger Woods down to your local golf club,” Fields said.
“Obviously we want it to be a home game and Alex can only give us a game on Friday the 18th (of February), but we are due to play Tallygaroopna away on that Saturday.
“We approached them (Tallygaroopna) to swap the game to our place and play on a Friday night, but they have knocked us back, Shepparton Golf did offer to swap our scheduled game with them from round 14 to round 13 to make it happen — but it just gets really complicated because you are swapping team after team and the whole round ends up getting changed.”
Taking this proposal to the association, Goulburn Murray Bowls Region secretary Steven McGregor heard Kyabram’s proposition, but said working out the logistics of the situation made it too hard.
“There was no permission granted for it to happen, the unfortunate circumstances were that we would have had to switch the final two rounds of pennant in division one and because of the disruption to the season we approached the clubs to see if they would support it and they didn’t want to support it,” McGregor said.
“It would have been fantastic for him to play, great publicity for the league and the Kyabram club, but unfortunately the logistics of gauging everything and moving games around just didn’t support it.”
With the league not able to rearrange or move any games from round 14 to round 13, McGregor said if Kyabram wanted Marshall to play it would have to come to an agreement with Tallygaroopna.
“It won’t happen, if they want to get him to play on that night (February 18), they will need to come to an agreement with Tallygaroopna to get the game shifted from its original timeslot or venue,” he said.
“We won’t be making any changes or shifting the rounds to make it work.”
Six-time reigning premier Shepparton Golf did its best to solve the league’s fixturing conundrum, offering to shift the time, day and venue of its round 14 clash with Kyabram to try and make it work.
Make it happen: Brad Orr and Shepparton Golf were keen to face the Scottish world champion.
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Rodney Braithwaite
“When you get anyone of Alex Marshall’s calibre willing to come to the league you would be stupid not to want to come up against him, so we will do all we can to make ourselves available for the game,” Shepparton Golf coach Brad Orr said.
“It would be good for Kyabram, good for the league and good for bowls in the area, so we would love to see it happen.”
Tallygaroopna did come to the party late, agreeing to face the world champion on the Friday night if Kyabram travelled to its home green for the marquee event.
Redlegs skipper Mark Ryan said his squad was excited by the possibility of testing itself against a player of Marshall’s professional quality.
“I was discussing it with my team and they are keen to play Ky on a Friday and they can bring their marquee player for a game at our place,” Ryan said.
“We just want to play our home game as normal, we are happy to swap it to the Friday night, ideally it would have been scheduled into the season just so everyone can have it planned — but we can work around it to get it done this time, but it has to be in Tally.”
Kyabram would not budge on shifting the marquee event away from its home club, however, as Fields said it would rather opt to bring Marshall in for a sportsman’s night where he can bowl with members and socialise with the local community.
“I had a chat to Mark Ryan and he said they would only agree to the game if it was at their place,” Fields said.
“Our position is he won’t be playing for us unless it is at our place, that is where it is at and from talking to Tally it seems like it won’t work.
“We will probably look to get Alex down for a bit of a sportsman’s night on that Friday, where members can have a bowl with him and he can recount some of his stories.”
