BPL14 started yesterday and Milgate, who is a qualified umpire, will be involved as a statistician for the second half of the tournament.
With 20 years of lawn bowls experience he is the ideal candidate and this season has had no lack of action, having represented Rochester at almost every level of Campaspe midweek and weekend competition.
Moama Steamers will face the two Melbourne franchises first up in the competition.
The Steamers, who this year are represented by Moama-based bowls coach Kevin Anderson, Canadian champion Ryan Bester and Australian star Natasha Van Eldik, will be coached by Scotland’s Ryan Burnett.
Bester, a Canadian international, bowls with Broadbeach in Queensland and is a two-time Commonwealth Games silver medallist. He was also the winner of the Australian Open singles in 2018.
Van Eldik is from Raymond Terrace in Sydney and is a dual Commonwealth Games gold medallist. She was also the 2019 Australian Open champion.
Anderson was the 2014 Scottish men’s singles champion and won the Australian triples title in 2018.
In their opening match of BPL14 the Steamers have a 5pm appointment with new franchise Melbourne eXtreme and then at 7.15pm will be matched up against Melbourne Pulse.
They famously won BPL11 against a Melbourne franchise known as the Melbourne Roys. That match was on the Moama rinks and was the franchise’s second win, having won the title at the second staging of the tournament.
The Steamers are regularly involved in the pointy end of the tournament and this year the Moama flavour will continue, with Anderson playing in the team.
From their 13 starts in the tournament they have the two titles and three runners-up trophies, finishing in the top five on all but four occasions.
Anderson, who has led the Moama Steamers in its first season of Bendigo Campaspe Goldfields Premier League competition, was coach of the team when it was runner-up in April last year for BPL13.
Michael Walker, Jo Edwards and Bester were champions of the event the last time it was staged at Moama, for BPL11.
On Tuesday the Steamers have five matches in a jam-packed day of bowls.
They will compete against the Adelaide Pioneers at 9am, then face the Gold Coast Hawks at 10.15am before an appointment with new franchise, Tasmania Tridents, at 11.30am.
The Steamers will be considered a good chance to win all five of their opening matches, but have tough assignments in rounds six and seven.
Anderson will face off against close friend and multi-world champion Alex Marshall, who is playing with the Brisbane Pirates, at 1.15pm on Tuesday.
The Steamers then feature in the 9pm Fox Sports match against competition favourite and reigning premier Tweed Heads Ospreys.
The Ospreys have won three of the past four events, including beating Moama in the BPL13 final.
On Wednesday the Steamers have matches again at 9am, 10.15am, 11.30am and 1.15pm, before featuring in the 6.30pm Fox Sports match against the Pirates.
Each team will play each other twice between this afternoon and Thursday evening, before the top five teams qualify for the finals on Friday evening.
The finals are scheduled to commence at 4pm on Friday, with the two teams that finish on top of the table having a chance to win straight through to the grand final through a qualifying semi-final.
Teams finishing fourth and fifth play off in an elimination final, before having to overcome the team that finished third in another elimination final.
The winner of that second elimination bout will face off in a preliminary final against the loser of the qualifying semi-final.
