As with week one we had more than 100 golfers on the course participating in the event which is great for the golfing community of Parkes.

In week one Rob Cheney stole the show and again this week it was another of the older brigade in Bill Warren who starred. Bill managed to shoot under his age which is quite hard to achieve as we age. Bill shot a fine 90 off the stick to give him a nett 64, a clear four shots to the nearest rival.

Bill is a regular figure on the course, and we hope to see this feat accomplished again now he is getting into form at last.

The runner-up was Rob Hey who had to shoot a par round to get his 68 nett, another exceptionally good round of golf.

John O'Shannessy returned his best round for a while also recording a 68 nett and Todd Huntly no doubt surprised his playing mates to also record a 68 nett.

The course is starting to look great with the fairways in good order and the greens responding to fungus treatment. They will be getting pinned on Monday and rolled on Wednesday so hopefully they will respond quickly.

The Nearest The Pins this week were - Idlerite Tyrepower 1st won by B.Haskett at 220cm, the Griffins Leading Edge 4th by John Pearce at 380cm, the Dirt Doctor Landscaping 6th by Phil Bishop at 290cm, the Parkes Readymixed Concrete 9th by Bob Barter at 200cm, the Harvey Norman 11th by Peter Boschman at 41cm, the Westlime 15th by Michael Dellaca at 403cm and the Central West Glass 18th by Peter Boschman at 66cm. So that meant that Phil Bishop won the lucrative 6th hole this week.

Ball winners were - Rob Hey, John O'Shannessy, Todd Huntly 68, Peter Boschman, Mark Lawryk Phil Smith 69, Rob Cheney, Mark Kelly, Brian Hogan Snr 70, Bob Barter, Rob Lea, Ron Hetherington, Garry Phillips and Ian Phipps 71.

The pennants season is about to begin with handicaps locked in from the 17th and the first game is at Bathurst on February 7. Team members will be advised over the next week.

Next week we contest an 18 Hole 4BWB - 3rd Round of Summer Competition and there is an Individual in conjunction.

Don't forget annual fees are now due and the invoices are in the ProShop.

Forbes' Trevor Toole had a point to spare when he won last week's veterans golf competition.

On a day dominated by Forbes golfers on their local course, Toole carded 28 points for the 12 holes.

For the second week in succession a count back was required for second placing with Forbes' Barry Parker (27 points) getting the decision over another local player Jeff Moon.

Thirty-three golfers - 18 Forbes and 15 Parkes - contested the day where Forbes proved too strong, winning the Mick Miller Shield 155 points to 144.

Nearest the pin winners were Peter Barnes (Forbes) and Nym Dziuba (Parkes) who won the A grade, while Mick Bond (Parkes) and Jeff Moon took the honors in B grade.

The ball sweep went to 22 points with the winners as follows: 27 points - Jeff Moon (F); 26 - Alan Rees (F); 24 - Les Little (F); 23 - NymDziuba, Robert Lea, Tom Delmenico and Mick Bond (Parkes), Peter Grayson (F); 22 - John Dwyer (P), Brian Clarke, Steve Uphill and Peter Barnes (Forbes).

Tom Edols won the encouragement award.

Parkes will host this week's event followed by the first Lachlan Valley event for 2021 at Condobolin on Thursday, January 28.

On Thursday social bowls, owing to the heat, saw only 16 bowlers attend for two games of triples and one game of pairs.

In the first game of triples the trio of Jim Blake, Tony Riordan and Gary McPhee 22 shots prevailed over the trio of Ron Hornery, Ray Jones and Marty Tighe. This game was reasonably even until the penultimate 20th end when team McPhee scored a 3 and then a 6 on the 21st end to run out 22-15 winners.

On rink 16 in the other game of triples Greg Huggins, Bob Freeman and Rob Irving scored a 4 on the 5th and 7th end, and a 3 on the 8th to take a commanding 15-7 lead against the trio of Rob Tinker, Ashton and Colin Miller. Team Miller fought back to be trailing by five shots on the 17th end but team Irving held their nerve to finish the game with a 23-17 win.

