BBC BROADCAST for WEDNESDAY JANUARY 8th (Terry Norwood at the desk)
Some bits of gristle to chew on before the main course:
- The Club Major Fours Championship will conclude on Saturday 11th when the final gets under way at 12. 30. the team of Scott Kennon, Dave Coltman, Al McGhee and Dugald Braithwaite will take on the might of Gordon Lewis, Stephen Della, Ash Lewis and Mick Spong. Bowl well fellows and have some fun. This should be well worth a look.
- Also being staged on Saturday will be the final of the Fours Plate, the game that decides the best of the first round losers. Stephen Day, Reta South, Chris Forrester and Bob Edwards will tackle Graham Hunt, Don Chapman, Terry Norwood and Robin Staples in a no holds barred struggle for minor supremacy.
- The pennants selectors under the leadership of Robin Staples have now organised the teams for pennant trial games to be staged on Saturday January 18th commencing at 12.30. All bowlers who listed their names for pennants now need to check the notice board to see if you are down to play. Anyone listed to play who is not available needs to notify Robin or one of the other selectors immediately so that a replacement can be arranged.
- And another reminder that the Chris Benton Charity day has been postponed until May, probably a Saturday early in the month. We’re looking at the 8th of May, but it still needs to be confirmed.
- Management has now organised for the greenkeeper to undertake some work on the Wilson Green so from now until further advised the Wilson is closed to play. Barefoot bowls will shift to the Lewis Green.
The Main Course – Wednesday Social Bowls
It was a very gloomy day that greeted the twenty-eight bowlers on Wednesday. Although drizzly rain only intervened for a short while, the blustery, changeable chilly breeze kept reminding the bowlers that the day wasn’t the most perfect. Anyway, Wednesday bowlers are not grizzlers, so we all got on with the job and completed our games. With twenty-eight bowlers listed for play, the Match Committee organised four games of triples and one of pairs.
In the pairs game, the eighteen-ender on rink 9, Shane Harvey and Paul ‘ricochet’ Rubie battled for bragging rights against Keith ‘foxy’ Edwards and John ‘junior’ Cummins. In this shootout, most of the game was as tight as the proverbial . . . rusted nut and bolt! Three all after five ends, 6 all after nine and 8 all after eleven, these guys were all business. Mr Ricochet then edged to the front, but by the fifteenth, he and Shane were two shots down. From that point, the fox and Junior were just too consistent, and ground out a fine victory at 18 – 13. And so keen was this four that they stretched out to twenty ends. It must have been the balmy weather!
Not surprisingly, Keith ‘the fox’ was on the winning side!
In the match on rink 8, Joel ‘grr’ Hunt, Ted ‘barry’ McPhee and Chris ‘nerveless’ Forrester butted heads against Barb Wainberg, Arnie ‘only when I’m losing dickie knee’ Lenczuk and Mick ‘potty potters’ Flynn. With Mick barking out the instructions, team Flynn roared out of the blocks and led 8 – 2 after seven ends. At that point, Chris shook up his team to get ‘grr’ on the jack and ‘barry’ behind the jack. The result was that team Forrester then went on to win five of the next six ends, including a very sweet, mouth-watering 5 to lead by three on the thirteenth. Mick’s team did make a mini comeback to hit the lead, but Chris’ boys smothered them at the end to win by 22 – 18.
Nerveless on Wednesdays, Chris got the better of Mick!
On rink 10, Jill ‘hollywood’ Harwood, Peter ‘Virgin’ Flight and Robin ‘maestro’ Staples faced off against Graham ‘hardnut’ Hartnup, Owen ‘wily’ Williams and Charles ‘scotty’ Stewart. In a high-scoring opening, Charles’ team led 6 – 4 after three ends. Charles’ team then moved the score to 7 – 6 after five and seemed to be travelling well. However, Robin’s team, with Jill on the jack, exploded into action to win the next six ends, all multiple scores, and to lead by a wide margin at 21 – 7. Charles’ team fared a little better in the back half of the game winning five of the ten ends but could make no impression on the scorecard. The final score was 34 – 16.
Jill has those yellow bowls humming at the moment!
On the next rink, Richard ‘denman’ Denman, Joe ‘never short’ O’Donnell and the wily Bob Edwards tussled against Ian ‘cool’ Duncan, Paul ‘mac’ McInerney and George Hindi. In a very tight opening, singles were the standard, and Bob’s group led 4 – 3 after six ends. Bob’s boys then kept the lead until they dropped a shattering five shotter on the ninth end and fell behind team Hindi at 8 – 5. The game moved into the back half all equal at nine all, but a three on the thirteenth shifted Bob’s team back into the lead. From there, they matched anything that the opposition could bowl at them and got home 20 – 14.
Joe had his black bowls in the head!
In the final game on rink 12, Mark ‘stalk’ Barrow, Graham ‘leaning tower’ Hunt and the venerable, evergreen cobbler Gordon Lewis took on Grahame ‘dragon’ Denman, Bruce ‘scratched’ Yahl and Terry ‘puff’ Norwood. The first three ends were very tight, but by the seventh end Gordon’s team had exploded to a giant lead of 12 – 1. Put simply, Gordon’s team was hot and the opposition was icy cold! And it stayed that way for the whole game. Graham was never off the jack, Mark chipped in well and Gordon was his usual excellent self. Not to take anything away from the quality of the victors, but the opposition was pretty awful and the final score of 27 – 8 was appropriately embarrassing!
‘Leaning Tower’ Graham was in hot form!