Lawn Tennis' Gary Blandthorn on family connections to lawn bowls

The Warrnambool retiree, who plays pennant for Western District Playing Area club Lawn Tennis, is one of three family members who hit the greens.

Blandthorn, 68, said one of his three daughters and one of his eight grandchildren competed for Drysdale.

"My youngest daughter (Kerri Rees) just won the ladies' pairs for the Geelong region which was a pretty good effort," he said.

"Maya, my granddaughter, she's only 15 and she's played in the women's league down there too, so there's a few family members amongst it."

Blandthorn said it was nice to have a common interest.

"They probably know more about it than I'll ever know," he said.

"I haven't had a game against them - it will be a showdown one day against them."

Blandthorn, whose wife Jenny also plays socially, was part of finals aspirant Lawn Tennis' thrilling one-shot win against top-placed City Diamonds on Tuesday.

Lawn Tennis Green won overall despite only collecting one of the three rinks on offer.

"I am available (for midweek pennant) when people are away or sick but I mainly play division one on a Saturday," he said.

"It is a bit of a struggle in division one - we got elevated up this year and it's a bit tough for small clubs to compete against the big ones but you've just got to have a bit of a go and see what happens.

"Tuesday (pennant) is holding their own."

He is a midweek premiership player.

"I filled in last season when the club were in division two - I filled in because someone was ill for the grand final and we won that," he said.

Blandthorn, who describes himself as a "relative newcomer" to the sport after taking it up six years ago, worked for 31 years for Sungold Milk.

"When I retired it was into the (COVID-19) pandemic so that held us up for a couple of years but I keep busy between looking after grandkids and playing bowls, it keeps you happy," he said.

"I have been lucky enough to have a couple of eights - it's the ultimate score you can get.

"It's the equivalent getting a hole-in-one playing golf."

In other round 14 matches, premiership contender Timboon Maroon, which is sitting second, crushed bottom-placed Warrnambool Gold 88-40, third-placed Port Fairy Gold accounted for Terang Blue 59-53 and Koroit Orange defeated City Sapphires 70-38.

There is one more home-and-away round remaining in the midweek pennant season before a three-week finals series culminates with the grand final at Dennington Bowls Club on Tuesday, February 28.

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