Held on Wednesday 16th October the Bowral Minor Pairs final resulted in a great win for Dave Riddell and Richard Denman over Mike Holmewood and Robin Staples.  The match unfolded like this.  First two ends to Dave’s team for a 5-0 lead.  After four ends 6-2 to Dave.  A timely 6 shots on the next end saw Mike take the lead 8-6. Even scoring over the next five ends had the score 14-11 to Mike.  Next two ends to Dave and the score level at 14-14.  Advantage slightly with Dave for the next six ends and they eased to a 22-19 lead.  Three shots to Mike and scores tied at 22 all after nineteen ends.  Advantage Dave, with four shots on end twenty and Mike and Robin were only able to score two on end twenty one.  So a two shot win to Richard and Dave 26-24.

A two shot win but what is the story behind the game.  Mike Holmewood played a real skippers game.  Often called upon to save the end he would invariably take the shot or cut down the loss.  Excellent drawing in a testing changeable wind.  He played better during the first half of the match but kept his team in sight all the time.  Staples, while having mainly reasonable grass, had little control of weight.  For example on the last end, needing four shots for a tie and holding two, he placed both bowls three metres beyond the jack, and that with an open draw!  So in a mood of post game pessimism  maybe approching octogenarianism and deteriating eyesight has started the slippery slide downwards.  Hope there is a bout of optimism to replace that feeling.  Talking of optmism, it is great to see Richard Denman have a great event.  The report from the semi final was of a super game and the final followed suit.  For a purist, maybe a few too many bowls crossed the head, but nearly every end had at least one bowl on the jack.  Near the end of the game with Mike holding, Richard drew the perfect bowl to displace Mike’s bowls for the shot.  More importantly, the next bowl was six inches behind the jack for another shot. Dave Riddell is making his presence felt since joining the Club from Goulburn this year.  While there were some wayward ends from the team he almost always found a way to recover or minimise the loss.  Notably in the game were a couple of heavy onshots and drives.  One taking the jack into the ditch when they were down three shots and winning the end.  Also, a quite a  few ends when the jack was surrounded by those yellow bowls.  So congratulations to Richard and Dave for an excellent Minor Pairs win.  Great to see new faces in the winners list.