Saturday 5th February 2022 and Bowral Bowling Club held the Chris Benton Memorial Trophy. The weather was kind, forty bowlers arrived to play and the Benton family were on hand to make this a fantastic day and highly successful. Successful not only in that everyone had a great day but the Club raised $1620 for research into brain cancer. The green fees were donated along with gold coins for the “spider” and raffle to which the Bowral Bowling Club matched the sum dollar for dollar. Our heartfelt thanks to Roz Benton and the other members of the family who were present. They presented great prizes for the winners as well as an excellent after game refreshments (a thank you to the Club chef as these were the best refreshments I have had at the Club) but above all the presence of so many family members gave purpose and meaning to the whole days bowls event.
The results are probably less important than that everyone had a good day and helped raise money for cancer research, but we are a bowling club so here is a summary of the day. The Trophy consisted of two games of ten ends, 2 points for a win and margins to decide the result. A scratch event so looking at the teams not hard to place the Stafford team as odds on favourite and the other grade 2 skippers in Woodcock, Phillips and Boyers to fill the placings. The teams are shown so I will restrict myself to just the skippers names in the report. So did the results end up according to the predictions?
First round and the Woodcock team against the Tanner team who did very well to restrict the score to a 10-8 loss. Paul McInnerny is unfortunately having back problems (we wish him a speedy recovery) and was replaced by Clive Neutze who played the Staples team. Neutze team won the first four ends to hold a great 6-0 lead but the Staples team recovered, won the next 5 ends and won 13-7 shots. Peter Morales team up against the strong Nathan Boyers team and the Morales team had a fine 10-5 win. Porter team against Edwards team resulted in a win for the Porter team by 10-7. Final game of first round was Stafford against Phillips. A really tight match between two of the top teams . Score 11 all after 8 ends and Stafford leading 12-11 with the last end to go. Phillips scored 2 shots for an upset win 13-12 shots. Leader after the first round was Staples team with a 5 shot margin.
Round 2 and Tanner versus Neutze with a win by 1 shot to the Neutze team. As in their first match this team shot away to a 9-1 lead after 5 ends but failed to win another end with Tanner just failing to catch up and losing 8-9 shots. A word of congratulations to Neville Tanner who does not normally skipper in this exalted company but led his team excellently to only lose by 2 shots to Woodcock and 1 shot to Neutze. Porter and Boyers resulted in a run away win for Boyers team by 14-4 and it was good to see ladies playing in the Porter team. The Edwards team against Phillips team and Edwards lead 4-2 after 4 ends before the Phillips team got the upper hand and pulled away to a 10-5 win. Gather the margin might have been much larger were it not for Bob Edwards deadly “on” shots which held that margin down. The Stafford team playing the Morales team who were first round winners. Morales took a one shot lead and then the favourites, probably smarting from the first round loss, showed their true metal and won all the remaining ends to win 18-1. Final match was two first round winners Woodcock versus Staples. The Woodcock team played the better bowls, though the Staples team stayed in touch only trailing 6-7 after 8 ends. One shot to Woodcock had them lead by 2 shots going into the final end. End 10 resulted in 3 more shots to Woodcock resulting in a win with a 5 shot margin. The huge margin for the Stafford team in the second game lifted them to third place in the Trophy results. Two teams had two wins, the Phillips team and the Woodcock team. The winner and congratulations to the Woodcock team of Andy Connor, Bob Crowley, Terry Butt and Josh Woodcock with a one shot win over the Phillips team.
So a great day of bowls with special thanks to the Benton family for their support. To Bob Crowley for all his organizing and especially to Glen Giese who must have spent hours on the phone to arrange those two final teams and make this the best attended Memorial Trophy.
The other event of the weekend was at Robertson Bowling Club on Sunday and the holding of the Crowe-Benning Trophy. This annual event is in appreciation of all the administration duties carried out in the past by the two gentlemen whose names appear on the trophy. The format is the Club Champions in Singles, Pairs, Triples and Fours of the Bowral and Robertson Clubs to play each other. Pleased to report that Bowral retained this Trophy winning the Singles with Ashley Lewis 31-25, The Triples with Carl Spilker, Glen Giese and Nathan Boyers by 21 shots to 14 shots. Great to see Glen Giese being rewarded for his recent terrific form by being included in this team. He must be one of the very few individuals who can improve his bowls while being besieged from all quarters as Bowls Secretary. Bowral also won the Fours by 26-13 with the team of Andy Connors, Josh Woodcock, Mick Armstrong and Mick Spong. A surprise loss was suffered by Stephen Della and Kevin Stafford in the Pairs with a 12-27 loss. Go Bowral.
The notice for the Club visit to Beecroft is on the Notice Board. More details later but this is a great day and deserves all our support. On the 19th February the round robin stage of the Southern Highland Cup commences at Bowral with the final at Robertson on the 12th March. This event features the Bundanoon, Robertson and Bowral Clubs in a round robin format before all clubs join together for the final. Teams are selected by Men’s Committee.
