It is great to be able to report some terrific results in the Zone 5 Champion of Champions Pairs event which is currently under way. Bowral Bowling Club is represented by our current Pairs Champions Stephen Della and Kevin Stafford. The event commenced for Bowral players at Campbelltown City Bowling Club on the morning of Saturday November 7th 2020. First opponents were T Haynes and P Johnson from the Windsor Club. I understand that the Windsor bowlers has a significant lead around the halfway point of the game. However, Stephen and Kevin, with the help of a Southerly wind change came home fast to take the game 21-18. Next match was scheduled for Saturday afternoon but the Bowral Pairs received a forfeit and returned for their next match to the same venue on Sunday morning. Sunday mornings opponents were W McNeilly and A Carroll from St Mary’s D & B Club. Another win for Stephen and Kevin, this time by 25-16. Sunday afternoon was the competition Semi Final against I and D Hawkins from Picton. This game was very close with the final result going the way of Bowral by one shot 24-23. So following on from Dugald Braithwaites final’s appearance in the Zone Singles Stephen and Kevin will front up next Saturday November 14 at 10am at Campelltown City Bowling Club for the final against C Couchman and A Breese from Austral Eagles. Would be lovely to see a winning outcome for the Bowral pair and presumably moving on to the NSW Champion of Champions Pairs.
Stephen Della will be very familiar with the Campbelltown greens as he will be back there on Sunday November 15th 2020 for his first match of the Zone 5 Champion of Champions Singles. as he was not only the Bowral Pairs champion but the Singles Champion as well. Best of luck to both him and Kevin.
Meanwhile back at Bowral the Friday Night Hit Out has been avoiding the bad weather and has reached the final round to be played next Friday 13th November (sound ominous) with one 7 end game and a final between the two top teams. Six teams are competing and I only have the skippers names but the current order is Glynn Phillips on top followed by Bob Crowley and Dugald Braithwaite. Fourth is Brian Porter ans Rita South who were early leaders but have slipped back a little, followed by Carl Spilker and Stephen Della.
Saturday 7th November saw the continuation of the Club Senior Singles with the scores starting from those achieved on the previous week when the rain caused abandonment of play. The bowlers returned to much nicer weather though there was a challenging quartering breeze and the North synthetic green appears to be picking up pace and taking more turn. It is to be hoped that it does not return to the lightening fast and ultra wide green of a few weeks ago. Rink 9 had Noel Fraser on 3 shots and Robin Staples on 2 shots. Noel has won this event in 2014,2015,2017 and 2018 while being runner up in 2016 to Bruce Clynes. Robin won last years Singles so a good match was to be hoped for. Robin scored three shots first end to take the lead and held on to this lead with the slimmest of margins until end 18 when Noel drew level 16-16. Robin regained the lead but by end 24 Noel had come back to be even again on 23 shots. From here to the finish on end 32 Robin had the better of the ends to a final win at 31-26. A tight match. You could say that this was the weekend for good results for the octogenarian as they won four of the five events making it indeed a very senior competition. On rink 10 two octo’ were battling it out. While Gordon Lewis never relinquished the lead after assuming it on the 5th end Kel Limbrick was never far behind and put up a super fight to chase Gordon all the way. Scores stayed very close all the way with Kel being only one shot behind on end 30 at 25-24 before Gordon pulled away for a 31-26 win. Rink 11 featured a couple of relative youngsters in Ted McPhee and Mike Holmewood. Ted came into the game leading 7-2, increased it to 9-2 on the first end before the wheels became a bit wobbly and Mike using that stick to excellent effect took control of line and length and the game to end up with a comfortable win 31-16. Rick Reynolds was another player to give one of the fancied bowlers a fright with a real tussle on rink 12. Peter Morales had a good early lead at 12-3 after 7 ends but Rick was always fighting and gradually closed the gap. While never getting in front Rick was only 1 shot behind after 19 ends and was still just that one shot behind 23-22 at 27 ends. Unfortunately for Rick that was as close as it got and Peter made the most of the last few ends to win 31-25. Finally. way over on the far rink the very experienced Keith Edwards up against newcomer Terry Norwood. Recommencement saw Keith start with a 7-0 lead. Terry did really well and gradually shortened that lead so that at end 20 he was only 1 shot behind 16-17. Maybe the big effort caused a slight drop in concentration as Keith took 10 shots from the next 3 ends to pull away to a 27-16 lead. Regaining composure Terry fought back again and pushed Keith hard to the end but fell short 31-27. Take away that slow start and Terry actually had the better of play on Saturday’s game. A fine effort from a bowler only playing since January. Having said that, a fine win to Keith who now plays Peter Morales in the quarter Finals next Saturday. Other quarters are Gordon Lewis and Mike Holmewood, Bob Edwards and Eric Willacy and Clive Neutze and Robin Staples.
Having been rained off two weeks running the Mixed Pairs finally got under way on Sunday 8th November. Once I have the results of the matches played I will update the Bowling News.
Finally, a thank you to one of our members who is well past Octogenarian status, but does a splendid job of keeping the garden next to the Club front door spic and span. So thank you again Howard Lewis for the excellent work you do on behalf of the club.
