WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 9th (Terry Norwood reporting)
Time for another report on what’s happening in Mens Bowls. Just a couple of things to mention before turning to the bowls action on Wednesday.
The AGM of the Mens Bowling Committee was held on Saturday October 29th with President Bob Crowley presiding. The minutes from this meeting have now been posted on the notice board for all members to peruse. The first meeting of the new committee will be held soon, probably on Saturday 19th November at 11.00, so any feedback or issues need to be communicated to committee members pronto!
The next competition, the Mens Major Pairs Championship, is set down to start on December 3rd. The entry form is now posted on the notice board, so members are urged to start sorting out their partners and getting their names down. Let’s see if we can get a big field of entries so that we can have a great competition.
SOCIAL BOWLS
A very pleasant day greeted the thirty-four eager bowlers on this second Wednesday of November. And it was a pleasure for the club to greet a new bowler in Dennis Cilia as well as a couple of visitors Bev and Peter Kealty.
With John Cummins and ‘the Pope’ back in the fray after last week’s ‘big blow’, the customary 18-ender was set up on rink 7 of the Waratah Green. Kel Limbrick and Laurence Vipond joined John Cummins to battle it out with Grahame Denman, Bill Pope and Paul Rubie. Perhaps John was a bit rusty, because team Rubie jumped them early to lead 7 – 3 after six ends. However, as so often happens, the wheel turned and team Cummins got the better if things to grind their way to a 15 – 10 lead with only four ends remaining. Much to the delight of skipper Paul, he and his men grabbed ten shots over those four ends and ran out winners 20 – 16.
On rink 8, Noel Fraser, Chris Forrester and Kevin Gould took on Graham Hunt, Steve Goddard and skipper the dapper Peter Morales. Fresh from his big victory on Saturday against Gordon Lewis, Kevin was keen to fire up again! Scoring was fairly even early on, until team Morales took two four shot ends, and so led 12 – 9 at the halfway stage of the match. After losing the eleventh end, Peter and his men topped their opponents on four successive ends to lead 19 – 11. With six ends to go, a complete change came over the game as Noel, Chris and Kevin took control. They won all the remaining ends to run out convincing winners 26 – 19.
On the adjacent rink, the two Dons, Coleman and Chapman, in company with Glenn Giese were opposed to Richard Denman, Tony Oakes and skipper, that wily leftie Bob Edwards. And despite team Edwards dominating the first half of the game, this match turned out to be a fairly close encounter. Bob and his men won six of the first ten ends and held a comfortable lead of 12 – 4. However team Chapman then found better touch, and a four shot haul on the eighteenth end got them to within three of their opponents. The last three ends were very tight, but team Edwards held on to take victory 20 – 16.
In another game, Denis Lees, Arnold Lenzcuk Steve Day tackled Graham Hartnup, Ian Crow and the evergreen Bill Meredith. And despite losing the first end, team Day got the better of their opponents to lead 8 – 1 after six ends. Bill, Graham and Ian matched them over the next few ends, but still trailed by six shots at the halfway stage of the game. The second half of the match was fairly even with both sides having their better moments. In the end, it was Denis, Arnold and Steve who prevailed with a score-line of 21 – 14.
In a pairs match, visitors Bev and Peter Kealty took on Barry Werfel and Joe O’Donnell. And, as things transpired, this was a match of differing halves. Being down 7 – 3 after five ends, Barry and Joe strung together six successive wins and raced to a lead of 14 – 7. At that point they looked comfortably in control but wary of their opponents. And they needed to be, because the Kealtys came back with a vengeance winning eight of the remaining nine ends to leave Barry and Joe licking their wounds. The final score was 21 – 15.
The final match, on rink 12, featured newcomer Dennis Cilia who teamed with Joel Hunt and skipper Clive Neutze against Mike Hooke, Col Stone and skipper Owen Williams. Team Williams got away to a flying start, taking the first five ends and setting up a lead of 8 – 0. Clive, Joel and Dennis then won a few ends but found the lead had stretched to 16 – 4 by the halfway point. Things didn’t change in the second half of the game although team Neutze managed to keep the losses down to one or two shots. Clive and the boys had a huge five shot win on the last end, but by then, the game was beyond reach. The final score was 26 – 11 in favour of team Williams.