BOWLING INFO SATURDAY JULY 29th (Terry Norwood at the desk)
Starting with some general info:
- The RSL Shield competition ended on Saturday, but more on that below.
- The Rookie Pairs competition attracted four pairs and the draw was made on Saturday afternoon. This competition will commence on Saturday August 19th at 9am with Forrester V Cornwell and Visintin V Butt.
- The Pennants competitions will commence next Saturday August 5th when the Grade two team travels to Austral and the Grade Four side hosts Austral at Bowral. Best wishes to all the players for a successful start to the season.
- The Men’s Bowling Club Committee is pleased with the number of bowlers who attended throughout July. There were more than 290 appearances at social and competition games at, or for BBC during the month and it’s hoped this will continue on as the weather starts to warm through August.
RSL SHIELD COMPETITION
The RSL Shield Competition concluded on Saturday with the playing of the round of pairs matches. Going into these games, the team led by Dugald Braithwaite was in front on 95 points followed by Greg Lewis 74, Kev Stafford 70, Bob Edwards 54, Tony Oakes 52 and Alastair McGhee 50. Although team Braithwaite held a solid lead, there was plenty to play for, pride being fairly high on the list. The draw for this final round had the leaders Braithwaite and Lewis up against each other, Edwards against Stafford and Oakes against McGhee. There was quite some leeway to be made up if the bottom three teams were to challenge the leading three.
Rinks 1 and 2 saw team Edwards up against team Strafford. On rink 1, Robin Staples and Bob Edwards took on Scott Kennon and Kev Stafford. And what a cracking game this was! Although down 4 – 1 early, Bob and Robin led 9 – 4 after six ends. It was then that Scott and Kev got the better of their opponents winning five of the next six ends to lead by a shot at 13 – 12. However, the more senior pair of Staples and Edwards was far from done and they hit back to lead 25 – 14 with three ends remaining. Kev and Scott scored seven on those ends so the final count was team Edwards 25, team Stafford 21. On the adjacent rink, Mick Flynn and Ted McPhee represented team Edwards while Terry Butt and Dave Coltman played for team Stafford. Both teams scored points early and by the eighth end both had bagged seven points. However, Terry and Dave had much the better of the next eight ends and by the sixteenth had 23 shots on the board to 11. Ted and Mick improved their score towards the end but were behind 16 – 24. The overall scores for these two teams were team Stafford 45 points and team Edwards 41.
The clash of the titans was on rinks 3 and 4 where team Braithwaite met team Lewis. On rink 3, Ian Crow and Dugald Braithwaite battled it out against Arnold Lenczuk and Greg Lewis. Ian and Dugald bagged 8 points on the first two ends and by the seventh end had notched up 13 to the 6 for Greg and Arny. By the tenth end, team Braithwaite was in front 17 – 10 and protecting their competition lead well. It was then that Arny and Greg got on top and forged to the lead. They won eight of the last eleven ends to notch up 25 points. Dugald and Ian finished with 21. In the second pairs match of this clash, Graham Hunt and Stephen Della represented team Braithwaite and Richard Denman and Ash Lewis team Lewis. Graham and Stephen had much the better of the first five ends to lead the points 9 – 2. Ash and Richard then had a purple patch of form and went to the lead after eleven ends by 13 – 10. As the teams slugged it out in the run home, Graham and Stephen kept their form and finally netted 20 points to the 17 by their opponents. The overall scores for these teams were team Braithwaite 41 and team Lewis 43.
The clash of the minnows was on rinks 5 and 6 where team Oakes took on team McGhee. On rink 5, Terry Norwood and Tony Oakes held the flag for team Oakes while Ian Duncan and Alastair McGhee represented team McGhee. Both teams got themselves on the scorecard early so that by the sixth end both had netted 4 points. It was then that Terry and Tony found good form and with a mouth-watering seven shot haul on the eleventh end had rushed to 17 points. Team McGhee was languishing with 5. Something similar was happening on rink 6 so the surge was on! This dominance continued so that by the end of the match Terry and Tony had bagged 32 shots to the 10 by Ian and Alastair. On the adjacent rink, Bob Crowley and Peter Cornwell for team Oakes battled against Jim Starkey and Gordon Lewis for team McGhee. Gordon and Jim had the better of the first seven ends and had netted 7 points to 1 by their opponents. It was then that Bob and Peter turned on a real show of brilliant bowling. Jim and Gordon were bowling well but Peter and Bob were superb. By the end of the game, they had amassed 33 points to give team Oakes an excellent total of 65. The 11 points by Jim and Gordon saw team McGhee with 21 points.
So, the final points tally in the RSL Shield were, in first place with 136 points the team of Graham Hunt, Ian Crow, Stephen Della and Dugald Braithwaite, in second place on 117 points the team of Richard Denman, Arnold Lenczuk, Ash Lewis and Greg Lewis, in third place (on a count-back) on 117 points the team of Bob Crowley, Terry Norwood, Peter Cornwell and Tony Oakes, followed by Team Stafford on 115, Team Edwards on 95 and Team McGhee on 71. Congratulations to all bowlers, but especially to the winners team Braithwaite. In his acceptance speech, Dugald thanked his team and singled out Graham Hunt for special mention on his huge win in the singles which set the team up for victory.
The RSL Shield Champions Ian Crow, Graham Hunt, Stephen Della and Dugald Braithwaite!
RSL Shield runners-up Arnold Lenczuk, Richard Denman, Ashley Lewis and Greg Lewis!
RSL Shield 3rd placed Tony Oakes, Terry Norwood, Bob Crowley and Peter Cornwell!