By MARTY TIGHE
Championship matches
Two Major Pairs Matches were played during the week. The experienced duo of Darryl ‘Dazzler; McKellar and Skip Gary McPhee were too strong for Ian Simpson and Brian ‘Sticks’ Hampton.
There was only 1 shot separating the two teams after the 11th end, however from that point on Darryl and Gary played all over Ian and Brian, to win handsomely by 21 shots to 9.
Gary was overheard telling ‘Sticks’ of the time he once saw a man standing on one leg at an ATM. Confused, Gary asked him what he was doing, and the man said he was just checking his balance.
It was a similar scenario in the 2nd Match also, with also just the 1 shot after the 12th end favouring Alec Bateson and Greg Townsend in their match against Geoff Smith and Mark Glasheen.
The rising star of bowls in Parkes, Alec and his tutor Greg powered away to win by scoring 18 shots over the remaining 9 ends, to run out easy winners by 32 shots to 15 over Geoff and Mark.
Social bowls
The stifling heat and a lack of a cool breeze from Lake Endeavour combined to restrict the numbers of social bowlers to just 10 bowlers on Thursday and 14 last Saturday.
On Thursday Tony Riordan combined nicely with Colin Mudie to defeat John Ward and Col ‘Thrilla’ Miller by 21 shots to 12.
John and Col led by 2 shots after the 15th end, but didn’t bother the scorers after that, as Tony and Colin won every end thereafter, to record a comfortable win.
Marty Tighe, John Carr and Colin Hayward battled hard all day in a closely played game against the wicks, edges and luck of Steve Ryan, Bob Freeman and John Corcoran.
Team Corcoran bowled well together, and led by 3 shots after the 12th end.
Team Hayward finally found their best bowls over the next 3 consecutive ends, scoring 6 shots, taking the lead for the first time in the game. They hung on to win by 16 shots to 13 over team Corcoran.
On Saturday, Dave Parker and Guy Ellery came up against a red-hot, sweaty Mark Glasheen and Gary McPhee, and were no match, being soundly defeated by 15 shots to 31.
Mark and Gary re-wrote the record books by scoring 7 shots on the first end of the game, and were still only in a mild canter after 11 ends with a handy lead of 16 shots to 8.
Just for fun, they scored 5 shots on the second last end of the game, to completely demolish Dave and Guy, winning by 16 shots.
Scott Allen and Jock Townsend showed the old guard of Graham Davis and Colin Mudie a trick or two, as they won by 24 shots to 13 against the more experienced and elder statesmen.
Scott, Jock, together with Alec Bateson, Tash Allen, Ethan Lacey and the Hancock Sisters are among the new(ish) younger bowlers at the club who are improving with every game, and will be an asset to the Clubs’ Bowling ranks in the future.
In the triples game, Therese Glasheen, Jim Blake and Warren Bevan had a nice win over John Carr, Bob Freeman and John Wright by 22 shots to 15. The turning point in the game occurred after Therese, Jim and Warren broke the score deadlock on the 14th end by picking up 6 shots, to take the lead by 5 shots and then won enough of the remaining ends to enjoy the spoils of a 7 shot win, over team Wright.
There wasn’t a lucky rink draw last week. The jackpot remains at $120 for next Thursday.
Social bowls are played each Thursday and Saturday at 1pm, names in by 12.30pm and, as always, the ‘Friendly Club’ welcomes all visitors to play social bowls. Ladies bowls are played on Tuesday.
Two raffles are held each Friday, also there is the lucky 100 number wheel and pick-a-box, together with the members draw. All starting from from 7pm. The members draw jackpot is now $1600.