BBC BROADCAST SATURDAY JULY 4th           (Terry Norwood at the desk)

65 and over Singles Competition

A near perfect day greeted the bowlers in the quarter final matches of senior singles competition with very little wind and a clear sky. With the temperature around 10 degrees and the Waratah Green running at about 16 seconds, the conditions were just about perfect for bowls.

On rink 8 with Clive Neutze as marker, Dave Charlesworth made a solid start against Charles Coode to lead 7 – 0 after the first three ends. Charles then clawed his way back to 5 – 8, but Dave won nine of the next ten ends to have a strangle-hold on the match at 21 – 6. With a couple of really fine ends, Dave led 24 – 9, but Charles forced him to wait four ends before he could deliver the final blow and take out the game 24 – 13.

In the next game, Robin Staples was on the jack from the get go to take the first three ends against Neil Puckeridge and lead 8 – 0. Neil got onto the scorecard on the next two ends, but found Robin’s brilliant drawing very difficult to match and the score then moved out to 16 – 3 before Neil could notch up another shot. And then, 16 – 6 became 19 – 6 as Robin’s wonderful backhand drawing smothered the jack. Neil played some fine bowls but his opponent was able to match almost all of his moves. The final score was 25 – 9 to Robin.

On rink 10, Jim Neely dropped a single on the first end against Graham Hartnup, but by the seventh was 9 – 2 to the good. Graham then edged the score to 6 – 9, only to find the drawing of leftie Jim very difficult to match. Against Jim’s relentless drawing, Graham hung in valiantly to still be in with a sniff at 10 – 15. However, the weight of fine shots from Jim was beginning to take its toll and Jim worked his way to a fine victory. 25 – 14 was the final score.

In the fourth game Peter Flight made the better start against Mick Fisher to lead 5 – 1 after four ends, and then kept the pressure on taking six of the next eight ends to lead 10 – 5. Mick then changed proceedings by grabbing a full house of four shots on the next end and it was game on! A few ends later Mick had hit the lead by a shot, but Peter immediately edged back in front at 15 – 14. And then the game exploded as Peter notched up a pair of fours and had Mick well and truly on the ropes. A couple of ends later he was home at 25 – 16.

And so, the semi-finals which will be played on Saturday July 11th will see

Robin Staples  VS  Jim Neely

Peter Flight  VS  Dave Charlesworth

The markers will be Charles Coode and Terry Norwood. Bowl well gentlemen!!