Saturday 30th January was a busy end to the month for Bowral Bowling Club.  A Pennant Trial match had been arranged for the grade 2 side against Asquith Bowling Club which is in the North of Sydney.  Unfortunately this day clashed with the Zone 5 selection trials which were being held at Lithgow.  Bowral Club members present at these trials were Stephen Della, Mick Spong, Mick Armstrong and Dugald Braithwaite.  Also Ashley Lewis in the Zone Senior trial.  I gather we will have to wait until the Zone team is chosen to see who has successfully been selected.  With these players bowling away and and three other players who were not available it just left the one grade 2 team to travel, Carl Spilker, Glynn Phillips, Paul Leverett and Josh Woodcock.  Therefore the other two teams were made up from the rest of the Club and those who were willing to travel two and a half hours for a game of bowls.  Nathan Boyers skipped one team, with Ted McPhee, Noel Fraser and Jim Neely.  Jim and Noel played grade 2 last year, so a strong team.  The final team was Robin Staples, Gordon Lewis, Bob Crowley and David Coltman.  Asquith fielded three Grade 2 teams so it was nor surprising that with home advantage they won quite easily 47-66 shots on the big board.  Best Bowral effort was by Nathan’s team who had an excellent win 20-14, a great result.  Josh Woodcock and team lost 23-14 and David Coltman and team lost heavily 29-13.  Gordon Lewis was voted Bowral player of the match in this game.  Despite the five hours in the bus a good day was had by all.  An excellent green and great hospitality from the Asquith Club.  On arrival back at Bowral a thunderstorm had again flooded the rinks, hopefully without more damage.

Zone 5 2021 singles and doubles will commence over the next two weekends.  Bowral has a large entry in these events which bodes well for some good results.  Only a couple of players from the social ranks with Ted McPhee and Bob Edwards in the Senior Pairs and Bob also in the Senior Singles.  Andrew Connors places his toe in the Zone water in the Reserve Singles.  In the Open Zone Pairs the following are entered;Glynn Phillips and Alistair McGhee, Tom DeGreenlaw and David Coltman, Carl Spilker and Nathan Boyers, Paul Leverett and Josh Woodcock, Mick Spong and Mick Armstrong, defending Champions, Stephen Della and Kevin Stafford, and finally Chris Barritt-Eyles and Dugald Braithwaite.  Added to all these entries, in the Open Singles on February 14th, Club representatives are Kevin Stafford, Dugald Braithwaite, Nathan Boyers, Alistair McGhee, Bob Crowley, Carl Spilker, Chris Barritt-Eyles, Tom DeGreenlaw  and Glynn Phillips.  We look forward to some great results.  Just a final reminder for the 2021 Chris Benton Memorial Shield which will be played on Saturday 20th February.  Entry form is reproduced below.  So get those teams of four together and enjoy a great day of bowls.