On rink 18 in the only game of pairs John Carr and Geoff Freeman came up against the duo of new member Mike Valentine and long-time member Colin Hayward. Team Freeman basically held an average four-shot lead from the 9th until the 20th end and scored a 3 on the last 2 ends to run out winners 22 shots to 15.

On Saturday in blustery but otherwise good weather an excellent number of 38 bowlers attended to compete on the immaculately prepared top green. In the mix were eight lady bowlers which was great to see on the day.

On rink 15 the trio of Maureen Miller, Mick Simpson and John Dunn played against the trio of Jim Blake, Gordon Dickson and John Wright. Team Dunn scored two 5 shot ends on their way to a convincing 24 shots to 14 win.

On rink 16 the dynamic trio of Ray Jones, Mike Valentine and Rob Irving played against Jan McPhee, Colin Woods and John Ward. Team Irving was trailing by one shot when they scored a 5 on the 10th end and then basically showed a clean pair of heels to run out comfortable 26 shots to 17 winners on the 21st end.

On rink 17 relative newcomer Graham Hunter, Ron Hornery and Liz Byrne were way too good on the day against the trio of Joanne Simpson, Bernie Mitchell and Colin Mudie. Team Byrne racked up some big numbers with three 4's, a 6 and two 3's in their score to defeat team Mudie 33 shots to 12. Thank you Bernie Mitchell for once again filling in at short notice to make an even draw; it is much appreciated.

On rink 19 Lorraine Baker and Colin Hayward just sneaked in for the win against the pairing of Mal Porter and Rhona Went. In a game that was really neck and neck all the way, team Hayward scored a 2 on the last end to come away with a 17 shots to 15 win.

On rink 20 the strong pairing of Joan Simpson and Gary McPhee played against Greg Huggins and Steve Ryan. Gary played some strong bowls in the early part of the game ably supported by Simmo to be holding a commanding 19-shot lead on the 16th. Team McPhee continued on with the good form of Simmo helping out greatly towards the end to run out 30 shots to 10 winners.

On the final rink 20 John Carr and Tony Riordan had no answer to the pairing of Kim Evans and Colin Miller. The game was being evenly contested until the 14th end when team Miller scored a 5 and played strongly from there to the last end to record a 27 shots to 13 win.

Major 4's news

On Wednesday in hot weather conditions at 4pm the 4's team of Rob Irving, Marty Tighe, John Ward and Gary McPhee contested the first round of the major 4's championship against Tony Riordan, Ian (Simmo) Simpson, John Wright and Brian (Sticks) Hampton.

Team McPhee got off to a great start with a 5 on the 1st, a 7 on the 4th to have a commanding 13 to 4 lead on the 6th end. Team Hampton came back strong to be only trailing by two shots on the 12th. Team McPhee scored on seven of the last nine ends to run out convincing 30 shots to 18 winners.

On Saturday much cooler conditions prevailed for the other game of championship 4's with the team of Tom Furey, Steve Turner, Guy Ellery and Wilbur Harris coming up against the foursome of Brian Townsend (sub for Andrew Reynolds), Greg (Tanga) Townsend, Mark Dwyer and Dave (Major) Johnson.

Team Johnson got away to a great start leading 7 shots to nil on the 5th end before team Harris scored a 4 on the 5th end, and then kicked into gear to never give up the lead with strong scoring on the 9th through to the 16th end to have a 16 shots to 10 lead.

Team Johnson fought back to reduce the deficit to 3 shots on the 19th before team Harris scored a 3 on the 20th to take a strong 19 shots to 13 lead going into the last end. Team Johnson scored a 1 on the last end to lose by five shots in the 19-14 game.

Parkes Bridge Club plays three times a week at the Lutheran Church Hall: Monday from 6:30pm, and Tuesday and Thursday afternoon from 1pm. See Friday's paper for a special story on one of its original members.