BBC BROADCAST SATURDAY FEBRUARY 28th (Terry Norwood at the desk)
Some juicy morsels for quick consumption:
- The first round of the Pennants season was held on Saturday with the Grade Six side at home to Camden Men’s and the Grade Seven side visiting Robertson. More on that below.
- The bowls participation figures for July – February have now been tallied and will be posted on the notice board on Wednesday March 4th. Does it surprise anyone that the evergreen nonagenarian Gordon Lewis leads the way on sixty appearances? I fancy not!! Good on you cobbler!!
- The next meeting of the Executive committee of your Men’s Bowling Club will be at 10.15am on Wednesday March 4th. The draft minutes from the meeting will be posted shortly thereafter.
- And something to celebrate . . . Reta South, the evergreen bowling member of the Bowral Women’s Bowling club was awarded the senior sportsperson for the month of March 2025 at the recent Berrima district sports awards. Great stuff Reta, and hearty congratulations.
Round 1 Pennants 2026 Grade Six
Despite the dodgy weather of the previous few days, the Grade six encounter against Camden Men’s Club got underway on schedule at Bowral. The Wilson Green had absorbed quite some water over the time but was in good condition for the opening to the opening game of the season.
On rink 2, Peter Flight, Barb Wainberg, Dave Coltman and Al McGhee made a sound start against the four women from Camden, but by the sixth end trailed 3 – 6. However, Bowral then snaffled a couple of ends and when they grabbed a four on the eleventh they hit the lead at 11 – 9. They then advanced this to 13 – 9, and a five shotter on the fifteenth was the start of a sizzling, uninterrupted run to the last end and a huge win at 28 – 10. All Bowral bowlers were solid and skip Al steered the ship with guile. Great stuff by Bowral, and one competition point in the bag.
On rink 4, Mick Fisher, Dennis Beatty, Peter Martin and Dugald Braithwaite made a sound start to be 5 all after five ends in their battle. They then advanced the score to 10 – 9 on the eleventh, but a four shotter to Camden on the next end put them in arrears by three shots. This became a seven shot deficit on the fifteenth, but, with steely resolve Dugald got more from his men. With fine bowling under pressure, the Bowral men had reduced the deficit to two shots with one end to play. Alas, they could muster only a single, and went down 19 – 20. So, the point on this rink went to Camden.
In the final game on rink 6, Noel Fraser, Jim Neely, Oscar Whalin and Ash Lewis made a slow start to trail 1 – 9 after five ends. They moved the score to 5 – 11 on the eighth, but a whopping five shotter to Camden on the next really had them right under the pump. They did grab a four and a three to be 12 – 19 by the thirteenth, but it was lean pickings after that for the Bowral four. In the end Camden was too strong, and, in a fine performance, scooted home 28 – 15. Again, a point to the visitors.
So, with 2 competition points to Camden and 1 to Bowral from the individual rinks we look at the overall totals, and Bowral finished on 62 to 58 for Camden. Consequently, Bowral collected the 7 points for ‘big board’ totals and a very welcome 8 points overall to Camden’s 2. This was a very solid start to the ten week long competition, and the team will be looking to Thursday practice and some tuning up for round 2.
Round 1 Pennants Grade Seven
The Grade Seven bowlers ventured to Robertson to take on the locals on their relatively new synthetic surface which had received a pounding from the rain over the previous few days. The green was in fine condition and, despite that rain, was very slick indeed. Bowral won the toss and elected to take the mat.
On rink 3, Graham Hunt, Ricci Wilson, Terry Norwood and Robin Staples notched up a double on the first end but by the seventh were down 3 – 9 to a strong opposition. However, finally adjusting to the green and with Graham on the jack and Robin tidying things up, Bowral won seven of the next eight ends to advance to a solid position of 20 – 10. Not done, the Robbo bowlers lifted and, with two ends to play, had clawed back to 17 – 21. Tension, as it was game on! However, Terry finally got a couple on the jack and Bowral closed out the win 23 – 17. One point to Bowral!
In the next game, Ted McPhee, Clive Neutze, Reta South and Bob Edwards blitzed the opening and ran away with the first half of the match to lead 20 – 0 after eleven ends. Ted was all over the jack as lead, and the others were also outpointing their opposites. This dominance continued into the second half, although the Robbo four did break through to notch up four ends. They also managed to restrict the Bowral juggernaut to lower scores on most ends, so the scoring slowed. In a real confidence booster, team Edwards charged home at 29 – 6, and collected a competition point.
In the final game, Arnold Lenczuk, Richard Denman, Mick Flynn and Gordon Lewis matched the Robbo four over the first four ends to be only one shot behind. However, they were then to realise that they were up against a red hot four who were not about to take any prisoners! At the halfway point of eleven ends, Gordon’s men were hanging in at 7 – 10, but were about to be confronted by a ‘green bowl’ tornado! With their tails up and plenty of chat, Robbo won nine of the last ten ends to swamp our Bowral boys and notch up a huge victory at 30 – 8. So, it was a point to Robbo on this rink.
Overall, Bowral won the total score by 60 – 53, and so, with the two points for winning two rinks, finished with 9 competition points to the 1 for Robertson. This was a very solid start to the season by Bowral and something to build on over the coming weeks. And on a final note, special thanks to Sue and all the Robbo bowlers who were most welcoming and fine sports.