14. Parkers

Footscray Park gave me the opportunity of a lifetime. Just 30 minutes down Ballarat Road from my home in Melton, it was the perfect access point to play bowls at a higher level.

Footscray Park also signed up a new member that year, Mark Cartlidge. Mark also lived in Melton and he provided me with the lift I badly needed every Saturday morning to bowls. He also drove me home after pennant because Mum and Dad certainly didn’t want me getting public transport during the night at such a young age.

There were some amazing members at this new club. Brett Dodd was an up and coming new bowler, Robbie Campbell had just won the State Champion of Champion Singles with Footscray RSL the year before, Glen Maxwell was a gun player and Hank Witkowski was as solid as they came on the green. Considering our top side was only Division Two, we were expected to take the next step into Division One for the season after.

The practice matches were nothing short of an absolute disaster for me. After two years on fast synthetic greens, the grass green practice matches made it very difficult for me to play well. I was inconsistent, short often and generally not doing my job as a leader. There was no way I could possibly start in the top side.

I found myself leading in Division Five (our second side) for the first game of the season at Newport. Daryl Carter was my skipper which was perfect. Daryl was not only a player well above Division five, but he was also a terrific bloke. He gave me all the encouragement I needed to improve my game and find some form. He was my new ‘Les Delaney’.

I think it was about Round Five when I got promoted into the Division Two side. I was selected to lead for Pat Considine. Our third was Les Taylor and our second, Gary Dawson. On paper we seemed like a pretty strong side, but unfortunately this rink had not won many games and they were relying on me to get them off to a good start.

This was the beginning of my good times at Footscray Park. My leading began to reach a level that was helping the rink and side to more wins. I really felt now that I belonged in the top side of this bowling club.

In late November I got a job at the local $2 shop to try and make a few extra dollars. Part of this job entailed Saturday morning shifts which finished at 12 noon. The very first shift I worked, I got stuck back and my grandfather had to rush me to Maribyrnong Park to play Pennant. I was 10 minutes late to the game and missed the roll-up. Unfortunately we were soundly beaten that day and Robbie Campbell and the selectors took no sympathy when pulling the axe out. I was dropped into the Division Five side for disciplinary reasons and this infuriated me.

The next week I played third in Division five, with a young Ryan ‘Noodle’ Wickson leading in the rink. This was like playing third at Mount Cottrell. The level was about the same and the quality of team mates and opposition reminded me of Division Two in the Central Highlands. What had I done? I wasn’t progressing as I wanted to.

Luckily for me, the Club Championship Singles had arrived that very Sunday and I was determined to make a mark on the event. And I did!

After getting through the first couple of rounds, I had lined up a quarter final the following Sunday against the 1997 Club Champion, Lindsay Murphy. All I could think about that week was winning that game. I can honestly say that I can’t remember the Division five match that Saturday, saving my mental power for the Sunday Club singles.

I won my quarter final 25-22 after a monumental effort. I then went on to beat Hank Witkowski 25-20 in the semi final to set up an amazing final – Lee Schraner vs 1997 State Champion of Champions, Robbie Campbell. Here was my chance to prove a point.

The final involved solid draw bowling, accurate hitting and an applauding crowd of about 80 club members. I will never forget that match. Robbie led me 24-19 and was on the verge of winning the club singles. Two tight draw bowl saves and two big dead ends got me to 22-25, but my valiant attempts to save the following end would unfortunately fail. I lost the final 22-25 and had missed the opportunity to win the club singles.

The praise from all watching and Robbie himself were pleasing and it certainly helped me make my way back into the top side – once again leading for Pat and making my way back just in time for the Christmas break.

Christmas came and went and I turned sweet 16 on the first game back after Christmas. We continued to win as a side but unfortunately by Round 18, it appeared we had no chance of winning the section. We lay 4 points behind Werribee and 7 points being Yarraville going into the last round. All we could do was get the maximum 14 points on offer and hope for a miracle. Considering Werribee was playing Yarraville in the final game, it was likely one of them would go through.

Someone once said to me that ‘good things happen to the club you are at Leeroy’. This was the perfect instance. Yarraville and Werribee played a 7 points all draw and we won 14 points and about 60 shots up. We won the section on shot differential and had earned our promotion into Division One! Unbelievable!

The next week we beat Buckley Park at Flemington/Kensington then followed up by beating Murrumbeena Park at Glenferrie Hill. The Grand Final was set for Footscray Park vs Boronia at Burwood. We had adopted the club song of ‘Zippity Doo Dah’ and it was sung constantly throughout the club during the finals campaign.

Unfortunately for us, the Grand Final was a disaster. Our rink got flogged with Pat relying on Charlie to skip the rink from third. We were 10 up with 10 ends to go and two five downs across the rinks and a mixture of lost opportunity saw us go down. Despite this, the Chernobyl Victims mini bus drove home with open eski’s as the team bellowed out Zippity Doo Dah all the way back to the clubrooms.

I think the onlookers thought we actually were the Chernobyl victims.