By MARTY TIGHE
Pennants
The Pirates’ Grade 2 Pennants team were desperately unlucky in their loss to the powerful undefeated Dubbo City team, played on the Pirates' home turf last Sunday.
The Pirates proudly flew the flag, putting in a great combined team effort, but were defeated by just 1 shot.
The heart-breaking loss virtually ends the top Pirates teams’ chance to advance to the Section play-offs.
Dubbo City defeated Parkes Pirates by 56 shots to 55, overall loss of 2 to 8 on the big board.
The Pirates Grade 5 team travelled to Canowindra and came away deserved winners with a 9 to 1 win on the big board against a very determined Canowindra team at home.
The Pirates won by 66 shots to 58, winning 2 of the 3 rinks.
Team Wright were seemingly in control of their contest, leading by a comfortable margin, until the 3rd last end.
The old heads from Canowindra scored 5 shots, to take the lead by 1 shot with 2 ends to play.
Steve Turner, Joanne Simpson, Jake Brown and big Wrighty regained their composure and won the 2 remaining ends in a tense and nervous finish, recording a win by 25 shots to 23.
Wilbur Harris’ team of Mark Glasheen, Marty Tighe and Jock Townsend led from the very first end and were too good for their fast-finishing Canowindra quartet, to win their match by 8 shots.
It was a good even team performance from Mark, Marty, Jock and Wilbur with each bowler performing well when it most mattered.
Gary McPhee’s team of Maureen Miller, Tony Riordan and Pete McPhee struggled all match, and at one stage were behind by 15 shots.
As the heat sagged the energy from all bowlers, team McPhee staged a remarkable recovery, and were trailing by just 4 shots on the last end.
Maureen, Tony, Pete and Gary bowled superbly on the last end, and held 4 shots in the head, and were eyeing off at least a draw result.
The Canowindra Skip bowled 2 terrific bowls to reduce the head to one shot for team McPhee, resulting in a 3 shot loss.
Team McPhee were brilliant in a remarkable comeback after being a long way behind midway through the match.
The Pirates Grade 7 team had a strong win at home over Tullamore, winning all 3 rinks and the big board by 74 shots to 55, for an overall result of 10 to nil.
Social bowls
Last week's social bowls were played at the earlier start time of 10am on both Thursday and Saturday in an attempt to play outside of the hottest part of the day.
Numbers were down, with 16 bowlers on Thursday and 18 bowlers on Saturday, with all games played over a reduced number of ends.
Slightly cooler conditions are anticipated this week, allowing a return to normal start time of 1pm on both days.
The Lucky Rink jackpot sits at $200 for next Thursdays’ social bowls.
A reminder to visitors or new bowlers that social bowls are played each Thursday and Saturday.
As always, the ‘Friendly Club’ welcomes all visitors to play social bowls.
Ladies bowls are played on Tuesday.
Two raffles are held each Friday, as well as the lucky 100 number wheel and pick-a-box, together with the members draw.
The members draw jackpot is now $2000. All the action starts from 7pm.