Maccabi GB lawn bowlers enjoy Israel tour

A Maccabi GB delegation of 11 bowlers and four non-bowlers recently visited Israel to take part in a lawn bowls tour.

MGB Vice-President Stuart Lustigman, who has planned and led all 12 of the events they’ve embarked on since 2011, said: “Previous groups has had as many as 72 participants, but this year’s tour was always going to be challenging in the present situation. I thought about cancelling it, but supporting Israel was the prime objective and so we committed”.

The group visited all four of Israel’s bowling clubs in Haifa, Kiryat Ono, Ramat Gan and Ra’anana, all of whom featured international players. There were some successes for the GB contingent, Bernard Taub, Vic Fox and Steve Levy took the bronze medal in Kiryat Ono, with Laurence Pinkus one of the three-man team that won the Terry Lichkin Memorial Trophy in Ra’anana. The bowlers from GB came from five different London clubs and one from Manchester.

Away from the Greens, the group’s programme included Beit Halochem, the Shimon Peres Centre, an Emunah project and travelling to the Gaza Envelope where they visited an army base, the Burnt Car Wall Cemetery, Kibbutz Kfar Aza and a visit to the Nova Music Festival Memorial Site where they heard from some survivors.