Minor Singles: On Thursday July 23, in a first round match, John Wright came up against John Watson. In my comments I usually refer to players by their first name but for obvious reasons I will use surnames on this occasion although the marker scored the card as "Baldy" and "Beardy", the obvious distinguishing features of the two players.

On the early ends Wright had the advantage and after eleven ends had opened up a lead of 12-6.

On the next four ends Wright scored 9 shots and had extended the lead to 21-6. Watson was playing some great bowls but, no matter what he did, Wright found a way of turning things around. After twenty-one ends the score was Wright 24 - Watson 12 but Watson then found form and won six of the next eight ends to cut the margin to 27-22. Both players continued to play great bowls and with the help of a 4 shot win on the thirtieth end Watson had reduced the margin to two shots (30-28) but on the next end Wright scored the shot he needed to advance to the next round with a 31-28 win.

Social Bowls Thursday July 23: Seven matches (including the Minor Singles match) were played on a great day for bowls. In the closest of the Pairs matches, John Corcoran and Ian Simpson won ten of the first eleven ends to lead Col Mudie and Graham Barby 14-4. I don't know what happened to Col and Graham but suddenly they found a gear, scoring eight shots on the next three ends and in the end Col and Graham came back to win the match, 19-18.

Arthur Corbett and John Dunn also built up an early 14-4 lead (after seven ends) against Steve Ryan and Jim Blake. However, Steve and Jim won nine of the next thirteen ends and, with one end to play had reduced the deficit to 1 shot (19-18) with one end to play but they could not quite sustain the run and Arthur and John won the last end, and the match 21-18.

Other results:

The Lucky Rink was No. 11, which was the Minor Singles match, but John Wright's winning streak had come to an end and the $160 remained in the clubs coffers.

- The Rookie

Forbes players took full advantage of their home course advantage whenthey scooped the pool in last week's veterans golf competition.In a field of 34, Steve Edwards lead the way with a solid 27 points for the 12 holes to win by a point from team mate Ken Sanderson. The locals also dominated the nearest the pins with Alf Davies and John Whatmore taking the A and B-grade honors respectively on the 18th hole,while Steve Uphill was the A grade winner on the ninth hole. B-graders failed to threaten the stick on this hole. John Pearce from Parkes won the encouragement award.

The Mick Miller shield was won comfortably by Forbes 148 points to 132. The ball sweep went to 21 points. Winners were: 25 points - Steve Uphill(F); 24 - Peter Barnes and Rod Hey (F), Gordon Christie (Parkes); 23 - Rod Besgrove, Allan Rees and Geoff Drane (F), Nim Dziuba (P); 22 - Garry Pyrmont (F); 21 - Alf Davies, B. Hazell and Barry Parker (F), Michael Lynch (P).