BOWRAL BOWLING SATURDAY APRIL 1st (Terry Norwood reporting)
With social bowls on Wednesday having to be cancelled because of the storm which hit Bowral at about 12.20, a keen eye was being cast over the weather forecasts for Saturday. Fortunately, although the prospect wasn’t all that positive, the weather held up sufficiently well in Bowral for the Grade Two pennants match to be completed, and the same was true for Taralga where the Grade Six bowlers headed for their pennants encounter.
Pennants Grade Two
Prior to Saturday, the team selectors had decided to make a few changes to a couple of the fours for this encounter against St Marys. As success had been limited (the twos hadn’t won an overall match all season and were propping up the competition with only 1.5 points), it was thought that a re-alignment within the teams might bring a better balance to each of the fours. And they were right! The Twos side had a magnificent victory overall, winning two of the games and taking 9 competition points from the match to the one point scored by St Marys. The results were as follows:
Team 1 Stephen Della, Steven Goddard, Mick Armstrong, Mick Spong 29 Vs St Marys 9
Team 2 Gordon Lewis, Carl Spilker, Mick Anderson, Nathan Boyers 11 Vs St Marys 22
Team 3 Jim Neely, Terry Butt, Ash Lewis, Kevin Stafford 27 Vs St Marys 13
Some of the Grade Two bowlers on Saturday!
With these excellent results, the Twos side won the overall score by 67 shots to 44. The resulting nine competition points has shifted the side to 10.5 points and, although the Bulls are still in last place, they are now on the move up the table. Best wishes go with them for the next match against Glenbrook on April 22nd.
Pennants Grade Six
The Grade Six side travelled to Taralga to take on the local ‘Tigers’. Although no Bowral side has ever won the overall match at Taralga, this group headed off with great determination to take the battle right up to the locals. The green at Taralga has always presented visiting teams with a really difficult challenge, and this visit was to be little different. Although the surface was better grassed than in the previous year, it was very bumpy, slow and inconsistent in run with the bowl sometimes running counter to the bias. The Tigers are obviously used to the conditions and they have many splendid bowlers amongst their number.
Unfortunately for the team led by Tony Oakes, they came up against a red hot four containing A graders Glen Elliot and Ken Croker. This Elliot led team was on the jack all afternoon and made the Bowral four’s life a misery. Graham Hunt, Ian Crow, Gail Fraser and Tony managed to win only five single shot ends and conceded a massive 44 shots to Taralga on the other sixteen ends. To say the least, it was very tough going for the Bowral team going down 44 – 5.
The great success of the day was the Bowral team of Noel Fraser, Ted McPhee, Dave Coltman and Al McGhee who also took on a tough Taralga four. With the bowls bobbling about, Bowral lost the first four ends to be down 7 – 0. With great determination, Bowral won six of the next seven ends to take the lead at 14 – 8. Not surprisingly, Taralga came back and had levelled the scores with seven ends to play. However, with Al firing up the Bulls, they won five of those ends to take out a momentous victory at 23 – 19.
Al McGhee fired up his team to great effect!
In the third game, the four of Reta South, Terry Norwood, Clive Neutze and skipper Bob Crowley tried valiantly against another high quality team on an equally unpredictable rink. They won the first end, and were 5 all with the Tigers after five ends. They continued to match it with the locals and led 10 – 9 after eleven ends. However, from that point things largely came unstuck for Bowral. Taralga won eight of the last ten ends and shut Bowral out of the game. It seemed that whenever Bowral was holding shot, an opponent would manage to draw one in or take it out. The final score was 22 – 12 in favour of Taralga.
Overall, Taralga took 9 competition points from this encounter and Bowral 1 point. This leaves Bowral on four points and still at the bottom of the table. Hopefully, the teams can pull it together and score a win in the next match which is against Robertson on April 15th.