BBC BROADCAST WEDNESDAY AUGUST 20th (Terry Norwood at the desk)
Some bits and bobs to begin with:
- The semi-finals of the Mixed Pairs Championship have now been completed, so more on that below.
- The Tulip festival event being organised by the women’s bowling committee for Thursday September 11th is still open for entry. This is a womens or mixed fours encounter and there is until September 5th to get your name on the schedule and be part of the big day.
- Also still open for entry until Saturday August 23rd is the RSL Shield competition which will see the opening round on Saturday August 30th. There is good money up for grabs as the teams battle over the three weeks of fours, singles/triples and pairs. Come on men and women, there are only a few days to get yourself involved.
- The AGM of the Men’s Bowling Club was held last Sunday and the draft minutes are now available. You should have received these by email, so if you’ve missed out please let one of the Committee know and we’ll attempt to rectify things.
- Committee member Ian Duncan is currently working on an update of the web site for the Men’s Bowling Club and this is getting close to finalisation. More on that very soon!
Mixed Pairs Championship
In the semi-final played last Saturday 16th, Jim Neely and Gail Fraser took on Charles and Rowena Coode, and it was the Coodes who grabbed the first end with a double. However, Jim and Gail were quick to respond winning the next three ends to lead 5 – 2. Rowena and Charles hung in to level at 5 all, but then Jim and Gail went on a long run of success. They won eight ends on the trot to push the score out to 18 – 5 after fourteen, and so had a strangle hold on the game. Charles and Rowena held on by their finger nails winning the next two ends but then were really in strife when the dropped a five on the seventeenth. Jim and Gail quickly closed out the game and moved to the final with a 28 – 8 semi win in the bag.
Big winners in their semi, Gail and Jim will be hard to beat in the final!
The second semi-final was played on Wednesday when Reta South and Bob Edwards battled for honours against Mandy Challender and Terry Norwood. Reta and Bob were right on the jack from the start with a double on the first and a monstrous five on the second, but, stung into action, Mandy and Terry replied with the same for the scores to be 7 all! Matters became much tighter as Bob and Reta edged to two shot lead only for Terry and Mandy to even things up at 10 all after nine ends. There was still only one shot separating the teams after eleven, but it was then that Reta and Bob gained the upper hand. With Bob in scintillating form, they won six of the next seven ends to grind out a sixteen shot lead by the eighteenth. By then, the mist had turned to light rain, so Mandy and Terry conceded victory to their opponents at 28 – 12.
Bob and Reta are in top form, and might just pip the defending champs in the final!
So, the final will see Gail and Jim take on Reta and Bob with the game set down for Wednesday August 27th at 12.30. With the way these two pairs are trundling them down at the moment, the final should be a ripper!
Social Bowls
Twenty-one bowlers turned out for social bowls on what was a very ordinary day weather-wise. Although rain was forecast for some time in the afternoon, it was clear at 12.30 so four matches got underway on the Waratah Green. There had been plans to make use of the Wilson Green, but, given the overnight drenching, the Match Committee decided to keep to the synthetic surface of the Waratah.
In a pairs game on rink 10, Richard Denman and Clive ‘dasher’ Neutze tussled for honours against Peter ‘Virgin’ Flight and Stephen Day, and Peter and Steve won the first couple of ends to set the game on its way. Richard and Clive won the third, but by the seventh were down 3 – 8, and when they dropped a couple of fours the score became 5 – 16! There was to be no change in the back half of the game as Peter and Steve ground out end after end, and they went to the Club 32 – 10 victors.
On rink 12, Barry Werfel, Arnie Lenczuk and Joe ‘rusty nail’ O’Donnell tried to stare down Graham Denman, Graham Hartnup and Owen ‘wily’ Williams, and it was team Williams that leapt from the blocks to lead 10 – 1 after four ends! They then advanced this to 13 – 3 until the pendulum swung . . . and swing it did! Joe’s team won five ends to hit the lead, and, although they lost the lead momentarily, they came home with the spinnaker flying and a 23 – 21 victory in the bag.
In the triples game on rink 11, Barb Wainberg was swing lead for Ian Duncan and Gordon ‘cobbler’ Lewis on the one side and Ted ‘Barry’ McPhee and Robin Staples on the other, and although team Lewis led 2 – 1 after two ends, it was one-way traffic against them for the remainder of the first half. They were down 3 – 21 until they squeaked a double on the twelfth, and matters looked very, very bleak! They did notch up a mammoth five on the fifteenth, but it proved not enough to reel in team Staples as they steamed to a 32 – 13 victory.
In the final game, Jill ‘Hollywood’ Harwood, Neville Tanner and Mick Flynn took on Terry ‘pep’ Salter, Paul McInerney and Viv ‘reverse’ Gear. The card managed to travel home with ‘someone’ so no rundown can be given, but the final score was 22 – 17 in favour of Mick’s team.