Sundy Bowls at Sporties, Contributed by ‘Pistol Pete’. 

In what was wonderful weather for bowls, Daphne Dunbar and Pete Bennison — having one of his better games — helped Greg Brown to a handy lead in both the opening end and another to lead Sue, McCauley, Vicki Hummel, and Bryan O’Sullivan at the changeover.

That saw a “now-or-never approach”, but the leaders were in ominous form, and threw-up a couple of triples, a double to reach a final tally of 17 to defeat Bryan’s team by six. This was good enough for third of the morning.

In the next game, it was eight ends each between Dick Whiteford, Shirley Marchant, and Ian Humphries and Chris Castlehouse, Steve Kelly, and Ruby Stockings. The latter led by one at the break and in a one-shot flip on the second eight the teams were drawn 10-each after 16 ends — Ian’s team won on a countback in a nail-biter!

The game between Ros Joseph, Gary Huggins and Phil Knight and Sue Armstrong, Therese Gaiao, and Gordon Scott had “power” written all over it. The former led by five after an impressive first three ends, then Gordon and his girls began their assault!

 They rattled-up a couple of fours, a couple of fives, and a double to register 20 shots for the five ends they won, meaning their opponents had to do something special. Exactly 15 shots down with eight to play was daunting, and Ros, Gary, and Phil were left “licking their wounds” after a 24-14 loss. Sue, Therese, and Gordon were rewarded by being named “No. 1” for the morning.

In what has been described as “a classic”, the contest between rival skips Pete Ruzans and John Cole, with their respective partners, saw a 13-12 final scoreline. Ron McCaule and Frank Armstrong also helped skip Pete to overcome Sue O’Dea, Ross Paro, and JC in a nerve-wracking match of cat-and-mouse that saw the lead change hands a couple of times, before Ruzans and co were able to raise their hands!

Bowls can create a happy fella; in this game it was one Matt Quill. He and his teammates Mary Perry and Helene Emblen helped themselves to the mat on five of the first eight ends, leading 10-6. The second half against Rob Pfeiffer, Julie Brown, and Di Hildebrandt was much the same, five ends to three and a final score of 18-14 in favour of the all the way leaders.

Allan Stratford is not seen on the green very often taking on the role of skipping. With Chris Strojny as his lead he went about his task enthusiastically though could not quite match Graham Ross and Ray Strahan who flew out to a 13-7 lead at the turnaround. The “reluctant skip” and his mate did find form on the way home but not enough to snag the win, going down 17-15. They had a chance to tie or better on the 16th but came up short.