The Parkland Valley District (PVD) 55+ Games were held in Melville recently with 77 participants registered. The sports which actually took place that day were five-pin bowling, golf, cribbage, shuffleboard, track and field, archery and a poetry and short-story competition.
Pickleball, a unique racket-sports, originally scheduled for the event has been post-poned to a later date.
Entries were received from Buchanan, Canora, Cowessess, Duff, Esterhazy, Fenwood, Gerald, Stockholm, Waldron, Yorkton and host community Melville. Most of the participants were in the 65-85 year-old age group with the oldest competitors being Melville's Elsie Lester who took part in shuffleboard and Elizabeth Bernath, a bowler from Esterhazy, both aged 89.
Bernath says she enjoyed the games in Melville and says the only distressing item to her was a shortage of participants.
"They made these games for seniors and they were a lot of fun and they went good, but there could have been more people," says Bernath.
"Maybe they need to advertise differently or send out the forms with all the events to the senior centers and bowling alleys sooner."
Bernath says her age gives her a unique perspective on the competition.
"We always have a lot of fun and that's what it's all about," she admits.
"I always say we have a good chance because there just aren't that many bowlers out there our age."
The youngest entry was 50-year-old Bryan Sies who took part in the archery competition, an event only held in PVD.
Slo-pitch was not played locally due to PVD being allowed to send up to three teams to Provincials. As a result the team from Melville as well as the group from Preeceville opted to go directly to the Provincial event.
The Provincial games will be held in Saskatoon July 3-5 and the local PVD team will be represented in golf, track and field, slopitch and poetry/short stories.
