BOWLS NEWS WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 7th
A few reminders to start with:
- Members are reminded that the nomination form for the 2023 Pennants season is on the notice board. If you are at all interested in representing the Club in this competition, please enter your name on the form. The Men’s Bowling Committee is hoping to nominate three teams in this Zone 5 competition. As Zone nomination has to be done by December 16th, it’s important to have names as soon as possible.
- The Men’s Minor Singles Championship will be conducted in mid January. The nomination form for this event is pinned on the notice board, so all eligible bowlers are asked to put their names on the list.
- Bowlers are reminded that after bowls BBQs will be put on by the Bowling Committee on Wednesday 14th and Saturday 17th in the lead up to Xmas. President Bob Crowley is planning quite a spread and there will be a couple of hams amongst the raffle prizes. All bowlers and life members are invited to attend either or both of these events.
- For the next month, Graham Hunt, Ted McPhee, Chris Forrester and Bob Crowley will be organising social and competition bowls. Any queries will need to be directed to one of these Committee members.
SOCIAL BOWLS
Thirty-three bowlers turned out for social bowls on what was a blustery Wednesday afternoon. A fairly stiff breeze blew out of the west, although, as is usual, it managed to switch around between south-west and north-west at the most inconvenient times. Bowling east- west on the Waratah Green, it was a bit of a challenge at times playing with/against/across the wind. But experienced bowlers don’t use the wind as an excuse for wayward bowls do they!
For the usual 18-ender on rink 8, Paul Rubie was unavailable so Bill Pope step up as skipper to take on John Cummins. With Keith Edwards as swing lead for the two teams, Kel Limbrick and John Flemming teamed with John Cummins and Garry Mitchell and Lawrence Vipond with Bill Pope. With Keith Edwards putting down some great bowls for both sides, the score was even at 9 all after eleven ends. The Pope then rallied his troops and they won ends twelve to seventeen to dominate the match. Far too good in the end, Bill and his boys were victors 22 – 10.
Bill was in fine form!
On the adjacent rink, Joel Hunt, Ted McPhee and Chris Forrester went head to head against Wal Marko, Graham Hunt and skipper Bob Edwards. Now, this was expected to be a close game, but in the end was anything but. For the second week in a row, a team led by Chris has dominated their opponents. Joel, Ted and Chris won fifteen of the twenty ends, including winning the last seven ends on the trot. All three bowled very well with Joel especially prominent as lead, and Chris deadly as skipper. The final score in favour of team Forrester was 37 – 8, the difference a massive 29 shots!
Ted was on the winning side!
In another triples match, visitor Bruce Vigenser was lead for Barry Werfel and skipper Glenn Giese against Denis Lees, Neville Tanner and Steve Day. Despite strong encouragement from skipper Glenn, team Day had the better of the opening winning five of the first seven ends and holding a lead of 8 shots. Glenn and his men won four of the next six ends but managed to reduce the lead by only one shot. As the game wore on, the ends were tight and scoring low. Team Day maintained their superiority however and went on to win by 19 – 9.
Steve Day in fine touch at present!
In the final triples game, Graham Hartnup, Terry Norwood and skipper Robin Staples took up the challenge of Mike Hook, Don Colemen and Clive Neutze. And this turned out to be the closest score-line of the day! Team Staples go the better of the opening, but by the seventh end the scores were all tied up at 5 – 5. With skipper Robin bowling really well, his team won the next three ends to lead by four. However, with Mike right on the jack as lead and with Clive starting to fire, team Neutze jumped to a lead of 13 – 9 at the thirteenth. Ends were tight from then until a haul of five shots put Robin and his team back into the lead. The last three ends were hotly contested, but with Robin in fine touch, his team held on to win 21 – 17.
Clive bowled very well!
In the fours match on rink 12, Paul McInerney, Ken Looke, Noel Fraser and skipper Steve Goddard battled it out against Graham Denman, Owen Williams, Tony Oakes and skipper, our new nonagenarian, Gordon Lewis. And again, what was expected to be a close encounter turned out to be a one-sided affair. The first four ends were shared two apiece, but Steve and his men then won five of the next six ends to race to a lead of 15 – 4. Gordon and his team were haemorrhaging, and, unfortunately for them, salvation wasn’t in the air. They could only win three ends in the back half of the game and finally went down to team Goddard 25 – 9. They were strung out to dry by a team that out-bowled them man for man.
Skipper Steve was in excellent form!