PENNANTS SEPTEMBER 3rd
FIRST DIVISION
Now, it would be very nice to report that a warm sunny Spring day greeted the Bowral Bulls on arrival at the Austral green, but, unfortunately that was not the case. The weather was a continuation of the dreary, cold wintery conditions that have haunted bowlers for many months now. Despite some forecasts to the contrary, rain managed to fall throughout the whole of the playing time – not comfortable conditions at all.
In the first of the matches, the Bulls team of Terry Butt, Carl Spilker, Garry Brown and skipper Mick Anderson got off to a confident start to take an early lead over their Austral rivals. After five ends, the Bulls led by 5 – 3, and by the eleventh end they had extended the lead to 11 – 5. Austral rallied and cut the lead back to three shots by the sixteenth end. Bowral then steadied, and blending well as a team, went on to a solid 20 – 16 victory.
The Bowral team of Andy Connor, Alistair McGhee, Steve Della and Dugald Braithwaite tackled the next team from Austral. As it turned out, the Austral boys were in red hot form and put enormous pressure on the Bulls right from the start. Under the pump the Bowral four found it extremely difficult to get any traction at all. Unrelenting, the Austral team pressed on to an impressive victory 29 – 13.
In the final game, the Bowral team of Gordon Lewis, Ashley Lewis, Mick Spong and skipper Mick Armstrong got away to a sound start to take an early slender lead. By the seventh end, they had managed to extend the lead to 8 – 4, and were happy with the way things were unfolding. However, far from done, the Austral boys edged their way back into the match and had squared the score 15 – 15 with one end remaining. With Bowral holding three shots, the Austral skipper changed the head with his last bowl giving his side a potential two shots. Under huge pressure, Mick Armstrong put in a magnificent final draw shot with the final bowl of the match – victory to Bowral 16 – 15. Great bowl under enormous pressure Mick!
Despite winning two of the matches, unfortunately for the Bowral bowlers they finished behind on the master board by 60 – 49. The two competition points for the two match wins meant that the Bulls have kept their noses just in front of Austral on the first division table. Unfortunately, top position now seems only a remote possibility, but solid victories in the remaining two rounds would give Penrith and Glenbrook plenty to think about. This could start with a big showing against Penrith at home in Bowral next Saturday.
FOURTH DIVISION
Although many Bowral residents were talking of the arrival of Spring, Mother Nature had very different ideas for this first Saturday in September. In a word, the Bowral weather was frightful with drizzly rain falling all day, and a constant, bitterly cold wind blowing from the south-east. With the surfaces of the Lewis and Wilson Greens still unplayable because of the constant poor weather, this contest against Picton was held on the synthetic of the Waratah Green.
On rink nine, Bowral was represented by Peter Cornwell, Mick Flynn, Tony Oakes and skipper Dave Coltman. The Bowral boys got off to a very good start to win four of the first five ends and lead 6 – 1. Picton then came to grips with the pace of the green a little better to reduce the Bowral lead to three shots by the tenth end. Bowral then steadied and moved to a 14 – 9 lead after fifteen ends. It was then that disaster hit the Bowral boys as they conceded 4 and 5 shots consecutively and found themselves trailing 20 – 14 with only two ends remaining. Despite winning the last two ends, Bowral was unable to bridge the gap and went down 20 – 16.
In the second game, Arnold Lenczuk, Graham Hunt, Glenn Giese and Bob Crowley comprised the Bowral Bulls four. Bob and his boys got away to much the better start dominating the ends and jumping to a lead of 10 – 1 after five ends. This domination continued and when the Bulls monstered Picton on the 13th and 14th ends to collect a massive twelve shots, they held a lead of twenty-three. In the run home Picton fared much better, but team Crowley was never in danger and ran out very convincing winners 32 – 14. Despite the weather, there were smiles all round from the Bowral four.
In the final match, Ted McPhee, Richard Denman, Terry Norwood and skipper Robin Staples represented the home team on rink ten. Bowral scored an impressive four shots on the first end, but found the going tough and led by only a single shot after six ends. With Bowral unable to score more than singles, Picton had edged to a 10 – 9 lead by the halfway stage of the match. The Bowral four then began to bowl more consistently to win the next six ends and establish an eight shot lead. However, on the seventeenth end and down one shot, the Picton skipper split the head for his team to collect an eye-watering six shots. Undaunted however, the Bowral four secured the game over the next three ends to run out winners 26 – 17. At various stages of the match, each of the Bowral players made very useful contributions, so it was a real team victory.
With the master board reading 74 – 51 in favour of Bowral, and with two match wins, the Bowral Bulls collected 9 of the ten competition points from the encounter. This now puts Bowral in second place, 5.5 points behind the division four table leaders Taralga. Next week’s game against Bundanoon now takes on even greater importance because a victory in Bundanoon would keep the Bulls in touch with Taralga who have to travel to Bowral for the final round of the competition.