PENNANT BOWLS SEPTEMBER 10th
First Division
The Bowral Bulls first division team played host to the competition leaders from the Penrith Bowling Club. With the all-weather Waratah Green under renovation, the match committee had decided that the Wilson Green would be the venue for this important encounter.
On what looked like a reasonable day weather-wise, play got underway at the scheduled time. Unfortunately though, Mother Nature had different plans from the twenty-four keen bowlers. About half an hour into play, she launched a storm on the club. This continued long enough, and dumped enough water on the green for further play to be abandoned.
The abandonment of the match was disappointing for the Bowral team because all three sides had begun their games very positively. Team Braithwaite (Andy Conner, Alistair McGhee, Steve Della and Dugald) had made an excellent start to be leading 5 – 1 after three ends. Likewise, Terry Butt, Carl Spilker, Garry Brown and Mick Anderson had the better of their opponents to lead 4 – 1 also after three ends. In the third game, Gordon Lewis, Ashley Lewis, Mick Spong and Mick Armstrong were 1 – 1 with their opponents and holding shot on the third end when the storm broke. It was early days, but it was great to see that all three sides had made such excellent starts against their highly ranked opponents.
The cards are now in safe keeping should there be a need to re-schedule this match. The likelihood of that will depend on the outcome of the final round matches to be staged next weekend. After this weekend, Penrith (four completed matches) are still leading the first division ladder with 30 points, Glenbrook (five matches) have 27, Austral (five matches) have 20 and Bowral (four matches) have 13. Should Penrith defeat Austral next Saturday, they will have an unbeatable lead in the competition and the re-scheduling of the incomplete match might be considered unnecessary. Time will tell! Bowral might well be eager to continue the match in an endeavour to over take Austral in third position on the table.
Fourth Division
The Bowral twelve headed out to Bundanoon to take on the locals on an afternoon that looked threatened by questionable weather. The sky was heavily overcast and a fairly stiff, cold wind was blustering from the south-west. During the warm-up, the Bowral bowlers were sent scuttling for cover on a couple of occasions as rain scudded in. As expected given the wet weather of recent times, the green was very sluggish and running at about 14. Not ideal, but fairly normal for the volunteer tended Bundanoon green. That said, the green ran quite truly most of the time, and wasn’t very different from the grass greens in Bowral.
Needing a victory overall to stay in touch with the competition leaders, the Bowral boys made a solid start. By the halfway point of the match, Bowral had a slender lead on the master board. The rain intervened at about this stage and players dug around in their kit bags looking for wet weather gear. Those who checked the weather patterns on their phones didn’t hold much optimism for a turn around until later in the day. Fortunately the change did arrive, but it was a bit late to enjoy.
On rink 4, team Coltman (Peter Cornwell, Mick Flynn, Tony Oakes and skipper Dave) had a battle royal with their opponents. The Bowral boys held the advantage early and pushed out to a slender lead. With determination, the Bundanoon four clawed back into the game and then took a lead themselves. Two down with one end to play, the Bowral boys then got bowls in the head to grab two and snatch a draw overall 16 – 16. It was a dogged game, and the Bowral four did a great job to hang in the way they did.
On rink five, Chris Forrester (replacing injured Ted McPhee), Richard Denman, Terry Norwood and skipper Robin Staples made an excellent start. At the mid point of the match, they held a comfortable eight shot lead. Chris was leading well and all were making contributions at different times. Unfortunately for Bowral, the Bundy four lifted their game in the second half of the match and made their way back on the scorecard. With Richard bowling really well, Bowral managed to remain in the lead by one shot with one end remaining. On the last end again Richard put a shot on the jack for Bowral, only to have Bundy came back with two beautiful well-protected touchers. Victory to Bundy by one 18 – 17.
In the last game, Arnold Lenczuk, Graham Hunt, Glenn Giese and skipper Bob Crowley had a really tough encounter against their Bundanoon four. The Bundy boys settled immediately and all four showed that they were in good form. On the other hand, team Crowley struggled to find the line and length and to force their way into the game. Behind from the start, the Bowral boys worked hard in an attempt to put some pressure on the Bundy four. To their credit, they managed to reduce the lead in the second half, but, unfortunately for Bowral, the Bundy boys were just too good on the day and ran out winners 26 – 14.
This was, unfortunately, not the overall result that the Bowral Bulls were looking for. With Bundanoon taking 9.5 competition points, this left Bowral with a very tiny 0.5 points. With just one week remaining, the competition table now has Taralga on top with 38 points, Bundanoon second with 27.5, Bowral next on 24 and Picton bringing up the rear on 10.5. This means that Taralga has an unassailable lead, and will be Fourth Division champions irrespective of the outcome of the final match next weekend in Bowral. The game is very important to Bowral however, because the boys are determined to get on top of Taralga at home, and try to force their way into second position.