MENS BOWLING WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 28th
A warm afternoon greeted the men as they set about their bowls on this last Wednesday in September. The weather forecast was for possible rain and/or storms from mid-afternoon onwards, so it was especially pleasing to see that thirty enthusiasts had turned up for the event. In addition to the social bowls, there was a deferred Mens Major Singles Championship match scheduled for play. Given the overnight rain and the continuing difficulty of having the grass greens in playing order, the day’s matches were assigned to the Waratah Green. As mentioned, it was pleasantly warm at the start of play, and there was no wind of any consequence so there were no outside forces to blame for those wayward bowls!
The Mens Singles Championship match was between the highly ranked Dugald Braithwaite and ‘miracle man’ Peter Morales. With the meticulous Ted McPhee as marker, this ‘first to twenty-five’ game got under way on rink 8. Peter made a very fine start winning two of the first three ends to set up a lead of 5 – 2. As expected, the calm and focussed Dugald then worked himself nicely into the game. Winning four successive ends, Dugald found himself in the lead 10 – 6 by the ninth end. Not to be denied, Peter hauled in a maximum four shots on the eleventh end and edged to the lead by a single shot. However, the ice-cool Dugald exerted pressure over the next eight ends to regain the lead. Leading 19 – 16 after twenty-two ends, Dugald then snatched a pair of threes on the next two ends to finish off the game. Victory to Dugald Braithwaite 25 – 16, and those watching the match were impressed with the very high standard of bowls. Dugald will now meet Jim Neely in the second round of the tournament next Saturday.
The balanced style of Dugald! A determined Peter Morales!
SOCIAL BOWLS
The customary 18 end challenge match between team Cummins and team Rubie was staged on rink 7. Graham Denman, Bill Pope and skipper Paul Rubie again got away to a good start against Laurence Vipond, Kel Limbrick and John Cummins. A four shot haul on the fifth end had team Cummins in the lead, but the lead was only temporary because they lost the next three ends to be down 9 – 5. The two teams then went head to head until ‘the Pope’ called on help from above as well as from the spectators who’d been drawn to the game. However, after a divinely inspired 4 on the fifteenth end, the Pope’s pleas fell on deaf ears and team Cummins stormed back into the game. Still behind by two shots on the last end Laurence Vipond, the lead for team Cummins, put two bowls on the jack. They held these shots to square the match 16 – 16. The after-game exaggerations were still bubbling an hour into drinks!
Laurence had a big finish! The ‘Pope’ divinely inspired!
In another triples game, Neville Tanner, Joe O’Donnell and skipper Bob Crowley were pitted against Arnold Lenczuk, Barry Werfel and Alistair McGhee. Team Crowley began with a head of steam grabbing four shots on the first end, but by the sixth end the scores were equal at 7 – 7. On the ninth end Bob and his boys secured a mouth-watering 5, only to concede an equally mouth-watering 5 on the very next end: scores still locked at 13 all! From this point, team Crowley slowly ground its way to a lead over the next six ends. A four shot haul by Alistair and his men got them back to within one shot, only for their opponents to close out the game by winning the final three ends. The final score was 26 – 21 in favour of team Crowley, and from all reports all players contributed at various stages of the match.
Bob Crowley gets another good one off! Nicely down from Alistair McGhee!
On rink 12, Keith Edwards, Owen Williams and skipper Chris Forrester were matched against Joel Hunt, Steve Day and Clive Neutze. And what a cracker of a high scoring game this turned out to be! Of the twenty-one ends, only five ended in single shot wins: there was a six shot haul, five lots of 4 shots, and the rest were twos and threes! Chris and his boys dominated the opening ends to lead 8 – 0 after four ends, only to concede six on the next two ends. Twelve more shots to team Forrester saw them with a lead of 20 – 9 after eleven ends. It was then that they gave up the six shot end, and by the fourteenth end had seen their lead cut to three shots. At this point they steadied however, and despite conceding five shots over the last two ends to team Neutze, they ran out fairly comfortable winners 32 – 23.
Steve Day chose his yellow bowls today! The style of Clive Neutze!
In another triples game, Graham Hartnup, Jim Starkey and skipper the suave Gordon Lewis took on Rick Reynolds, Viv Gear and the crafty Mike Holmwood. Mike and his team started well to lead 5 – 3 after three ends, but then team Lewis won the next eight ends and seemingly had a strangle-hold on the game. However, as so often happens in sport, this became a match of two halves. Down 18 – 5 and then 19 – 6, team Holmwood found its touch and began to edge its way back into the game. Winning five ends on the trot, they cut the lead to six and had their opponents with deeply furrowed brows. With storm clouds now brewing, Gordon’s mob took two shots on the nineteenth end and gained a little breathing space. Mike’s team scored two shots on the next end, but the threatening rain arrived to bring a close to proceedings. Victory went to team Lewis by 21 – 15.
Viv Gear releases! Jim Starkey on the mat!
In the final game, newcomer Gary Mitchell, Graham Hunt and skipper the foxy leftie Bob Edwards were matched against another newcomer Denis Lees, Terry Norwood and the shrewd Mick Flynn. And what a cracker of a game this turned out to be! Team Flynn made an excellent start winning six of the first eight ends and racing to a lead of 11 – 2. Not to be denied Bob and his team swung into top gear taking six of the next seven ends and edged into the lead 17 – 14. With the two skips providing the newcomers with helpful advice, more shots were in the heads and the ends tightened. Shots were hard to come by, and by the twentieth end team Edwards clung to a one shot lead. Mick and his team then took the 21st end with a single shot and so levelled the game. With rain starting to spatter down, the skips called for a deciding end and this saw victory go to team Flynn by a single shot. And the players managed to get inside before the storm broke!
No doubt another good one from Bob! Newcomer Gary Mitchell!