BBC BROADCAST WEDNESDAY JULY 3rd (Terry Norwood at the desk)
Some info and reminders to start with:
- Just letting those who haven’t yet caught up with the information that recently hospitalised Neville Tanner and Bill ‘the’ Pope that both are now at home convalescing and doing well.
- Bowlers are again reminded that the AGM of the Men’s Bowling Club will be held at 10am on Sunday August 18th. Nomination forms are located near the sign in table at the Club ready for your use. Members are urged to think about who they would like to run their committee and get the nominations lodged.
- The final participation figures for 23/24 have been finalised but due to a lapse of memory have yet to be placed on the notice board. These numbers represent the times that each bowler played social or competition bowls at the Bowral Club. I can tell you that the list was headed by Arnold Lenczuk with 82 appearances followed by Grahame Denman with 77. In all, sixteen members made fifty or more appearances and quite a few were in the forties.
- And a further reminder of the mixed bowls celebration day to be held on Wednesday September 4th kicking off at midday. The day will celebrate 110 years of bowling in Bowral and 85 years of women’s bowling. So gentlemen, check your diaries and scribble down bowls for the 4th September!
Social Bowls Wednesday
Twenty-seven bowlers turned out for a trundle on what was a quite awful winters day! With the temperature below 10 degrees and a bitterly cold south/south easterly breeze icing across the green, conditions were really challenging. Challenging though they were, the conditions could not be blamed for those 8 or 10, yep, 8 or 10 wrong biased bowls that snaked their ways onto accompanying rinks. Well, perhaps the polar conditions might just have affected the hands and heads, because at one stage the problem seemed infectious! C’est la vie! The odd number of bowlers on the day meant that the Match Committee needed to arrange one match with a swing bowler; five matches in all were arranged, four of triples and one pairs.
In the 18-end pairs match on rink 9, Keith ‘the fox’ Edwards and Graham Hartnup took on John Fleming and Dave Charlesworth. In one of his rare appearances as skip, Graham was very chuffed to notch up a five shotter on the first end; so chuffed was he that he was into the bananas earlier than usual! John and Dave hit back winning three ends but still trailed 5 – 7 after seven ends. With ninety year old Keith popping bowls into the head, he and Graham dominated the remainder of the first half to lead 13 – 6. To their great credit, Dave and John hung in and matched their opponents in the second half of the game. Unfortunately for them though, Keith and Graham had too big a first half lead and got home comfortable winners at 21 – 11.
Keith, the ‘fox’ just keeps rolling the bowls onto the jack!
In the triples game on rink 8, Denis ‘rowdy’ Lees, Graham ‘jockey’ Hunt and the ‘dasher Clive Neutze battled against Russell Dunstan, Don ‘gentleman’ Chapman and skipper Joe O’Donnell. Although they dropped three shots on the second end, Clive’s team won seven of the first eight ends to swamp their opponents and lead 10 – 3! And when they won three of the next four ends, it was ‘reach for the oxygen time’ for team O’Donnell! Down 5 – 16, Joe’s team dug deep to notch up a two and a glorious five shotter on the fifteenth end, and it looked as though their beanies, coats and hand warmers had them back in the game. However, Clive’s team were playing too well to be denied and they shared the closing ends to run out victors at 23 – 19.
Clive came out on top of Joe in the battle of the skippers!
In the match on rink 10, Joel ‘grr’ Hunt, Peter ‘Virgin’ Flight and the suave Steven Goddard faced off against Paul McInerney, Ian ‘cool’ Duncan and the evergreen cobbler Gordon Lewis. Steven’s team managed the cold and the green better in the opening ends to lead 6 – 1 after four, but a mouth-watering five shotter on the next to Gordon’s team had the scores level. Cop that one came the cry! The next few ends were shared and by the tenth end it was 11 – 9 to team Lewis. And then, maybe because of the cold, more likely by being out-bowled, the wheels of the Lewis team cart fell completely off. They lost the next eight ends on the trot and fell behind by 18 shots! Ouch! They did pull back ten shots on the last three ends, but unfortunately for them, it was too little, too late. Victory to team Goddard by 29 – 21.
Steven kept his team on top throughout!
On rink 11 Grahame Denman was swing bowler to Barry Werfel and the ‘maestro’ Robin Staples on the one hand and Richard ‘denman’ Denman and Arny Lenczuk on the other. Robin and his team got off to a rip-roaring start winning five of the opening six ends to lead 12 – 1! This really had Arny scratching his head and calling on his ‘Rosie’ bowls to find their way to the jack! With Grahame cancelling himself out as swing lead, Barry and Robin were on top of their respective opponents and maintained the pressure. Up 17 – 3 after eleven ends, they kept things rolling in the back half of the game with some fine bowls in the conditions. Arny’s team shared the ends in the run home but could make no impression on the scorecard, with the final score in favour of team Staples being 25 – 11.
Barry put some yellow bowls in good positions and Robin out-bowled his opponent!
In the game on rink 12, Alex Christlo, Terry Norwood and Mick ‘potters’ Flynn took on Ted ‘Mr Ed’ McPhee, Wal Markow and the phlegmatic Chris ‘shorts’ Forrester. Despite dropping a shot on the first end, Chris’ team was quickly into stride and by the sixth end led 8 – 1. At this point, Alex got his wide-swinging bowls on tune, and Terry and Mick found some touch for team Flynn to start pegging the opposition back. By the eleventh end, Mick’s team had reduced the deficit to two shots, and two ends later hit the lead by two. And then team Flynn fell into a deep hole! Well let’s agree they were clearly out-bowled. With Chris on fire, his team blitzed the opposition, winning six of the last seven ends including an incredible six shotter (six bowls within 15 inches of the jack!) on the nineteenth. A very impressive victory to team Forrester at 23 – 12.
Wal rolled in some excellent bowls late in the game, and Chris had another red hot game!