Social Bowls

Thursday

Steamy and humid conditions greeted 16 social bowlers to the top green last Thursday with a whiff of a late shower in the air. The bowlers were keen to deliver their best bowls before scrambling into Micks’ cool Palace to watch the wet stuff falling.

Rob Irving and Colin Hayward had no trouble defeating Bob Freeman and John Ward in a one-sided game in which the score did not matter, as these Bowling warriors kept on bowling well in excess of the regulation 21 ends.

The 2 Club Life-Time Members, and Village Mayor, hippy Rob Irving welcomed the younger Bob Freeman to the contest, who not only lowered the average age amongst the group, but also kept a very keen watch on the Bowls in the head as well as the scoreboard.

The game of the day featured Joe Davies and our new Club favourite from Grenfell, Pete Mead in a stirring contest against Warren ‘dollars’ Bevan and Brian ‘show me the money!’ Townsend. Spurred on after the scores were level at 5 shots each after the 8th end, Pete and Joe strung together 5 winning ends to roll along to a lead of 6 shots as the teams turned for home.

Warren found his range to set up the next 2 ends for Brian to do his best work, closing the gap to just 4 shots and were coming hard for Joe and Pete.

A winning 4 shot end on the 16th proved the difference for Joe and Pete, and they kept their cool to control the finishing ends, and enjoyed a tight win against Warren and Brian, by 19 shots to 13.

Blow-out Thursday continued in the game between John Carr and Mike Valentine against gorgeous George Bradley and Col Mudie.

Any team in a pairs game that leads by 14 shots after the first 6 ends is rarely hauled in by their opponents, and this proved the case with the Village neighbours, George and Col blasting away John and Mike to record high score against a record low score.

Mike had the last laugh however when he collected the big raffle dollars after the game.

The high scores continued when Graham ‘popeye’ Davis combined nicely with deadeye John Chew to eventually easily defeat Noel Johnstone and Mark Glasheen by 30 shots to 17.

The scores favoured Graham and John by just 3 shots after the 13th end after a competitive first half, aided by two 5 shot winning ends on the 2nd and 6th ends.

Picking up a 6 on the next end, followed by 4 shots on the following end enabled Graham and John to canter home and enjoy a satisfying dominant second half of the game.

The giggling duo of Geoff Smith and Ian Simpson proved too strong for Graham Dixon and Steve Ryan in a game that didn’t reach any great heights.

Geoff and Ian won by 20 shots to 10.

Graham and Steve reached double figures only on the last end of the game, when they won 5 shots on the last end while Geoff and Ian were putting their bowls away in their bags.

The lucky rink jackpot remained secure and advanced by $10 after the team on rink 6 didn’t select the jackpot number.

Saturday Social Bowls

Another 16 social bowlers enjoyed the warm conditions on Saturday to play 4 games of Pairs.

Bob Freeman and Gary McPhee battled gamely all game against Maureen Miller and Steve Ryan but were eventually out-bowled during the latter stages of the game.

Maureen and Steve won by 26 shots to 14 after they scored two 5 shot ends during the last few ends.

George Bradley proved he not only has the looks but also the bowls smarts when he and his trusty bowlers stick are in the same groove.

This again proved the case when he and Rob Irving played a classic game of bowls to edge out John Carr and Col Mudie by 18 shots to 15.

John and Col were stuck on 2 shots for the first 10 ends of the game as George and Rob continually thwarted their opponents’ shot bowls, to lead by 13 shots after 10 ends.

This lead was just enough to see George and Rob collect the win, as they won only another 5 shots in the game, whilst John and Col battled hard to overcome the big early deficit to out-score the Villagers’, however they left a lot to do, much too late, falling to a 3 shot defeat.

Jo Simpson and Craig Cusack led all game to finish 4 shots ahead of Mike Valentine and Guy Ellery, with a winning score of 18 shots to 14.

Jo and Craig picked up 5 shots on the 8th end to create a margin 3 shots and from then on they both bowled consistently well to hold out the accurate lead bowls from Mike and the good draw bowls from Skipper Ellery.

Skipper Dave Reilly, who still sits atop the 2026 Wrong Bias table, and Noel Johnstone won the first end in their game against John Ward and Mick Simpson, and then didn’t win another end until they just hung on for a 1 shot win on the 10th end.

In those missing 9 ends, John and Mick cashed in with some big winning ends to set the game up and never looked back.

John and Mick defeated Noel and Dave by 23 shots to 13.

The lucky rink jackpot remained shut after lucky rink 5 didn’t correctly select the jackpot number.

The jackpot sits at $300 for Thursday.

Social Bowls start time is 1pm on both Thursday and Saturdays, with names in by 12.30pm, by phoning the Club on 68 621446.