The warmer day that greeted the 36 bowlers at Sporties last weekend was matched by the echo of convivial voices ringing out across the greens.

Husband and wife duo Tod and Sue O’Dea combined with the experienced Col Cottee to claim top spot from Mary Perry, Chris Stronjy and Paul Wooldridge. Helped by a big ‘6’ on the tenth end, the impressive score was 27-8, with 11 ends.

Steve Kelly, Garry Huggins and Ray Strawhan were, however, close behind in second place. They started strongly with an impressive ‘7’ against Tim Moore, Peter Collins and Phil Knight. The final score was 27-8 but they had only managed nine ends.

Taking third place was the team of Tracey Keenan, Frank Armstrong and Bryan O’Sullivan, who defeated Mick Strawhan, Shirley Marchan and Kerri Dickson. Mick’s team had a frustrating morning, taking seven ends to get on the scoreboard. Although they outscored Bryan’s team in the second half, they had left the fightback too late. The final score was 23-10.

It was a case of the teacher-versus-the-student in the next game. Pete Sinclair combined with Glennis Hangan and Jenni Spratt to beat Chris Sinclair, John Kennedy and Robert Pfeiffer. Every time Chris’s team had bowls close to the jack, Pete showed the advantage of experience and promptly moved them out of the way.

The final score was 20-9.

It was 12-all on the 12th end between Trish Gosper, Eric Satchell and Ron McCauley against Ron Weigold, Ruby Stockings and Mel Giddings. With a tight battle between the two seconds, Ruby Stockings and Eric Satchell, the game could have gone either way. Trish’s team stopped the others from scoring from then on and went on to win 20-12.

Leo is usually a reliable and adventurous lead bowler, however, with Roger Sherwin as his second and an ever-steadfast Graham Ross as his skip, they struggled in the first half of their game only claiming the first three ends.

No such problems for Sue McCauley, Pat Ryan and Matt Quill, who settled in well and won the next five. With Graham’s team working on the principle that it's not the number of ends but the number of shots that gets you over the line, they scored two ‘5s’ and went on to win by one, 19-18. Matt’s team had the consolation of winning ends 10-6.

Resters this week were awarded to Eric Satchell and Phil Knight and lucky numbers went to John Kennedy and Ron McCauley.

As always, new and casual players are most welcome, and our club contact details can be found under Sunday in the Dubbo Photo News Community Diary.