Once again, the weather has been the real winner over the past month, with only a few bowls matches played due to the ongoing inundation of the greens.
Women’s Bowls
The Major/Minor pairs is still supposed to be next……
Maybe…… hopefully…….by the next issue!!?
Deb Folkard
Men’s Bowls
Pennants
The remaining Pennants matches, some of which were matches previously cancelled due to the appalling weather conditions, have all been cancelled. In any event, neither of the Berry teams had any chance of winning the competition. It should be noted that, despite having no chance of winning, we finished the season on a winning note, which again has me looking forward to next year’s competition. If only we could start as well as we finish!
Pairs Championship
A break in the weather enabled both the final of the Men’s Pairs Championship and the first round of the Mixed Pairs competition to be played at Bomaderry on the 21st of April.
Terry Hayes and Nathan Bezant won a spirited final against Paul Bezant and Mick Sulis. Despite the convincing win, Terry and Nathan did not have it all their own way in a game characterised by “on-shots” and “dead ends”.
Mixed Pairs Competition
Deb and I played against Gillian Portener and Terry Bezant at Bomaderry on the 21st of April. This match lived up to expectations as a hard-fought affair, which had to be finished under lights. The lead changed seven times and the scores were level on three occasions, including the twenty-first end. Despite holding a three-point advantage going into the twenty-first end, a poor shot from me took the jack back to two of Terry and Gillian’s bowls. Terry managed to draw a third shot to make the score 19 all, thereby forcing an extra end. The final end was a real nail-biter, played under lights in the late afternoon as the match lasted for more than four and a half hours. Fortunately, we managed to score one shot to take the win by 20 points to 19. It was a great game and everyone played really well.
Deb and I then played Irene and Bob Dunn in the next round, at Bomaderry on the 16th of May. Irene and Bob were in red hot form and we were hopeless. Irene peppered the Jack all day and on the rare occasion that we managed to get one close, Bob would quickly take it from us. Throughout the game I thought that they couldn’t keep it up all day and that sooner or later we would hit our straps, but I was wrong. They could and we couldn’t. Congratulations Bob and Irene on winning the match by 31 points to 11 and good luck in the Semi Final.
Social Bowls
Social Bowls returned to Berry briefly on the 1st of April. Whilst the green was very slow, it is nonetheless a great testament to the Greenkeeper Rod Armstrong’s skills to get the green back in playable condition in such a short time after the flood. Unfortunately, subsequent rain has rendered the green out of action until the weather improves considerably.
1st of April – Ron Nelson, Darryl Goodger and Lindsay McNamara 19 – Derek Raymond, Laurie Watson and Rob Folkard 17; Bob Dunn and “Tige” Lidbetter 18 – Keith Pepper and Mark Power 11; Margaret and Terry Hayes 30 – Bob Burney and David Badger 7.
Rob Folkard
