BBC BROADCAST SATURDAY JUNE 27th           (Terry Norwood at the desk)

65 & Over Competition

The five remaining matches of the round of 16 were played under very heavy skies and extremely cold conditions. The Waratah Green was running at about 16/17 but very true to the line the bowl was put on. So to the matches . . .

On rink 7, Bob Edwards made a very strong start against Jim Neely to lead 10 – 0 after five ends and had Jim under quite some pressure. However, Jim then found the jack to win six of the next seven ends and draw to within a shot. Bob then edged out to 15 – 10, but from there it was all Jim who had his green bowls constantly intimidating the jack. In a devastating display of draw bowling, Jim then won the next six ends, no, monstered the next six ends, to rip away to an emphatic 28 – 15 victory.

On the next rink, in a high quality opening, Mick Fisher blew Terry Norwood off the green with some excellent drawing to lead 16 – 0 after seven ends. Wow! Rolling short ends and never off the jack, he kept marker Mick Flynn scribbling frantically under his name and flicking one side of the scoreboard over. Terry finally found the length but most that he put close were then bettered by the high flying Mick. When Mick delivered the coup de grace to end Terry’s misery, the score was 25 – 6. Ouch!!!

On the next rink, Barb Wainberg opened brightly against Dave Charlesworth taking the first three ends and leading 6 – 3 after five. She then advanced this to 9 – 5 before the brightly bonneted Dave started to hound the jack and evened the scores at 10 all. In what settled into a dog fight, the scores were became 14, and then 16 all! Game on!! Dave then advanced to 20 – 16, only to have Barb fight back to 20 all. Barb then, unfortunately for herm, put in a bad end to hand Dave four shots, and a single on the following end got him home 25 – 20. What a great tussle!

On rink 10, Neil Puckeridge dropped a double on the first end against Denis Lees but then won the next four ends to lead 8 – 2. With both bowlers drawing well, this game then settled into a close battle with Neil having his nose just in front. However, Denis hit a purple patch from the twelfth end, and by the eighteenth had moved ahead to 18 – 11. Under pressure, Neil then responded strongly and from there was hounding the jack. He ground out end after end relentlessly conceding only a single shot, and made it to the clubhouse 25 – 19 to the good.

In the final game on rink 11, Clive Neutze won two of the first three ends to lead 3 – 2, but then found that Robin Staples was settling into that fine drawing game of his and crowding the jack. By the seventh end, Robin had advanced to 11 – 3 and things were starting to look ominous for Clive. However, Clive moved the score to within four shots and a glimmer of hope still shone on the horizon. Nope, it was a false dawn as Robin then relentlessly found the jack, squeezing Clive out of the match and booking a place in the quarter finals. 25 – 10 was the score.

Quarter Finals Saturday July 4th

Neil Puckeridge  VS  Robin Staples

Jim Neely  VS  Graham Hartnup

Peter Flight  VS  Mick Fisher

Dave Charlesworth  VS  Charles Coode

Markers will be Terry Norwood, Barb Wainberg, Denis Lees, Clive Neutze