Sport

The force is strong with Cobram Tiger Cub Luke

By Cobram Courier

Feb 28, 2022

In action: Luke Dunn. Photo by JUDITH GADE

The Murray Playing Area men’s state fours began round one at Numurkah Golf and Bowls Club, on Sunday, February 6.

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The youngest team, Cobram’s ‘Tiger Cubs’, included 10-year-old player Luke Dunn as lead, with second Braidon Johnson, 22, third Andrew Giblin, 28, and skip Dane Gade, 28.

In his first season playing lawn bowls, Luke has shown his club he can focus like his older teammates and already has a passion for the game and a commitment that is extraordinary for a very young player.

Dunn’s father, Greg, who is also greenskeeper for Cobram Bowls Club, says, “He just loves it. He gets out there, has fun and loses himself in it.”

“One way to describe Luke is he is a sports nut,” Greg explained. “He can’t get enough.”

A natural sportsman, Luke also plays football and cricket.

An aspect of bowls that Luke loves is playing with older players of all ages. The respect is obvious and Luke’s mentor, Gade, gives him the time to nurture the young player. Gade was bowls coach at Keysborough and Kyabram, plus is highly experienced coaching young bowlers.

“I asked Luke if he wanted to play in the state men’s fours with Braidon, Andrew and myself, as I knew it would get him experience against some quality opposition,” Gade said.

The quality opposition, in the first round, included Murray region’s legendary bowler, Geoff Sutcliffe, who represented Victoria approximately 340 times and Australia 38 times. For Luke’s first state qualifier he had one of Australia’s most successful bowlers.

“When I first played bowls, I wanted to be asked to play in these events so I thought Luke would as well. It turns out he was very keen!” Gade said.

Being a young team, the players decided to give themselves a name that reflected their youth. The Cobram ‘Tiger Cubs’ were born.

“I wanted Luke to have a chance to play with other young players. Unfortunately, we just missed progressing. One millimetre was disappointing as I wanted Luke to have this win,” Gade said.

The Cobram side was trailing 6-16, playing with resilience against the highly experienced Numurkah Golf side, fighting back to force a tie-break at 18-18 after 18 ends.

Gade’s final bowl draw shot was out by a skinny 1mm. The final score was 19-18 in Numurkah Golf’s favour.

Although the Cobram Tiger Cubs barely lost this game, you can be sure they will be snapping at the heels of more experienced teams in future events and tournaments.

– Judith Gade