Saturday 1st May was round 9 of the Pennant season. Two games played at Bowral while the grade 7 were away to Bargo. Grade 2, playing bottom of the ladder Blacktown Workers, used their home advantage to win 9-1 with the big board score 64-58. The Josh Woodcock team of Carl Spilker, Glynn Phillips and Paul Leverett continued their good form with a 21-15 win. Slightly ahead at half way at 10-8 the team then had a purple patch and won the next 5 ends and jumped ahead to a 20-8 lead before running out winners. New club member M Anderson took over as skip from Gary Brown and with Ashley Lewis, Kevin Stafford and Nathan Boyers they were also winners. Bowral lead 13-7 at the half way point and scored 12 shots to Blacktown’s 8 shots in the second half of the grame and won with a score of 25-17 shots. Mick Spong’s team of Terry Butt, Stephen Della and Mick Armstrong lost 18-26 shots. Leading 14-4 at half way they looked good for a win but Blacktown dominated the second half of the game and took the lead and win. The 9-1 win has Bowral remaining fourth on the ladder but most importantly they are now clear of relegation. Austral have accumulated enough points to win the grade 2 with a round to spare. Bowrals final game next week is home to Penrith.
Grade 5 were playing at home to top of the ladder Camden. Things looked great for the Bowral side at the half way point with a comfortable 34-19 lead on the big board. Unfortunately the wheels fell off the Bowral team and from this very strong position they managed to lose 65-53 and 9 points to 1 point. Hats off to Camden. There seemed ‘to be an excellent spirit within their team and great communication and this win over Bowral sealed the Zone 5 Grade 6 section 1 win for the team. Best of luck to Camden in the play offs. David Coltman and his team of Noel Fraser, Don Chapman and Dennis Beatty procured the one point for Bowral with a 23-16 win. At half way they were a massive 19-1 ahead but only scored 4 shots to Camden ‘s 15 in the second half. Graham Hunt, Terry Norwood, Julie Hayden and Robin Staples also lead at halfway but by a narrower margin of 9-6 shots. This team also fell apart in the latter part of the game scoring 8 shots to 20 shots by Camden and losing 17-26. Ted McPhee, David Noble, Gail Fraser and skip Jim Neely were 5 all after 6 ends but then saw Camden gradually edge away to a 13-23 win. For the final round Bowral is away to Campbelltown and need a win to make sure that the team does not drop down to grade 7 next year. Bowral is currently 1.5 points ahead of last placed Taralga and 2 points behind Campbelltown. A win over Campbelltown would make sure the team stays in grade 6.
A bit of a dismal year for grade 7 who played front runners Bargo and suffered another 10-0 loss with the big board in favour of Bargo 79-40. Best Bowral result was Gordon Lewis with Rick Reynolds, Glen Giese, and Billy Meredith who lost by only 5 shots. At end 10 the Bowral team was in front 11-5 but Bargo had leveled the score at 12 shots each at end 15 and then scored 8 shots to 2 over the last few ends for a win to Bargo 22-17. Bob Edwards and team Peter Cornwell, Richard Denman and Tony Oates lost 24-10 and never held the lead. Likewise Rita South and her team of Alex Lamb, Keith Edwards and Andy Connor did not fair very well and lost 13-33 shots. The battle for the pennant flag at the top of the grade 7 section 3 ladder is very tight and will take the final round to decide the winner. Bundanoon lead on 62 points from Campbelltown on 60 and Bargo on 57.5 points. Bowral resides on the bottom of the ladder but a win at home next week over Picton, provided it is 10-0, could see them rise a spot.
Bowral Club Championship Singles Quarter Finals.
Sunday 2nd May saw the Club Singles Quarter finals completed. Earlier in the week Josh Woodcock and Carl Spilker had played their delayed second round match with Josh just hanging on to the narrowest of wins 31-30. Sunday afternoon and all the quarter finals produced excellent quality bowls with all four being very tight games, the biggest margin being 6 shots. Rink 1 had Glynn Phillips up against David Coltman. David lead this game all the way, but not by much. 19-12 to David after 20 ends and at end 34 David still lead 28-21. Final score was David 31 and Glynn 25 shots. Next rink was always going to be a tight and high quality match with Jim Neely against Dugald Braithwaite. After 25 ends Jim lead 27-22 and he sealed the victory on end 31 with the score 31-26 shots. Both Ashley Lewis and Josh Woodcock had had the closest of wins in the previous round and though this match was tight it was not as close as their second round matches. Ashley won 31-25 having lead 11-4 after 9 ends, 21-20 after 25 ends and sealing his 31-25 shot win on the 35th end. Final Match was current champion Stephen Della against his pairs partner Kevin Stafford. Another game that went right down to the wire. 15-11 to Kevin after 20 ends. 26 shots all after 38 ends. The match won on the 40th end with the win going to Stephen Della 31-29. So the semi finals shape up as David Coltman against past champion Jim Neely and Ashley Lewis, nine time finalist against current champion Stephen Della. Semi finals should be next Sunday and check the notice board as the final may be held on the same day. Well worth the effort to come to the Club to watch these games as they will be close with some great bowls to watch.
