BOWLS WEDNESDAY MARCH 1st (Terry Norwood reporting)
A few items of information to begin with:
- Unfortunately, we start on a sad note with the mention of the passing of Brian Porter. After struggling with poor health for quite a while, Brian died a few days ago. Brian served the Bowral bowling fraternity well over a long time and will be remembered, amongst other things, as a fine coach, selector and bowler. Brian’s funeral will be held at Bevan’s Chapel at 11am Wednesday 8th March with the wake following at the Bowling Club. RIP Brian Porter.
- Because of Brian’s funeral and wake, we’ll almost certainly have to be flexible about the starting time of social bowls on Wednesday 8th. The other reason for things to be juggled will be the holding of the farewell to the Viponds, item three!
- Wednesday bowlers are reminded that the send-off for Lawrence and Carol Vipond will be held after bowls at the Club next Wednesday 8th March. Let’s send them off with lots of laughs and, no doubt, a few tears.
- It’s with great pleasure that we note the 90th birthday (March 2nd) of bowler Keith Scriven. Congratulations Keith and enjoy the celebrations! Keith joins an illustrious band of nonagenarians among our bowlers, the group including Bill Pope, Bill Meredith, Gordon Lewis, Kel Limbrick, Keith Edwards and Howard Lewis. This information begs the question; what do we call a group of nonagenarians, like a flock of sheep? The best I can come up with is a ‘survival’ of nonagenarians! Any suggestions?
- In Pennants news, the grade two team has a bye this Saturday March 4th, while the grade six team travels to Robertson. No doubt, Bowral’s twelve will be striving for a better result at Robertson than the whitewash suffered to Taralga last week at home.
- With the Waratah Green clear of Pennants this weekend there will be plenty of space for anyone wishing to play social bowls.
- The Men’s Major Triples Championship continues this weekend with the staging of the second semi-final on Sunday morning.
- In terms of participation in bowling, the numbers are up for the month of February and this has to be good news. The increase in participation in social bowls alone over the previous year’s numbers was more than 20%.
WEDNESDAY 1st MARCH SOCIAL BOWLS
Thirty-four keen bowlers trod the Waratah Green for social bowls to kick off the month of March. The rinks had been altered on to the blue markers to give the red a spell after a long period of use. The temperature was mild, but there was a stiff breeze which couldn’t decide whether it was blowing out of the north, the east or the south. And, yes, it certainly did have an effect on the bowls! With the number of bowlers at thirty-four, the match committee decided to run three triples matches and two fours.
On rink 7, Richard Denman opted to join the usual 18-ender and so he, Lawrence Vipond and skipper John Cummins took on John Fleming, Bill Pope and title defending skipper Paul Rubie. Paul’s team grabbed a five early on but after six ends they were down two shots. Team Cummins was winning most of the ends and had a substantial lead of 15 – 7 until team Rubie took over the scoring and had the game at 15 – 15 at end 15! John’s team had edged to the lead by one and on the last end were holding three. They could smell victory only to see skipper Paul play a brilliant last bowl, take the shot and square the match! So, Paul is still defending skipper going into next week’s final game in Bowral for Lawrence Vipond.
Tough as teak, Lawrence Vipond on the mat!
In a fours game on rink 11, Graham Denman, Barry Werfel, Glen Giese and skipper Steven Goddard did battle against Joel Hunt, Ian Crow, Jim Starkey and skipper, one of the nonagenarian brigade, Gordon Lewis. And what a great tight game this turned out to be! Steven’s team won eleven ends to the ten won by Gordon’s. There were no ‘blow-out’ ends on the score-card with only one end of three shots and the remainder twos and singles. Team Goddard did have the better of the game early to lead 9 – 5 after ten ends, but by the fifteenth end they led by only a single shot. And with one end to play the scores were level at 15 all. What a ripper of a game! Steven’s team scored a shot on the final end to take victory 16 – 15. To the casual observer, both skippers seemed to have an impact at different times and Joel Hunt seemed to be right on the jack as often as not.
The ‘Crow’ and the ‘Giese’ strut their styles!
In the other fours match, Wal Markow, Arnold Lenczuk, Graham Hunt and skipper Bob Edwards went head to head against Mark Rundle, Viv Gear, Tony Oakes and the mighty man Peter Morales. This was another game that pleased the match committee as a close result is always the hope. Bob’s team won four of the first five ends and were all smiles at 5 – 2 up. However, such is the game of bowls that they dropped the next three ends and were suddenly down 9 – 5. The smiles had switched to team Morales! Bob’s team fought back to lead 11 – 10 at the eleventh end, but a good run by Peter saw his team take a six shot lead by the fifteenth. However, another good burst from team Edwards saw the scores locked with three ends to play. With some excellent bowls Bob’s men won the last two ends and took victory at 21 – 19.
Viv Gear and Wal Markow, two of the four Gibraltar Park Estate boys!
In a triples match on rink 9, Neville Tanner, Joe O’Donnell (fresh from 10 days caravanning!) and nonagenarian skipper Bill Meredith took on second gamer Ian Duncan, Terry Norwood and skipper that very handy leftie Clive Neutze. This was another game pleasing to the organisers because it finished with a close result. Close it was at the end maybe, but not close was it early on. Each side took an end at the start but wrecker Bill engineered a five on the third so that his team led 9 – 1 after five ends. Clive’s team then struck hard and, with Ian leading well and Clive doing some wrecking of his own, they scored three fours to set up a 14 – 10 lead at the halfway stage. Not to be denied, Bill and his men dominated the next seven ends with some inspired movement of the jack and led 22 – 17 with three ends to play. With Clive bowling expertly, the lead was then reduced to two with one end to play. The last end was long and when the skips went to the mat, Clive’s team was holding game with three shots. But, blow us down, Bill did it again drawing shot on the longest end of the day! Victory went to Neville, Joe and Bill by 23 – 20.
In the last game, newcomer Rob Dean, Graham Hartnup and skipper Owen Williams did battle against another nonagenarian Keith Edwards, Denis Lees and Don Coleman. And, although this was the one game of the day that didn’t finish with a close result, it was the one game where the result of each end was no more than two shots! Owen’s team won the first two ends, but by the sixth ends was trailing 3 – 6. Team Williams then won two of the next three ends but the lead was still three shots to Don’s team at 8 – 5. To the casual observer, the evergreen nonagenarian Keith seemed to be in his usual fine form and putting his team in a great position at the start of each end. Don’s team dominated this next stage of the game winning seven of nine ends. When time was called after eighteen ends, the score in favour of team Coleman was 19 – 7.
Skipper Don had a good day as did his lead Keith!