Travelling the country in a modified Kombi van might not seem like an extraordinary thing to do, but Frank Peniguel is not your run-of-the-mill ‘grey nomad’.
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Frank is on a mission – to break his way into the record books by playing lawn bowls at a different club every day of the year.
The 71-year-old Daylesford (Victoria) resident is nearly three-quarters into the year long journey, and hopes to accomplish the Guinness World Record feat in January next year.
Frank said he negotiated with Guinness for 10 months on the template for the record attempt and is on track to play 600 games of singles bowls at 600 clubs before 12 months pass.
His visit to Forbes Sports and Recreation Club on Thursday afternoon marked club 476.
“Today’s the 476th club,” Frank said, as he battled local bowler Jan Waugh over 21 ends.
Along with hundreds of stickers indicating the clubs he has visited, Frank’s van carries the slogan ‘grabbing life by the bowls’.
“I had this idea 18 months ago of driving around in my Kombi van, but I thought it’s pointless doing that unless I achieve something on the way, so I thought of this idea,” he said.
“But it took me 10 months to sort out the template for the record with Guinness.”
In order to achieve the target he needs to average three games a day, and says he has done just that for most of the trip so far.
He has travelled through Victoria, Queensland and most of New South Wales but still has to visit South Australia and Tasmania in the remaining three-and-a-half months.
Frank keeps some records of his own while travelling – for instance, he delivered his 104th bowl on the wrong bias on Thursday while answering questions from the Advocate mid-match.
He also knows that lawn bowls is gradually losing players, for a variety of reasons.
“I’m also trying to get bowlers over 70 to replace themselves, because we lose 16 per cent of our bowlers over 70 every year,” he said.
“That’s what I’m hoping to do on this pilgrimage,” he said. “My charity is lawn bowls.”
Frank said he delivers about 120 bowls each day on the journey and often on vastly different bowling greens.
He said he has enjoyed the playing surfaces in this region, but he also loves seeing Australia beyond the metropolitan centres.
“I love the little towns – anything under 5000 people is fantastic,” he said.
You can follow Frank’s progress at hittheroadjack.net.au.
