An expletive-filled verbal spray aimed at a female volunteer of a Ballarat lawn bowls club has resulted in a Bendigo East lawn bowler being banned from representing Bendigo for two years.
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The Bendigo Bowls Division handed down the two-year ban to the Bendigo East bowler at a hearing on Monday night.
A volunteer from the Ballarat-based club was left shaken after the BBD representative told her "to get back in the f...... kitchen" at the Provincial Championships on Februrary 4.
BBD secretary Geoff Howes said the bowler's children were running around the club house and a volunteer working in the kitchen asked for the children to be taken outside.
Howes said the bowler entered the club house and took umbrage with the treatment of his children.
"He walked into the rooms and told the woman what he thought and said to get back in the f...... kitchen and that their club was nothing but a f...... fuddy-duddy club,'' Howes said of the bowler's outburst.
"We're not happy at all (with his actions). We have (conduct) rules for pennant matches and for representing the division.
"It's not good enough. He was representing Bendigo in a match in Ballarat and to treat the ladies at the club like that was not good enough.
"He can't represent the BBD until the end of the 2019-20 season and we've asked him to write a letter of apology to the women at the club."
Related: Bowls biffo in preliminary final
Representatives of the Ballarat District Bowls Division and the Ballarat-based club where the incident took place declined to comment on the issue.
Bendigo East Bowls Club secretary Rob Clough said the banned player was stunned by the length of the suspension.
"We don't stand by his actions or condone what he said,'' Clough said.
"We do stand by our player and we will support him through this. He recognises that he did the wrong thing and he's willing to do everything he can to apologise."
The Bendigo East player can continue to represent his club at pennant level, but is ineligible to play for the BBD at representative level.
