Parkes bowls
By MARTY TIGHE
Pennants
It was a very successful Pennants’ day with each of the 3 Pirates teams winning on Sunday.
The Pirates’ Grade 2 Pennants team travelled up the Newell Highway again, this time to bowl against a strong Dubbo Macquarie River Rats’ outfit.
The Grade 2 team won overall with a 5.5 to 4.5 result.
The Pirates Grade 5 team hosted the Cowra Eagles at home and won all 3 rinks, winning overall 10 to nil.
The Pirates Grade 7 team had a strong win over Yeoval at Yeoval, winning 2 rinks to 1, with an overall result of 9 to 1.
Social bowls
Twenty-eight bowlers enjoyed social bowls last Thursday, playing 2 games of triples and 4 games of pairs.
George Bradley demonstrated his prowess with his bowling stick when he led Graham Davis and skip Warren Bevan to a comfortable win over mighty Mal Porter, Bob Freeman and Colin Hayward. Team Bevan won by 25 shots to 11.
Top tier bowlers Andrew Reynolds and Mark Fitzalan played against their fellow Grade 2 Pennant bowlers in Brian Townsend and Mick Simpson, and recorded a win by a healthy 19 shot margin.
It was a competitive clash between 4 top bowlers, however Andrew and Mark proved too strong, winning by 25 shots to 6.
Ray Jones returned to the greens after recent illness and showed he hasn’t lost his touch when he combined with Gary McPhee, to easily defeat Noel Johnstone and Joe Davis by 25 shots to 7.
The closest scoring game of the day was the clash in which Jake Brown and Tony Riordan prevailed over Ashley Kirwan and Colin Mudie by 28 shots to 26.
Jake and Tony led by 9 shots after the 13th end, and seemingly were cruising for a comfortable win.
They were, however nearly upstaged when a resurgent team Mudie won 5 of the remaining 7 ends, to smugly hold a 2 shot lead, with 1 end to play. Jake and Tony regained their earlier touch just in time to score 4 shots on the final end, to win the game by 2 shots.
John Corcoran was up to his old tricks when he skipped for Ron Hornery and Ann Smith to win a good game by 4 shots over Al Affleck, Phil Moran and Graham Dixon.
The scores were close all game to the 17th end.
Team Corcoran, led by their wily master Skip, produced the better bowls when they mattered most over the remaining ends, to win 22 shots to 16 over team Dixon.
Dave Parker and Geoff Smith enjoyed their stroll on the green under the blazing sun, and for fun bowled enough good bowls to easily account for Jim Blake and John Ward by 26 shots to 10.
Twenty-four bowlers bowled 2 games of triples and 3 games of pairs under a blazing sun on Saturday.
Ray Jones continued his recent good form when he led for Geoff Smith and John Ward against Phil Moran, Bob Freeman and Mick Simpson.
Micks’ men battled hard all game, but did really threaten Ray, Geoff and John who bowled well together, to record a good win by 28 shots to 12 over Team Simpson.
The second triples game was a bit closer when Ron Hornery, Marty Tighe and skipper Tony Riordan went shot for shot against Col ‘meat tray burglar’ Woods, Joanne Simpson and Brian Townsend.
Team Riordan made all the early running after scoring 5 shots on the 6th end, only to be deflated 3 ends later when Brian and his team returned serve with 5 shots.
The scores were locked at 17 shots after 14 ends, and it was anyone’s game to win.
Tony bowled some good Skipper bowls over the last few ends, to lead his team to a 22- shot to 20 win over a brave team Townsend.
Mike Valentine and Ian Simpson bowled more consistently during the whole game to savour a good win over Bernie Mitchell and Guy Ellery.
Mike and Ian combined well in their own non-verbal ways to record a 20 to 18 win over Bernie and Guy.
Rodney Ford and John Wright had too much in the tank for John Carr and Colin Hayward in the trying conditions, winning by 31 shots to 20.
Rodney and John scored 6 shots on the 7th end to establish a margin that was too much to bridge for John and Colin.
John and Colin, playing together again for 987th time, kept battling away and showed determination and character to score 5 shots on the 16th end, but the damage was done earlier in the game after Rodney and John set up a big lead.
Colin Mudie and Steve Turner had a big win by 29 shots to 11 over Therese Glasheen and Gary McPhee.
Big Steve revelled in the heat, and was later clearly in no hurry to depart the club to return to his world of cardboard boxes and trailer loads of furnishings.
Earlier in the week, Steve was putting in some posts for a new fence, and asked Elaine to help.
He gave her the hammer and said, ‘when I nod my head, you hit it’. He said he didn’t remember much after that.
The Lucky Rink jackpot sits at $180 for next Thursday's social bowls.
A reminder to visitors or new bowlers that social bowls are played each Thursday and Saturday.
Next Thursday the bowls will commence at 10am in attempt to beat the expected heatwave conditions, so names in by 9.30am. 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 $1900.
All the action starts from 7pm.