Saturday 17th April 2021 was round 7 of the Zone 5 Pennant competition.  Not a good round for Bowral Bowling Club with just half a point won over all three grades.  Grade 2 and 6 were at Bowral with grade 7 away to Camden.  Grade 2 lost all three rinks to Glenbrook and thus lost 10-0.  The team suffered from injuries to key players as well as unavailability for various reasons.  Best Bowral team was skipped by Mick Spong with Gordon Lewis, Stephen Della and Mick Armstrong.  This team started well with 6 shots in the first 2 ends but Glenbrook gradually pinned the lead back to be level on 12 shots each at the half way point.  Then Mick pulled away again and by end 18 had a nice 22-16 lead. However a 5 shots to Glenbrook next end had them only 1 shot behind and 1 shot on each of the last two ends gave Glenbrook the win by 1 shot.  With Josh Woodcock injured Paul Leverett stepped up to skip with Tom DeGreenlaw, Carl Spilker and Glyn Phillips.  This team was ahead 7-6 on end 8 but from there onwards Glenbrook was in control and won 25-16.  Losing 6 shots on an end did not help the Bowral cause.  Terry Butt, Jim Neely, Gary Brown and Nathan Boyers lost heavily 10-31.  Glenbrook started well and steadily increased their lead as the game progressed.  On the Grade 2 ladder Austral lead on 54.5 points from Glenbrook on 48 with Penrith in third.  Bowral is fourth with 28.5 points.

Grade 6 was also at home and playing Picton.  You would have thought that after a win the previous week against Taralga playing on the synthetic that the team would continue to use the advantage of a super fast green.  The choice was to play on the grass rather than the synthetic, a surface that suited Picton just fine.  Best home team was Graham Hunt, Terry Norwood, Julie Hayden and Robin Staples with the team sharing the point with a low scoring 15 all draw.  Early lead to Picton before Bowral leveled the score on end 9.  Picton eased away to lead 12-9 but again Bowral pegged them back and drew level on end 17 with 13 shots each.  End 18 one shot to Bowral.  Ends 19 and 20 one shot each end to Picton.  Last end and Picton held 2 shots before on excellent ön”shot by Julie opened the head and Bowral on the last bowl managed to draw the game.  Next best team was Gail Fraser with Andy Connor, Ted McPhee, and Bob Crowley.  Selectors had tried not to change the teams but with so many players out in Grade 2 Jim Neely was drafted into the top team.  A pity as this team with Jim as skipper was the best performing team.  Led by Gail the team held Picton well with nothing between the teams being level at end 18 on 18 shots each.  Unfortunately Picton won all the ends from there to the finish and won 25-21 shots.  David Coltman with Noel Fraser, Steve Day and Dennis Beatty never led and the final score was in favour of Picton 24-15.  Big Board score was Bowral 51 and Picton 64 with just half a point to Bowral.  Camden lead the ladder on 57 points from Robertson on 45.5 and Picton 34.  Bowral are fifth on 25.5 ahead of Campbelltown.

I have very little information on the grade 7 match which was played at Camden.  As of Monday Zone 5 has not received the scores so there is nothing on the Zone website.  Word of mouth is that Bowral lost all three rinks and lost 10-0.  This result does not effect the grade 7 ladder with Bargo on top with 46.5 points followed by Bundanoon on 43.5 and Campbelltown 40 points.  Bowral will remain on the bottom with 14 points.  Saturday 24th April round 8 will see all three Bowral teams playing at home.  Grade 2 hosts top of the ladder Austral, Grade 6 second on the ladder Robertson, while grade 7 play Campbelltown.

Sunday 18th April 2021 was final day for the Club Minor Singles between David Noble and Eric Willacy.  The match was even over the first few ends but I had to leave and I did not receive the results.  In the afternoon there were matches in the second round of the Club Championship Singles.  Unfortunately I have no results for these games either.

One match of this Championship was played on Wednesday between Ashley Lewis and Clive Neutze.  It would not be unreasonable to consider Ashley favorite having been in seven finals of this event.  While he did win it was a super tight game that went down to the wire.  Clive played excellent bowls and held his own throughout the game.  In the latter stages he drew ahead and reached a lead of 30-26 needing only 1 shot to win the game.  So close, but it was not to be as Ashley won the last three and scraped home 31-30.  A great effort from Clive.  The match duration was more than 40 ends and with the game being played East West on the grass the players were fighting to see the jack by the end of the game.  Thanks to Glen Geise for giving up his Wednesday bowls to umpire.   If I remember correctly Ashley had a similar close result in the early rounds last year before moving on to the final.