BOWLS
On the major singles championships scene, 3 games were played this week beginning with the first game at 6pm last Tuesday night with very experienced bowler Brett 'Baldy' Frame playing bowls president Gary McPhee.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In a game that began as a one-sided affair with a very slow start, Gary trailing 21-6 after 16 ends rallied to win the next 8 ends to narrow the score to 24-21.
From that time on the game was reasonably even until Baldy finally run out the victor with a 31-27 victory. Dave (major) Johnson definitely got some exercise as the marker on a 37 end game.
On Thursday in major singles Colin Hayward played against the very smooth delivery of Steve (truckie) Turner.
Steve won the 1st two ends but Colin then found his line and length to dominate the next 11 ends to be leading 24-12.
From the 21st end on Steve got his game going to reduce the lead to 29-25 but it was all to no avail as Colin prevailed 31-26. This game also went to 37 ends.
Also on Thursday was the other major singles game between Tom Casey and Wilbur (Lawrence) Harris. Tom rushed out to a 7-1 lead after 4 ends and from then on the game see-sawed with Tom slowly moving ahead from the 21st end to run out eventual winner 31-20.
On the social bowls scene 22 bowlers on Thursday mingled in with the major singles bowlers to obtain the following results;
Twin brothers Alan Affleck, Alan Affleck !!! plus Jim Blake 24 defeated Mal Porter, Bob Freeman and John Wright 23. Actually Alan Affleck played lead and 2nd owing to a player imbalance. Ian Simpson and Gary McPhee 34 had a comfortable win against Gordon Dickson and Geoff Freeman 20.
In a nail-biter for both the skips Graeme Barby and Arthur Corbett prevailed by winning 12 ends compared to Ted Wright and John Wards 9 ends in an 18 all game.
Ron Hornery and Col Mudie 20 dominated all game when defeating Ray Jones and Rob Irving 9. John Watson and Colin Miller 18 defeated John Dunn and Martin Tighe 15.
On Saturday in beautiful weather, a good crowd of 26 bowlers attended to play. This is a good roll up considering that there were 6 men absent owing to playing in the District Mixed pairs at the Railway bowling club.
Brian Townsend and Colin Hayward 19 combined well in a tight game to defeat Steve Ryan and Rob Tinker 18.
In a turn around from Thursday, the same team of Ray Jones and Rob Irving 22 were always in command when defeating Jim Blake and John Dunn 11. Gordon Dickson and Liz Byrne 22 were also fully in charge of their game and combined well to defeat Ron Hornery and Maureen Baillie 14.
Col Mudie and John Wright 30 played long time member Tony Byrne and new member Graham Hunter 9. Tony has not got a lot of games under his belt this year and Graham will improve with more coaching and practice.
In the last of the pairs games, Martin Tighe and Rhona Went 32 defeated Bob freeman and George Boatswain 10.
In the only game of triples John Watson, Greg Huggins and Bruce Orr 18 were just outclassed by Mal Porter, John Ward and John Carr 22.
On Sunday, a beautiful autumn afternoon, the final of the major 4s were played between team Dwyer and team Davies. Mark Dwyer, Greg Townsend, Dave Johnson and Tom Furey played a dominant game against Joe Davies, Peter McPhee, Steve Ryan and Graeme Barby. When team Dwyer scored a 6 the task was always going to be a big ask to come back from. The final score was Team Dwyer 24 shots to team Davies 12 shots.
I have to congratulate Tom Furey for having a memorable weekend taking out the district mixed pairs on Saturday then backing up on Sunday to play a great game at lead in Mark Dwyers winning 4's side. Well done Tom.
All men are reminded that the nominations applications for zone triples and pairs in open, seniors and presidents sections are posted on the notice board.
Please endeavour to enter a team as the finals are being conducted at our club. Please read the nomination form for all information.
In district news, our mixed pairs combination of Tom Furey and Maree Grant have taken out this year's mixed pairs title which was conducted at the Parkes railway bowling club on Saturday with 16 teams competing, including players from Condobolin, Orange, Molong, Forbes and Manildra.
The game went down to the wire with the result being achieved after a tie-breaker end had to be played. Congratulations to these two players who put in so much time to improve their game. Practice makes perfect.
Veteran's Golf
Consistent Parkes vet, John O'Shannessy showed the way in last week's veterans golf competition played at Forbes. The renovated greens on the Forbes course presented few problems for O'Shannessy who carded 27 points for the 12 holes. Runner-up was Forbes' Garry Pymont who accumulated a solid 25 points on a day when "three-puts"were common.
The perfect weather attracted 28 players (16 from Forbes and 12 from Parkes) with honours in the Mick Miller shield shared on 133 points each.
Nearest the pins, 9th A-grade Robert Lea (P), B-grade Tom Edols (F), 18th A-grade Garry Pymont (F), B-grade Tom Delmenico (P).
Ball sweep to 21 points. 24 points Niel Duncan (F), Nim Dziuba (P), 22 Allan Rees (F), Sunna Bell (P), Tom Delmenico (P), 21 Barry Shine (F) and Tom Edols (F). Raffle winner was Neil Duncan.
During presentations it was announced that a number of changes have been made in the coming weeks for the monthly 18-hole competition. The changes start this Thursday, March 19 with the competition to be played at Cowra and not Parkes as programmed. On April 9 the scheduled West Wyalong 18 holes has been transferred to Condobolin, followed by Parkes on April 30.
RACING
COONAMBLE
Kody Nestor during his time as a jockey often survived on some lettuce leaf, a cup of black coffee and a couple of teaspoons of bird seed as he fought the battle to make the handicap weight for his upcoming mounts.
Extremely talented, Nestor rode 574 winners before it all became too much and he retired after winning at his final ride, on Noel's Gift at Dubbo, in November 2017.
The transition to being a trainer at Dubbo has been remarkably successful and on Sunday before a very big crowd at Coonamble, Kody Nestor supplied the first two placegetters, Sneak Preview and Fast Talking in the $150,000 Western Racing Association Country Championship Qualifier over 1400 metres.
Cowra jockey Mathew Cahill was aboard Sneak Preview ($5.50) which came from well back to reach the lead in the straight and then held on to beat the strong finishing Fast Talking (Greg Ryan,$2.80 favourite) by three-quarters of a length.
California Fox ($26) trained at Dubbo by Allan Gibson and ridden by Ken Dunbar was a brave third after racing near the lead while the Rodney Robb, Nyngan trained Supreme Attraction (Clayton Gallagher) set the pace and was a creditable fourth, in the prestigious race sponsored by Dad & Dave's Turf & Evergreen Turf Australia.
Both raced by big syndicates from the central west, Sneak Preview and Fast Talking have now qualified for the $500,000 Country Championship Final at Royal Randwick on Easter Saturday.
ALSO MAKING SPORTING NEWS:
