WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 15th BOWLING (Terry Norwood reporting)
Some info to begin with:
- Pennant trials will continue on Saturday when Robertson and Bundanoon come to Bowral. Grade two will play Robertson, while Grade six will take on Bundy. With the Wilson Green still out of action, these games will be played on the Waratah Green.
- With the six Pennant games scheduled for the Waratah Green, there will be no social bowls on Saturday unless bowlers are agreeable to playing on the Wilson Green. At this stage, no bowlers have expressed an interest in playing.
- Because a number of bowlers were involved in the semi-final/final of the Zone 5 competition, the start of the Men’s Major Triples competition had to be postponed. The opening games will be staged on Sunday February 19th commencing at 10.00am.
SOCIAL BOWLS
Thirty bowlers made themselves available for social bowls on Wednesday. The weather was excellent with the temperature in the mid-twenties and a gentle breeze coming out of the east/north-east. The Waratah Green was in very good condition so there were no excuses for those wayward bowls! With there being thirty bowlers, five games of triples were organised.
In the usual 18-ender on rink 7, Graham Hartnup, Bill Pope and the teenage skipper John Cummins battled for bragging rights against John Fleming, Lawrence Vipond and Paul Rubie. Winning the toss Paul’s team took the mat and basically kept it for the first half of the game. They were much too good for their opponents and raced out to a 14 – 3 lead after eleven ends. Lawrence, ‘the man from Coventry’, was the difference between the teams. Skipper John added to his teams problems by continually taking the jack to team Rubie. The final two ends gave seven shots to team Cummins but it was much too late to influence the result. The final score was 23 – 15 in favour of Paul’s team.
On the adjacent rink, Graham Denman, Kevin Gould and skipper Chris Forrester took on Graham Hunt, Terry Norwood and Bob Edwards. Now, the organising committee expected this to be a closely fought match, but it didn’t turn out that way. Chris and his team won three of the first four ends and seemed to be in good touch. However, things then changed. Graham Hunt, who had been all over the place as lead for team Edwards on the early ends, suddenly found his best form. Constantly on the jack, he had his team with the key shots in the head for the remainder of the match. And if Graham Hunt’s bowls were moved at all, skipper Bob time and again retrieved the situation. Graham, Terry and Bob blitzed their opposition to win by 29 – 10!
In another game, Col Stone, Glenn Giese and that spritely nonagenarian Billy Meredith went head to head against Barry Werfel, Owen Williams and the wily stick-wielder Mike Holmewood. Mike’s team made the better start winning seven of the first nine ends and racing to a lead of 14 – 4. Bill and his men then won a couple of ends with good scores to reduce the deficit to five shots. However it was team Holmewood that was playing the better bowls and they dominated the back half of the match. When time was called after nineteen ends, Mike’s team had raced away to victory by 27 – 13. Again, this was expected to be a close game but it wasn’t to be.
On rink 10, Joel Hunt, Tony Oakes and newly crowned minor singles champ Steven Goddard did battle against Keith Scriven, Richard Denman and the miracle man Peter Morales. And what a real battle this turned out to be! Both teams got themselves on the score-card early which is always a nice feeling, but by the eighth end, Steven and his team had established a six shot lead at 10 – 4. Working some of his magic, Peter got his team firing and after eleven ends they had reduced the deficit to one shot. Not to be denied, team Goddard had the better of the next five ends and established a healthy seven shot lead. They still held a six shot lead with three ends to play, but in what turned out to be a storming finish, Peter and his team grabbed six shots and tied the match at 20 – 20. Magic!!
In the final match, Michael Hook, Don Chapman and skipper Don Coleman took on Mark Rundle, Arnold Lenczuk and skipper Ian Crow. Again, both teams got themselves on the score-card early and after six ends the game was locked at 6 – 6. Although Ian’s team took a shot on the seventh end, Don’s team then established some superiority by taking six ends on the trot to race out to a lead of 17 – 7. This trend then continued as team Coleman bowled along comfortably in the lead. The final score in favour of Don’s team was 27 – 13. There were some heavy scoring in this game with a four and 5 threes. Such is bowls!