Saturday 7th March 2020 was round two of the pennant competition.  Results for Bowral Bowling Club were very similar to the first week, one win and two losses.  The Grade 2 team travelled to Glenbrook and were defeated by only 10 shots, 50-60.  The winning side for Bowral was the Mick Spong side with Stephen Della, Kevin Stafford, Dugald Braithwaite and Mick.  They won 22-17.  At end 15 they led 20-8 having led from the start of the game.  Thereafter they slipped a little with Glenbrook winning 9 shots to 2 shots over the last six ends.  However, a good win.  Carl Spilker, Nathan Boyers, Paul Leverett and Josh Woodcock were close to a win.  Also at 16 ends they led  14-13.  Same one shot margin at 18 ends before Glenbrook claimed 5 shots in the last two ends to win 16-19.  The third game was a 12-24 shot loss for Noel Fraser,  Jim Neely, Ashley Lewis and Mick Armstrong.  They trailed 0-9 after 4 ends and never really came close to the opposition.

Grade 6 were at Picton.  Selection was a bit of a shambles with the team eventually arriving with 13 players.  Deprived the grade 7 team of a valuable player.  Hopefully selection will be a bit more organized for the next round.  The Grade 6 teams had two wins and a draw.  Mike Holmewood filled in for Ashley Lewis who had been moved to Grade 2,  hopefully he will be back for the next round.  Mike’s team of Richard Denman, Alistair McGhee and Dennis Beatty were 6-6 after 8 ends.  They then won all but two ends until the 17th end and led comfortably 17-7.  However, a major swing to Picton saw them win the last four ends and accumulated 10 shots in the progress to level the score at 17-17.  Dave Coltman with  Graham Hunt, Tony Oates and Oscar Wahlin started slowly to be down 1-7 after six ends.  A consistant spell of good bowling saw them overcome the deficit and pull out to a 17-10 lead.  Losing 5 shots over the last two ends did not cause a problem and they won by two shots, 17-15.  Finally Jim Starkey, Dave Bateup, Dave Riddell and Robin Staples had a 5 shot win.  After 7 ends the score was level at 7-7.   Picton pulled out a small lead and led until the 16 end when Bowral had drawn level at 13-13,  Bowral won 5 of the next 6 ends and were winners 20-15.  Overall Bowral won 54-47 and 9.5-0.5 in points.  On the Grade 6 table Bowral trails Robertson by half a point, though the ladder has little significance at this early stage.   Bowral Grade 7 were at home to Camden, lost two of the three rinks and lost rather heavily 43-76.  Winning team skippered by Bob Edwards consisted of Kevin Jones, Brian Payne and Don Chapman.  Down 4-8 after 6 ends and 5-11 after 10 ends they staged a recovery and pulled ahead 21-13 by end 19.  They lost the last 2 ends and finished winners 21-17.  John Edmonds, Viv Gear, Mick Flynn and Gordon Lewis lost 10-31 having trailed all match.  Clive Neutze, skipper, with Barry Werfel, Peter Morales and Bill Meredith had a similar result, with a final score of Bowral 12 and Camden 28.   Early days yet, with another eight rounds to go, both grade 2 and 7 have ample time to challenge the ladder leaders.  A week off due to Zone events and pennants resumes on Saturday 21st March.

The last of the Club Championship Singles was played on Sunday 8th March between Stephen Della and Josh Woodcock.  Stephen eased away to a very nice 27-11 lead before Josh staged a fight back and closed the gap.  Josh scored another 13 shots before Stephen gathered the 4 shots required to win with the final score 31-24.  Stephen will now meet Paul Leverett in the semi final.  Last Friday, a quarter final was also played between Bob Crowley and Carl Spilker.  I have not seen the card but Bob Crowley won this match.  He now will play Peter Morales in the other semi final.