BOWLS ACTIVITY WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 22nd (Terry Norwood reporting)
A few points to begin with:
- Wednesday was an opportunity to welcome a first-time bowler in Ian Duncan. Ian has come through the U3A classes and was keen to try his skills in a match situation.
- The Bowral bowlers also welcomed Dave Stanley, a visitor from the UK, into the Wednesday social bowls.
- For members, the club has a limited number of items of the old blue uniform for sale at hugely reduced prices. Enquiries can be made at the bar for these and any items of the new red uniform.
- The 2023 Pennants season gets underway on Saturday February 25th. The grade two team heads to St Marys while the grade six team plays at Bowral.
- With the Pennants being played at Bowral, there will be limited rinks available for social bowls on the Waratah Green on Saturday. A couple of games can probably be squeezed in on the outside rinks.
- The Men’s Major Triples Championship will continue on Sunday with the staging of the first of the semi-finals. At 10am Terry Butt, Dave Coltman and Al McGhee will take on the team led by Tony Oakes. We all wish both teams the best of good fortune.
SOCIAL BOWLS
On rink 7, the usual 18-ender saw Keith Edwards, Lawrence Vipond and skipper Paul Rubie battle against John Fleming, Bill Pope and that baby-faced skipper John Cummins. And what a disaster this game was for team Cummins! Perhaps like his namesake the cricketer Patrick, John should have returned home! Leading for team Rubie, Keith Edwards had them on the front foot right from bowl one. With the whole team bowling well, Paul’s team then charged out to lead 11 – 5 after eight ends. Things didn’t improve much for John’s team as the game progressed. When team Rubie declared and stumps were drawn, the score-line in their favour was 25 – 11. Ouch!
Paul the victor and the vanquished teenager!
In a pairs match on rink 8, Denis Lees and skipper Steven Goddard took on Graham Hartnup and Clive Neutze. Clive and Graham were better early on and led 7 – 3 after five ends. However, in the latter part of the first half of the game, Steven and Denis had a purple patch, including a couple of fives, and burst ahead to lead 20 – 8. Facing a huge task, Clive and Graham knuckled down and got themselves back into the match. They won the majority of the ends in the second half and by the 20th end trailed by only two shots. However, Denis and Steven steadied, won the last end decisively with four shots and took out the game 26 – 20.
The Graham Hartnup delivery!
On rink 9, Barry Werfel, UK visitor Dave Stanley and skipper Gordon Lewis went head to head against Michael Hook, Ian Crow and Owen Williams. Gordon’s team made an excellent start to the game and led 6 – 1 after five ends. At that point however, they seemed to fall in a hole as they lost the next six ends on the trot. Owen’s team had gathered ten shots on those six ends and so led 11 – 6. Valiantly, Gordon’s team then fought back and had the match square at 11 all; game on! Team Williams then had some good ends and with only three to go, they led 19 – 12. With his true never say die attitude, Gordon inspired his team over the last three ends. They won those ends, but team Williams hung on to take out the game 19 – 17.
Owen is in great form!
In another triples game, Mark Rundle, Arnold Lenczuk and skipper Tony Oakes took on Graham Denman, Richard Denman and skipper Jim Starkey. Tony and his team scored heavily at the start and stormed to a lead of 12 – 1 after six ends. Jim and his team won four of the next five ends to get themselves back into the game at 13 – 8 down. From then, however, team Oakes played much the better bowls and showed their opposition no mercy. They won six of the last nine ends and, when time was called after the twentieth, they had a massive lead of 28 – 14. To the casual observer, Arnie seemed to be returning to that old form from before his foot operation.
Arnold finding his touch after the foot operation!
The final game was a pairs match on rink 11 where newcomer Ian Duncan and skipper Terry Norwood faced Kevin Gould and Chris Forrester. Playing three bowl pairs, this game moved along quickly and was able to run for twenty-six ends. Ian and Terry won the first end, but this was the only time that they led in the game! Chris and Kevin won sixteen ends to ten, and overall, were fairly much in control of the match. Ian and Terry were still in the game at 12 – 9 on the fifteenth end, but with their opponents playing the better bowls, their run fizzled. Chris was in especially good form drawing and playing weighted shots with great finesse to get the better of his opponent. Ian made a very good debut and on a good number of ends got his bowls closer than the wily Kevin. The final score was 24 – 11 in favour of Chris and Kevin. Another ouch!
Chris had an excellent day!