BOWRAL BOWLING WEDNESDAY MARCH 22nd (Terry Norwood reporting)
A few points of information to begin with:
- Both Grade Two and Grade Six pennant teams will, weather permitting, be in action again next Saturday March 25th. Grade Two will play host to the team from Austral and, with the advantage of being a home game, it is hoped that the Twos can achieve their first win of the season. The Grade Six team will travel to Campbelltown to take on the locals for the first time this season. Also chasing their first win of the current season, the Sixes will be looking for an improved performance following their home defeat by Picton two weeks ago. Like the Twos, the Sixes are looking for their first win of the season.
- On Sunday March 26th, the Bowral Club will continue to host the Zone 5 Reserve Singles Competition. With Stephen Della as umpire and two members marking, the competition will continue with the semi-finals at 9am. These matches should make interesting viewing for anyone on the way home from Mass or a morning stroll.
- Wednesday 22nd saw the return to the green of the old maestro himself Robin Staples. Robin has been laid up for quite a while with health issues and everyone was delighted to see him back in action. It took a few ends, but, by the end of this rain-shortened game, he was tucking them fairly close to the jack in familiar fashion.
- Wednesday also saw a visit from that great friend of the Wednesday bowlers Julie Hayden. Julie spends much of her bowling time at Mosman, so it was excellent to have her join us for a game. Needless to say, she came out a winner, but more of that below.
Social Bowls
With both the Lewis and Wilson Greens still unfit for bowls play, social bowls was again allocated to the reliable surface of the Waratah Green. Twenty hardy souls braved the elements to have a bowl on Wednesday which, given the numbers, meant that there were two pairs and two triples matches. There was gentle rain to begin with, and although this cleared for a couple of hours, the most that any game lasted when the rain returned was eighteen ends.
Given heavy lobbying, the match committee yielded to the pressure and shifted the customary 18-ender from rink 7 to the TV rink 9! This meant of course that the regulars in this match had to get used to many more bowlers being aware of the shenanigans that occurs in this game! Michael Hook, Bill Pope and skipper, ‘the young one’ John Cummins did battle against Grahame Denman, Keith Edwards and skipper ‘the rowdy one’ Paul Rubie. As lead, Michael set the pace as team Cummins pushed the lead out to 10 – 5 after nine ends. This good lead was turned into a better one at 17 – 5 after twelve ends. However, before rain stopped play, team Rubie stormed back in the last four ends grabbing ten shots and getting to within two at the close. The final score was 17 – 15 in favour of team Cummins but they appeared to be wilting under the pressure. Boasting rights equal!
Two skippers on an unfamiliar rink!
On rink 7, unfamiliar to all but the regular 18-enders, the match committee assigned four brave bowlers in a pairs clash. Ian Duncan, a fairly new bowler, teamed with skipper Ian Crow against Joe O’Donnell and skipper Clive Neutze. As can happen, this match didn’t turn out to be as close as the match committee anticipated. Although the two Ians score a shot on the first end, they were soon under pressure at 9 – 1 down after four ends. The dominance of Joe and Clive continued and after eight ends their lead was 16 – 2. The two Ians shared the remianing ends that were completed before rain intervened but they were unable to close the gap. The final score in favour of Clive and Joe was 22 – 7.
Clive and Joe were on top of their opponents most of the game!
The other pairs match was between Denis Lees and Julie Hayden against Graham Hartnup and Tony ‘the skip’ Oakes. And what a cracker of a game this turned out to be! Both teams got on the scorecard early with Denis and Julie to lead 4 – 2 after four ends. From this point, Graham and Tony won the next five ends on the trot amassing eleven shots and rocketing to a lead of 13 – 4. This looked solid, but never write off Julie Hayden! Julie and Denis then won five consecutive ends themselves and scorched to a 20 – 13 lead at the fourteenth end! They had scored 4 threes and a four on those five ends … heady stuff! When the rain halted play in this game, another four ends had been played and each had taken two ends. The final score was 23 – 17 in favour of Denis and Julie.
Julie won the battle of the skips against Tony!
The final game was a triples which featured Robin Staples, Terry Norwood and the ‘cobbler’ himself Gordon Lewis against Ted McPhee, Arnold Lenczuk and skipper Steven Goddard. Both teams got onto the scorecard early in this game as well for Steven and his team to lead 4 – 2 after four ends. With skipper Gordon in good form, team Lewis won the next three ends to set up a handy lead at 10 – 4. However, skipper Steven then found excellent touch and his team won the next seven ends on the trot. They took the lead, but, because team Lewis and particularly Gordon himself were able to restrict the scores to singles and twos, the lead was restricted to 14 – 10. On the next two ends, Robin fired in excellent leading bowls to set up team Lewis and they retook the lead. Stephen’s team then scored a shot on the 17th to have them one down and an agreed one end to play. On the last, with the jack beyond the T and one shot down, Gordon played the shot of the day when he drew to the jack with the last bowl! The final score was 17 – 15 to team Lewis. The two skippers, Gordon and Steven were in red hot form in this match.
Gordon played the bowl of the day!
Great to have Robin Staples back on the green!