By Mikayla van Loon
As the first major event out of lockdown, the Melbourne Cup was set to attract events and family picnics right across the shire.
Lillydale Lake was sprawled with people enjoying the sunshine, as family and friends gathered in numbers
The main car park was filled to the brim, the food trucks were run off their feet and water activities of all kinds were taking place on and off the lake with many people making use of the water park fountains in the playground.
Outdoor gatherings weren’t the only events being held this Cup Day, with the Lilydale Bowling Club taking it indoors for their first social event back after lockdown.
Bar manager Mark Morgan had organised the event just a few weeks prior, in the hopes Melbourne would reach the 80 per cent vaccination target.
“I just wanted to get something happening for the club when we opened up. The problem was announcing it so close to the day because of the dates that had been given and we had to wait till the rules changed where we could get a certain number of people to make it worthwhile,” Mr Morgan said.
“In the end, we just basically said, ‘Ok, if we can get roughly 30 people we’ll go ahead with it anyway’ because a lot of people had already made their own arrangements.
“So it’s actually a little bit disappointing but I’m going to do this each year and just try and grow it and make it a bit of a tradition.”
From 11am on the first Tuesday in November around 30 people rolled in the bowls club to join in the festivities.
Mr Morgan said he wanted to host a Melbourne Cup Day event because the social calendar for the members has slowly been disappearing.
“A lot of people do a barbecue for Cup day or whatever and we’ve done nothing here.
“We’ve got less things on our calendar that gets the club together, that gets people together other than the competition days for bowls.”
For a first time event, that was held on the first weekend regional Victoria opened up to Melburnians, it wasn’t too bad a turn out.
“A lot of our people are either already retired and they’ve got caravans and mobile vans and things and they were just hanging to get on the road and the younger ones, there were quite a few on the greens earlier today just practicing and off they went to their own Cup Day events.”
Lilydale Bowls Club had all the elements of a traditional Cup Day, most importantly the friendly sweeps that always make things entertaining.
Member of 20 years, TJ was in charge of collecting and organising the bets and sweeps, ready to award to the winners at the end of the Melbourne Cup.
Some were luckier than others, taking home multiple prizes and for Ian Connelly, he scored his very first trifecta win on the Melbourne Cup.
The day rounded out with food and drinks, a lot of laughter and good times, ready to plan for next year’s Melbourne Cup Day.
