Minor Pairs Championship

Bowlers have been quick off the mark to begin their matches in this years Minor Pairs Championship, with matches played last Thursday, Friday and over the weekend.

On Thursday, Steve Ryan and Geoff Smith played Dave Parker and Rodney Ford in the first match of the Championship. Unfortunately for Dave and Rodney, a very slow start cruelled any chance they had of defeating Steve and Geoff.

Team Ryan led by 12 shots to nil after 5 ends and they didn’t let their opponents back into the match. Dave and Rodney tried hard and fought back to be within 4 shots after the 15th end, however Steve and Geoff maintained their composure to score a comfortable win by 25 shots to 16.

A Friday eve thriller was played between Myles Smith and Brad Parker against Greg Townsend and Ash Kirwan that required an extra end to be bowled to decide the winner after the scores were level at 20 shots each after the regulation 21st end.

Greg and Ash won the match after scoring 1 shot in the tension packed extra end.

Prior to this dramatic finish, the match was very even with the margin between the teams never greater than 2 to 3 shots.

A feature of this years Minors Championship is the emergence of newer and younger bowlers willing to showcase their abilities in a Championship setting.

Brad and Myles, whilst not yet regular social bowlers, showed that they can handle a set of bowls in a match situation and will gain a lot of confidence from this close lost against Greg and Ash.

The regular duo of Ian Simpson and Brian Hampton accounted for the pairing of Frasier Beaton and Josh White, winning by 28 shots to 16 on Saturday morning.

Frasier is another younger Bowler making his way in the game and bowled with a lot of confidence as he and Josh stayed with Ian and Brian for the first 7 ends, before being over-run by the experience and consistency from their opponents. Ian and Brian won the match by 28 shots to 16.

On Sunday afternoon, Tash and Scott Allen were too consistent for Eathen and Rob Lacey, winning by 18 shots to 15.

The 3 shot winning margin didn’t reflect the dominance of Tash and Scott who, for the majority of the match, held a dominant margin over the Lacey duo who found themselves behind by 12 shots with just 6 ends to play.

Eathen and Rob got their game going to storm home, winning each of those 6 ends but ultimately fell short by 3 shots against the impressive Allens.

Saturday Social Bowls

The newly renovated top green attracted 26 social bowlers on Saturday to play 1 game of triples and 5 games of pairs.

The triples game featured Colin Hayward, Mal Porter and Graham Dixon against Bob Freeman, Noel Johnstone and John Ward in a close contest, with Team Dixon emerging winners by just 2 shots over Team Ward.

Mike Valentine and Gary McPhee led all game to record a nice 4 shot win over Jo Simpson and Peter Mead, winning by 21 shots to 17.

Mike and Gary scored 5 shots on the 10th end to open up a margin of 9 shots and bowled well against good Bowlers in Jo and Peter to stay in front and enjoy a good win.

Tash and Scott Allen enjoyed a tense win by 19 shots to 12 over Rodney Ford and Mick Simpson in another good game.

Tash and Scott handled the heavy greens throughout the game just a little better than their opponents, and pulled away over the last few ends of the game to win by 7 shots over Rodney and Mick.

Guy Ellery led for Dave Reilly against Rob Irving and Nathan Reynolds in a game that featured the first ‘wrong bias’ bowl for the year, delivered by a bewildered Dave Reilly on the 2nd end of the game, and a game in which the scores were close for the majority of the game.

Guy and Dave gradually increased the margin after an even first 10 ends, and then withstood a late challenge from Rob and Nathan to win the game by 24 shots to 18.

Brenda Davies enjoyed her role as Lead Bowler for Col Mudie in their game against John Carr and Geoff Freeman and emerged winners by just 2 shots.

With the scores were locked at 16 shots each with 2 ends to bowl, Brenda delivered a couple of good bowls adjacent to the jack on each end, enabling the maestro Col Mudie to keep the head secure against the probing bowls from Geoff.

Brenda and Col won by 18 shots to 16 over John and Geoff.

New young Bowlers Lachie Plummer, Mackenna McGuire and Frasier Beaton played a good social pairs game with Marty Tighe. The scores after 22 ends were level at 18 shots each.

Social Bowls has returned to regular start time of 1.00pm on both Thursday and Saturdays, with names in by 12.30pm, by phoning the Club on 68 621446.