On a weekend that will be remembered by many for a long time the Parkes Bowling and Sports Club celebrated their Centenary year.

On Friday night the club was bristling with both current and past members attending for a meal and drinks and catching up with visiting bowlers who have travelled from other clubs to celebrate and compete in the Saturday Central West Glass invitational and the Sunday celebrations.

Before the commencement of the first game on Saturday morning a flag raising ceremony was conducted with long time supporter and sponsor Ben Terry from Terry Brothers Carpet Court raising the 100 year flag that he supplied for the club.

This format comprised 21 of our Parkes Bowling and Sports Club bowlers competing against 21 bowlers from 7 other clubs in 7 games of triples.

Clubs represented were Hazelbrook, Belrose, Camden, Club Dubbo greenkeepers; and owing to the unfortunate late withdrawal of Manildra the Parkes Railway Diggers supplied 2 teams.

I would like to mention Parkes Railway Diggers bowler John Corcoran for accepting to play with Camden owing to the unavailability of another bowler from their club; thank you John.

After the 7 preliminary rounds of 8 ends each the Parkes Bowling and Sports Club teams had a impressive combined score of 371 points compared to the visiting teams 270 points.

The outstanding performers for our club was the very competitive unbeaten on the day combination of Steve Turner, Guy Ellery and Wilbur Harris with 60.5 points.

The best performers for the visitors were the ever consistent and very supportive Belrose side of Chris Weber (spider), John Venteman (Ed) and Richard Wise (the guv) with 51 points.

In front of a large crowd of supporters and onlookers the three best performed teams from both sides took to the greens at 6:30pm to have an 14 ends per rink aggregate play off. Rink scores were as follows after 14 ends; Team Harris 16 defeated Team Leonard (Railway) 10; Team Went 15 defeated Team Wise (Belrose) 13 and Team Hampton 13 defeated Team Hazelbrook 9.

The scores were reasonably even until the last 5 ends when Parkes Bowling and Sports 3 teams pulled away to record a 44 to 32 shot win on the aggregate board.

At the prize presentation the sponsors Mick and Kim Horan from Central West Glass were thanked for their generosity. Mick was also presented with the Gulgong Bowling club shirt that he fell in love with at first sight and desperately wanted.

On Sunday approximately 110 bowlers attended the club to play bowls in conjunction with the Tom Furey driven initiative of 100 shirts donation for 100 years giveaway.

Bowling clubs from all over Australia contributed to our request for a shirt and we even had a couple of shirts from New Zealand arrive. The hours that Tom put into this shirt drive is unbelievable and we all thank you for the effort Tom.

For $15 all bowlers got a bowls shirt of their choice, a free game of bowls, a free meal and tickets in the raffle which was conducted at the end of games on Sunday.

Winners in the raffles were as follows; 1st Noel Johnstone; 2nd Col Hayward; 3rd John Watson; 4th Robyn Morgan; 5th Nick Kelly; 6th Di Howell, and the worthy winner of the Bowls NSW jacket was Phil Betts; one of the clubs best volunteers.

Sponsors and supporters of the day were as follows; Terry Brothers Carpet Court; Buttabeef Butchers; Rob Kellys' Star Hotel; Paul Lewin from The Bugman; Ben McNaughton from the best carwash in Parkes and last but not least the Champion Post for their coverage of the event on both days. Thank you to all.

And as always a special mention for the greenkeepers and the helpers; all the volunteers including Maureen Stone behind the bar; the board and the bowls committee.

In Mixed Pairs, Trevor Harvey and Joan Simpson 24 defeated Wilbur Harris and Merilyn Rodgers 17. Trevor and Joan flew out of the gates and showed a clean pair of heels to lose only 4 ends in the first 11. Team Harris struck back with a 2 and a 3 in the 13th and 14th end but it was really all over by that stage as team Harvey led by 22 to 10.

