Week 8 of Pennants on Saturday 24th April 2021.  For Bowral Bowling Club it was scores of 0-10,10-0,0-10.  So certainly better than the week before, but not a hugely successful day.  Grade 2 were up against the ladder leaders Austral so would have been expecting a hard fight, which they certainly got.  Big Board score was 46-69 in favour of Austral with Austral winning all three rinks.  Best Bowral rink was Carl Spilker, Glynn Phillips, Paul Leverett and Josh Woodcock.  They lost by 4 shots but won 12 to 9 of the ends.  The score card shows Austral getting away the better, but Bowral was only 1 shot behind at 6-7 on end 10.  Austral won 7 shots on the next 2 ends to go ahead 14-2 and though they only won 2 of the next 9 end those 2 ends netted them another 6 shot for a 20-16 win.  Mick Spong’s team of Gordon Lewis, Stephen Della and Mick Armstrong lost by 6 shots.  Again Austral had by far the better start and lead 13-5 after 10 ends and 15-8 after 13 ends.  Bowral was the stronger team from this point to the finish but a loss of 5 shots on one of the late ends put pay to any hope of a rink win.  Austral won 24-18.  Third rink was Terry Butt, Kevin Stafford, Ashley Lewis and skipper Gary Brown and they lost this rink by 12 shots to 25 shots.  On the Grade 2 ladder Austral lead on 64.5 points from Glenbrook on 57 and Penrith 51.5.  Bowral retains fourth spot but well behind third place with 28.5 points.  Next week the team is at home to Blacktown who are one place and 5.5 points behind Bowral on the ladder.

Bowral grade 6 was the winning team from the Bowral Club with an excellent 10-0 win over second placed, and local rival, Robertson. Best Bowral team was skipper David Coltman, with lead Noel Fraser, Don Chapman and Dennis Beatty.  Springing back from last weeks loss they had a great 13 shot win this week.  With ends of 5 and 6 shots in the first 6 ends they raced to a 16-3 lead.  Robertson fought back and won the next 7 ends to reduce the deficit to 16-12 on the 13th end.  Next it was Dave’s turn and they cruised to the final end winning 13 shot over 8 ends and a final score of 29-16.  Jim Neely, back from the grade 2, lead his team of Ted McPhee, Bob Crowley and Gail Fraser to a 20-13 win.  Winning only 1 more end than Robertson they scored more multiple shots on the ends they won and hence a solid 20-13 win.  Graham Hunt, Terry Norwood, Julie Hayden and Robin Staples all contributed in a solid performance which had the team winners by 22-17 shots.  The big board score was Bowral 71 and Robertson 46.  A good win over the second placed team on the grade 6 section 1 ladder.  Despite this loss Robertson remain second place on the ladder with 45.5 points but well behind leaders Camden on 59 points.  Third is Picton having had a fine win over Camden this week by 9 points to 1 point and now on a total of 42 points.  Bowral has moved up the ladder as a result of this weeks win and are fourth on 32.5 points.  However, Taralga is only 1.5 points behind and Campelltown only 1 point further back.  So very tight down the bottom end of the table and Bowral meet ladder leaders Camden next week in round 9 at Bowral.

Once again information on Bowral grade 7 team is limited to the zone 5 website.  Bowral suffered a rather heavy defeat to Campelltown going down 33-71 and a 0-10 point loss.  With a 10-0 point tally it means that Bowral failed to win any of the three rinks though I do not have rink scores.  The top of the ladder in grade 7 section 3 is very tight with Camden and Bundanoon both on 53.5 points and just behind is Campelltown on 50 points.  Only a further 2.5 points behind lie Bargo and the are the Bowral opponents in round 9 with the game to be played at Bargo.