Saturday 13th March was indeed not a lucky day for the Bowral Pennant teams with not one win from the three teams. With only one match of the nine played so far being at home due to the greens not being ready and an administration glitch it has made it a difficult start of the season for the Pennants teams.  Just one win for Grade 2 and the only other positive result was a drawn big board for grade 7 when they had a home game on the synthetic rink.  This week Grade 2 was away to Austral Eagles, one of the stronger teams in an already strong competition.  Bowral lost 9-1 with a big board score in favour of Austral 70-53.  The grade ladder has Glenbrook on top with 27 points followed by Austral on 20 and Penrith, Wallacia and Bowral all on 11 points.  The winning Bowral team was Stephen Della, Nathan Boyers, Kevin Stafford and skip’Mick Armstrong .  This team lead virtually for the whole game though Austral did draw level on 11 shots each on end 13.  But from this point onwards Bowral was in control and won 19-13.  With Mick Spong absent Dugald Braithwaite skipped a side with Tom DeGreenlaw, Russell Kight and Ashley Lewis.  This team lost 28-21 .  Sides were level at end 8 on 9 shots, but two fours and two twos for Austral over the next four ends saw them establish a 17-9 lead and they powered on to the win.,  Final game was last weeks winners Carl Spilker, Glynn Phillips, Paul Leverett and Josh Woodcock.  They suffered a 29-13 defeat.  After 11 ends they were 12-6 down and losing 10 shots over the next 4 ends saw them 6-24 shots down and even though they had the better of the last 5 ends there was no way they could close such a large gap.

Grade 5 played at Robertson due to that administrative glitch and lost 1-9 with a score of 64 to Robertson and 54 to Bowral.  Winning Bowral team was Ted McPhee, Bob Crowley, Gail Fraser and Jim Neely.  A very tight game all the way with scores level on 7 shots each on 8 ends.  The Robertson took and held a lead  and on end 17 scored 4 shots to establish a seemingly insurmountable lead of 7 shots with four ends to go.  A great fight back saw Bowral  winning 6 shots on the next 2 ends but losing 1 of those on end 20 to be 2 shot behind going into the last end.  Great bowling by the Bowral team won them 3 shots on the last end and a slender 1 shot victory 21-20.   Another close game was the Bowral team of Graham Hunt, Terry Norwood, Julie Hayden and Robin Staples.  The score was level on end 9 at 9 shots each.  A couple of ends later Robnertson scored a 4  and maintained a lead so that at end 18 they lead 19-15.  Three shots to Bowral on the next two ends put them 1 shot behind and in with a fighting chance on the last end.  Great bowling by the team saw them holding the required 2 shots until the Robertson skip with his last bowl managed to promote their bowl which after a measure gave them 1 shot and a 20-18 win.  Dave Coltman with lead Noel Fraser, Steve Day, and Dennis Beatty lead after thee ends before another  dangerous 4 shot end loss saw Robertson take the lead and  gradually ease away to a comfortable 10 shot win 25-15.  Top of the table is Taralga on 21 points followed by Camden on 19 and Robertson on 18.  Bowral is at the bottom and once again away next week to Camden.

The Grade 7 teams played Campbelltown with another away game.  Bowral lost this one 70-56 and another 9-1 loss.  Winning Bowral team was skipped by Brian Porter with Andy Connor, David Noble and Reta South.  They started with a bang winning the first 5 ends and going to a 12-0 lead.  Pretty even from then onwards to the end but with that great start they held the advantage to win 24-16.  Next best was Peter Cornwell, Richard Denman, Tony Oates and skip Bob Edwards with a loss 16-23.  The game was even until the 14th end when Bob was only 2 shots behind.  Once again a lapse proved expensive as Campbelltown won the nexr 4 ends with 8 shots and this lead was enough to get them to the last end with a 7 shot margin.  Peter Morales, Dave Riddell, Billy Meredith and Clive Neutze lost by 15 shots   Losing 7 shots on end 14 did not help their cause and at this stage were down 6-28.  A good fight back over the closing ends saw the team reduce that margin to a more respectable final score.  Bundanoon leads this section of Grade 7 on a healthy 28 points followed by Bargo on 18.5 and Camden 15.5.  Bowral has 7.5 points but are low on the table.  Next week Bowral plays Bargo at home and Grade 2 should also be at home to Blacktown.

Playing on Saturday had been pleasantly warm with just a few thunderstorms floating around,  Sunday, following a Southerly change, was wet and managed to reach a measly 11 degrees.   Play in the quarter finals of the Bowral Minor Singles was delayed until the afternoon with the bowlers showing great fortitude to finish these matches in horrid weather.  Closes match was Tom DeGreenlaw and Carl Spilker.  Tom lead early with a 8-3 lead and was holding 3 shots on the next end before an excellent trail shot by Carl saw him take the end with 1 shot. Carl slowly caught up and pulled ahead to win a tight match 31-27.  The other matches were not so close in score but saw creditable performances by Peter Cornwall and Alex Lamb.  Both seemed to be playing well and can be pleased with their event having reached a quarter final.  Glynn Phillips beat Alex by 31-10 with David Noble having the same margin over Peter. Final quarter was Eric Willacy against Bob Crowley.  With Bob having reached the final of the major singles last year Eric can be happy with a 31-14 win.  Just shows the value of the practice that Eric has been doing  to improve his already good game.  Sunday 21st March should be the day for two excellent semi finals with Carl Spilker against David Noble and Glynn Phillips against Eric Willacy.