Action aplenty was the go this week at the “Bowly” and it wasn’t just restricted to the greens either.
We had a very successful trivia night on Tuesday raising almost $300 for the Narromine Junior Basketball Association, plus the Euchre boys and girls had their normal 20-odd play on Wednesday.
And where was the Judge? Well he was resting up in RPA and from all reports, coming along nicely.
Well back to the bowls’ action and plenty to report there with the semi-finals of the “A” singles and a few games in the “B” singles played on Saturday.
In the “A” singles defending champion Don Sullivan came up one shot short of making the final going down 30/31 to Aaron Hutchison in what proved to be a very entertaining match.
The match itself saw Don jump out to a handy 12/4 lead, but a rally from Aaron saw him leapfrog Don to set up what looked like a commanding situation at 23/16. Don then won seven of the next eight ends to take the scoreboard to 25/24 and it was game on. Despite getting to 30 first Don couldn’t hold out the determined finish from Aaron.
Aaron moves through to the final where his opponent will be Robbie Stanford who had a comprehensive 31/13 win over Steve Buttsworth in just 21 ends.
Robbie dominated right from the “get go” and it was pretty clear after just seven ends it was going to be a “tough” day for “Buttsy”. Robbie kept the foot down and didn’t let his opponent back into the match.
So the “A” grade is down to the final confrontation, while the mighty “B” graders still have a few more matches to be played to reach that status.
On Saturday we had four games to lighten the load and with some good performances from a couple of rookies as well.
In game one Warren Brown’s recent form continued in the same vein with a very commendable effort that saw him sneak across the line 31/27 over the more experienced Bob Weir.
In game two in a very entertaining match, Bob Davis had a hard-earned win over David Price 31/25 in a game which ebbed and flowed until perhaps a little bit of experience at the end saw Bob grab some 10 unanswered shots to claim the match.
In game three Geoff Anderson used his “get out of jail card” to overcome Norm Newman 31/28, again the final couple of ends the telling factor in the result.
In game four it was Puddy Gillespie who prevailed 32/9 in his clash with Brian Coupe, with the obvious experience shining through for the victor.
This weekend another couple of interesting matches have been programmed for the “B” grade singles which should see this event out to the semi-final stage.
In game one Geoff Bohm will play Geoff Anderson, with the Warren Brown and his wide ones taking on Bob Davis and those narrow type.
Social bowls last week saw good numbers both days with 22 going round on Thursday and a whopping 32 taking to the green on Sunday morning.
Firstly a full wrap of the Thursday action saw on rink 16 Bob Davis and Don Sullivan win 21/12 over Clifton Harris and Danny Carnevale in the pairs’ fixture.
On rink 17 in the first of the triples’ encounters it was Don Gibson, Peter Kelly and Bruce Livingston who prevailed 23/13 over Brian Bully, Peter Cross and Kevin Rider. That’s what the score card said anyway, but on checking I discovered it was the President’s men who got the “W” .
On rink 18 despite only winning some nine ends Mal Dawes, Bob Ashdown and Des Lincoln got the chocolates 32/26 over “Padre” Finnemore, John Heterick and Ray Cross.
The final match proved to be highly-entertaining with again a heap of shots scored but in the end just one shot separated the teams of Mal (welcome back) Hitchcock, Geoff Anderson and Norm Newman who prevailed 27/26 over Bob Weir, Steven Yeeles and Robert Bateman.
It appears not only if Kevie won the game but according to the scoring system he should have got the winner’s cheque for best performed team - I hope that was the case. In second spot were the duo of Bob Davis and Don Sullivan, while the jackpot prize pool of $22 went via the way of Mal Dawes, Bob Ashdown and Des Lincoln.
Now onto Sunday and despite a little hiccup in the starter’s tent, we managed to get the matches under way with some 32 almost happy chappies and chappettes in action, although I’m told a couple of chappettes weren’t happy with the way the draw was done, but please it’s the Sunday morning chook run, not a state event. Any how the results were interesting to say the least and it was great to see a number of first time players going round, that’s really what Sunday is all about. To those not happy to see the “newcomers” playing in this event, don’t play, wait a minute that’s not a good idea, so how’s about treating Sunday morning for what it is and just come along and join in the occasion. Anyhow that’s my two bobs worth. Well done to Geoff Anderson on a difficult morning, sorry you didn’t have any help, why was that boys? And what happened, well when the dust had settled the day’s winners were the trio of M Smith (new bowler) Mark Smith (almost new bowler) and Arnold (very old bowler) Gillespie with some 12 points. The runners-up cheque went to Betty (young bowler) Purvis and Peter (just a bowler) Payne also on 12 points but with an inferior margin to the winners. The jackpot prize pool was not won and will be worth a few more shekels next week.
West Dubbo Bowling Club are hosting a “Men of League Day” this coming Friday and it was envisaged that Narromine would take a squad down for this day, to say the numbers to date are disappointing would be an understatement, but hopefully I will not have to ring up Thursday and cancel. So if you were intending on being part of this day I need to see your name on the nomination sheet before I get to the club around Thursday lunchtime otherwise I will reluctantly have to convey the bad news to bowls organiser “Stumpy”. At this stage we obviously wont be taking a bus, but that doesn’t mean the teams cannot travel down by cars.
The nomination sheet for our President’s Day is rapidly filling up, and intending players/teams should think about getting a team organised sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment.
Congratulations to Aaron Hutchison and Robert French on making the zone side for the annual clash in Zone 16 next month. And speaking of things “Woolongongy” great to see former juniors Michael and Matthew McIntyre in fine form on and off the green. Matthew recently made the semi-finals of the Zone singles; no mean feat in this strong area, some of the vanquished along the way included a 31/30 win over the current world champion Jeremy Henry. Matt is also in line for Father of the Year honours with “Bub” number two due in October. Mickey on the other hand recently qualified for the Australian Indoor Singles titles in Queensland beating a strong field along the way to claim one of the six spots for NSW players.
Well that’s it for me for another week, keep’em rolling.