First NQ Pennant win for Magnetic Island BC
Contributed by John O’Neill
Magnetic Island Bowls Club won the 2022 North Queensland (NQ) Men’s Purple Pennant in June. This was the club’s first NQ Pennant win, after winning the Townsville Purple Pennant in 1976, 1997 and 1998.
The Third Division Purple Pennant competition is reduced to two rinks of fours to accommodate smaller clubs like Magnetic Island, but is also open to larger clubs for more of their members to participate in a pennant competition.
There is no limit to the number of teams competing, meaning that the luck of the draw comes into play and we drew teams from four of the larger Townsville clubs. This year, 12 NQ teams participated.
Our club is located on Magnetic Island, eight kilometres off-shore from Townsville and the distance and ferry timetables were an issue when we needed to subsitute a player at short notice.
Fortunately, another club member was in Townsville overnight and played the early game on Saturday before another member arrived from the island for the next two games. Another member played two games on Sunday.
This resulted in some disruption to coordination of one of the rinks, but the accumulated scores over the seven games gave the club the winning edge.
The Purple Flag and framed Purple Pennant now hang proudly in the Clubhouse. Magnetic Island has been promoted to Red Division for next year’s pennants.