BOWLING WEDNESDAY APRIL 12th (Terry Norwood reporting)
Let’s start with a few bits of information:
- Pennants action resumes this coming Saturday April 15th when the Grade Six team plays host to the team from Robertson. It was a very close match last time with a two shot overall victory to Robertson. Let’s hope the Bowral boys and girls can chalk up their first victory of the season. The Grade Two team has the bye this Saturday.
- Three pairs of Bowral bowlers participated in the Easter Pairs Competition at the Austral club. Carl Spilker and Nathan Boyers, Terry Butt and Alastair McGhee, Terry Norwood and Bob Crowley took to the Austral green for the five times eight end matches. Competition was fairly strong but Carl and Nathan won three of their five games, Terry and Alastair three and Bob and Terry two. It was an excellent day and the Austral Club took very good care of the men and woman bowlers.
- Our good friend Brian Payne is now out of hospital and back in action helping out the Bowling Committee at the Club. Brian has made a good recovery from his medical episode which saw him hospitalised for a few days recently.
- The Women’s Bowling Committee will be organising a triples competition to be run on Tuesday July 18th. The women are hoping that a good number of men will be able to join them on this day. There will be more information when we get closer to the day.
Social Bowls Wednesday
Despite the threatening weather, thirty-four eager bowlers lined up for social bowls on the 12th. The number included Jill Harwood, a newcomer having only her second game. Also joining the group for a game was newcomer Bruce Vigenser as well as that great friend of the Wednesday bowlers Julie Hayden. The sky was overcast but, despite a slight drizzle for several minutes at one stage, bowlers were able to finish the afternoon unscathed. The Waratah Green was running fairly well but the word from most of the bowlers was that it could do with a spruce up by having the machine put over it. Given the numbers, the Bowling Committee organised five games of triples and one of pairs.
The usual 18-ender between team Cummins and team Rubie saw Keith Edwards and Terry Norwood join the group this time to make up the six. John Fleming, ‘the Pope’ and ‘youngster’ John Cummins took on Terry, Keith and ‘the rowdy one’ skipper Paul. And what a cracker of a game this was! With Keith right on the jack from the start, Paul and Co won the first two ends but were suddenly behind 4 – 3 after three ends. Team Rubie then won the next four ends to lead 10 – 4. Team Cummins finally found better touch and reduced the deficit to three shots by the eleventh end. When ‘the Pope’ and the two Johns notched up three on the fifteenth end, they were only two behind. Game on! Paul then steadied his team and they hung on to win 19 – 15 in an excellent game of bowls.
John Fleming and Keith Edwards battled it out as leads!
In the pairs game on rink 7, Paul McInerney and ‘the skip’ Tony Oakes battled it out against Neville Tanner and ‘gentleman’ Jim Starkey. Both teams got onto the scorecard early and after six ends the scores were locked at 6 all. Jim and Neville then won four ends consecutively but could only score singles. Paul and Tony won two of the next three ends so that after twelve it was 11 – 10 in their favour. Jim and Neville then dominated the next six ends so that with three ends remaining they led 18 – 12. Far from done, Paul and Tony grabbed eight shots on those last ends to chalk up a notable ‘come from behind’ victory at 20 – 18.
On rink 8, Grahame Denman, Michael Hook and skipper Ian Crow took on newcomer Bruce Vigenser, Rick Reynolds and Harold Wall. Despite conceding a shot on the first end, Ian and his team had a comfortable 6 – 1 lead after five ends. Bruce, Rick and Harold hit back winning four of the next five ends to square the match at 7 all after ten. The game proceeded fairly evenly into the second half of the game until team Crow notched up a mouthwatering 6 shots on the sixteenth end, and this put them five shots clear. Team Wall hung on though, and with one end to go were four shots down. They put in an excellent last end but the three shots they scored left them one behind Ian’s team with the final score being 18 – 17.
Grahame Denman tried hard all day!
In another triples game on rink 10, Robin Staples, Brian Bailey (back after a break, nice to see you Brian) and skipper Julie Hayden took on second-gamer Jill Harwood, Joe O’Donnell and Clive Neutze. Despite winning two of the first three ends, team Neutze found themselves down 5 – 2. Julie and her team then won the next five ends to scorch to a lead of 15 – 2. At that point, Clive rallied his team to have them win six of the next seven ends and get them back in the game at 16 -10. That was the end of their run however, and they managed to win only one more end in the run home. The final score was 26 – 11 in favour of Robin, Brian and Julie. To the casual observer, Jill is developing her skills well and Brian had an excellent day in his come-back game.
On rink 11, Graham Hartnup, Arnold Lenczuk and skipper Mick Flynn battled against Ian Duncan, Viv Gear and skipper Owen Williams. In a fairly even start to the game, both teams won four of the first eight ends for team Flynn to lead 7 – 5. A whopping five shot haul on the next end saw Mick and his team extend their lead to seven shots. Far from finished, Owen fired up his team and they won the next four ends to square the match at 12 all. From that point however, the match became very one-sided. Team Flynn won six of the remaining ends as they stormed home to a comfortable victory at 21 – 14. The two sides shared the ends eleven to ten, but that five shot score on the ninth end had a big impact.
In the final game, Ted McPhee, Glenn Giese and ‘maestro’ Gordon Lewis found themselves up against Graham Hunt, Richard Denman and ‘Mr Finesse’ Steven Goddard. In a blistering start which had team Lewis reeling, Steven and his boys won the first four ends and led 8 – 0! Gordon and his team finally got on the scorecard with a couple of singles but were behind 14 – 2 after ten ends. With disaster looming, Gordon fired up his team and they won four of the next five ends to claw their way back into the game at 11 – 16. Skipper Steven then reclaimed his excellent touch and his team stretched their lead to 23 – 12 with two ends remaining. Fearing a dreaded ten or more flogging, Gordon called for one last effort from his team. And they came good with three shots! The final score was 23 – 15 in favour of Steven and his team; a decent drubbing but not quite the feared flogging!
From all reports, ‘Mr Finesse’ had a blinder!