In another game of mixed pairs the very experienced team of Maree Grant and Tom Furey had a convincing win against the combination of Jan McPhee and Mark Dwyer. Whilst team Dwyer played well, Tom put in a convincing display of lead bowls to bump Jans' bowls out of shot position a number of times thus making it difficult for Mark to draw to the head.

In Major Pairs the final was played with the strong pairing of Tom Furey and Dave Johnson playing against the dynamic duo of Steve Turner and Wilbur Harris. Team Johnson never really let Team Harris into the game until the 13th end where a 4 was scored. At this stage the scores were 11 to 8. Team Harris had a drought from end 2 to 11 where they did not score a shot whilst team Johnson kept plugging away with 1 pointers. In the wash up team Johnson endured to win 19 to 12.

In Handicap Pairs owing to a packed compressed season owing to Covid, Gary McPhee and Mark Dwyer played against Greg Townsend and Andrew Reynolds on the Centenary Sunday at 10 am in the morning. Team Dwyer had a comfortable win and move on to the semis.

In a Major Triples semi-final the team of Tom Casey, Greg Townsend and Mick Went played against the combination of John Ward (sub) Rob Tinker and Graham Dixon. Team went were very dominant in this game and were never headed to score a comfortable win against Team Dixon.

In the other Major Triples semi-final the trio of Gordon Dickson, Andrew Reynolds and Brett (Baldy) Frame came up against a determined side of Rob Irving, Tony Riordan and Gary McPhee. Things started slowly in this game with the scores being locked at 8 all on the 8th end. At the 22nd end it was 19 all. Team McPhee scored a 3 on the 23rd end to take a 23-19 lead; Team Frame replied with a 3 to make it 23-22 but Team McPhee just hung on to record a 24-22 win on the 25th end. As usual Rob Irving had a convincing and consistent leads game and substitute 2nd Tony Riordan did not let anybody down with his performance.

Team McPhee plays Team Went in the Major Triples final on the 28th November at 1pm.

Garry McPhee

After a hugely successful weekend of celebrations for the 100th anniversary of Parkes Bowling & Sports Club, the excitement continued with the final of the Minor Pairs 2020!

The weather was warm, the bowls, hot! What a cracker of a match, worthy of a championship final, as Di Howell & Maureen Miller vied against Jan McPhee & Heather Harvey. The lead see-sawed back & forth until the penultimate end, when it was all tied up at 16-all! Team Miller took the championship with a magnificent 6-point final end! Well won, Di & Maureen! Fabulous game everyone! Thanks to umpire, Liz, and Ground Control for the perfect playing surface!

Social bowls had Brenda Davies, June Burgess & Valmai Westcott amusing themselves with a game of Scroungers. Brenda enjoyed a win. Kay Craft/Hilda McPherson/Joan Simpson played consistent bowls to outplay Eileen Bradley/Lynn Ryan/Robyn Morgan.

With a similar result, Flo Riseborough/Carol Reed/Betsy Johnstone were too good for Frances Charlton/Merilyn Rodgers/Rosemary Mitchell.

In the third triples game, the Fran Dixon/Kim Evans/Gwenda Carty combination were no match for the ultra-consistent Kate Keogh/Margaret Hawken/Rhona Went.

Team Went continued their lucky streak by winning their green fees back in the winner's draw! Fran, Eileen & Joan left the club smiling after winning cash in the 100's club!

Next week, Tuesday Nov 24, it's our Christmas Mufti Fun Day followed by Christmas-themed Trading Table! All welcome - non-players, come and join in the fun! Raffle & prizes! Christmas donations to the value of $10 please.

Tuesday, Dec 8, will be our Presentation Day. Bowls uniform required on that day. Please add your name to the board to be counted for a catered lunch by Dev's kitchen.

To play social bowls on Tuesday, call Jan/Betsy, 68621446, between 8.30 - 9 am. Play begins at 9.30, but please arrive by 9.15am. Social Roster: Robyn M.

JLO