Mittagong RSL Shield under way.

Saturday afternoon 5th September at Bowral Bowling Club saw the first round of the Mittagong RSL Shield take place.  First week of this three week competition  has all four team members compete in a game of “Fours”.  Forty eight bowlers (plus two social bowlers) took to the green.  Twelve teams is a good turn out , with five teams from the grade two playing group, five from the social players and great to see a ladies team and a mixed team competing.   The results did not produce any surprises and a shortish resume follows.

Rink 1.

Enid Brown, Elizabeth Hall, Lynne Boshier and Elaine Jones  defeated Jim Neely, Rita South, Noel Fraser and Gail Fraser by        18-17 shots.  I am not familiar enough with the playing ability of the lady bowlers to say if this was the one match when the under dogs won.  However, Gail’s side is very strong so any team that beats them has played a great game.  Half way through the match scores were 7 all and at end 13 Elaine lead 11-9.  Then disaster and Gail scored 7 shots on the next end moving out to what would seem to be a winning margin of 17-11 with six ends to play.  Well done to Elaine and her team to win all the remaining ends and have a great win 18-17.

Rink 2.

No surprises on this rink with favourites Stephen Della, A Cosamak, Josh Woodcock and Mick Spong defeating Harold Wall, Terry Norwood, Barry Werfel and Don Coleman by 36-6.  Don and team only won four ends in accumulating their 6 shots, so a convincing win to Mick Spong.

Rink 3.

Glynn Phillips, Mick Flynn, Dave Riddell and Carl Spilker played Colin Stone, Peter Morales, Owen Williams and Brian Porter with a win to Carl 23-12.  Early stages of the game were even with the score 5 all after 7 ends and 9 all after 11 ends,  Carl’s team then established control with 7 shots over the next three ends to go to a 15-10 lead and continue this dominance to finish ahead 23-12.

Rink 4.

Alistair McGhee, Gordon Lewis, Greg Lewis and Ashley Lewis against Bob Edwards, Graham Hunt, Tony Oates and Ted McPhee.    This resulted in a win for the Ashley team.  However, it was not until late in the game that Ashley started to move ahead.  At the mid way point Ted, playing his first game as skipper in a major competition and looking to do it very well, was one shot behind 13-14.  Unfortunately they dropped 5 shots next end and Ashley won six ends to four from this end to the finish and won by 10 shots 28-18.

Rink 5.

Oscar Wahlin, Dennis Beatty, Russell Knight and Dugald braithwaite dominated Keith Edwards, Richard Denman, Peter Lesureur and Robin Staples.  A little bit of rustiness in Dennis Beatty and Russell Knights game was soon overcome and following gaining 5 shots on the first end  the Dugald team was never headed.  Final score was 32-15 and Staples was lucky to achieve 15 shots helped by winning a few ends in the latter part of the game.

Rink 6.

Final match saw Kevin Stafford, Tim Blake, Tom DeGreenlaw and David Coltman versus Glen Giese, Viv Gear, Jim Starky and Clive Neutze.  A creditable result for Clive going down by only 8 shots to one of the fancied teams.  Like rink 5 Clive and team started well with a 5 shot opening and at 5 ends lead 8-4.  This lead started to dwindle as David pulled back to level the score at 8 ends and then move into the lead never to be overtaken.  Their score was enhanced by two ends of 5 shots leaving them winners 27-19.

Leaders Board.  So after the first round Mick Spong team lead on 36 shots followed by Dugald Braithwaite on 32 shots.  Mick has a very nice draw not meeting any of the other top teams in the next two rounds, though Gail Fraser  and team might give them a good game as they come back from that first round loss.  Dugald likewise does not play any other top team and will be close at the finish.   Ashley Lewis on 28 shots is third, fourth David Coltman on 27 and fifth Carl Spilker on 23 shots.  Over the next two rounds Ashley plays both the Coltman team and Spilker team so it would be likely that third spot will be played out between these three teams.  Only three prizes this year with big rewards for the winners and no weekly prizes.

The Club Championship Fours first round will feature three matches on Sunday 13th September starting at 10am.  Again, none of the major contenders for the title will play each other in the first round, so barring a shock loss, the Club can look forward to some high quality semi and final matches.  These are scheduled for morning and afternoon of the 20th September 2020.