A quiet day of social bowls on Tuesday, as the cream of the crop, our Grade 3 District Pennants winners motored across to Mudgee for the Regional Playoffs. 

On Rink 4, a game of triples saw Kay Craft/Lynn Ryan/Maureen Baillie survive a united attack by Frances Charlton/Elaine Miller/Rosemary Mitchell, winning by 3 points.

Valmai Westcott/Gwenda Carty won their game of pairs by just one point on the final end against Julie Green/Lea Orr. 

Our Melbourne Cup Spring Carnival is on 1st November! 

By Lea Orr

The rains stayed away long enough to allow 14 social bowlers to enjoy two games of pairs and a triples game last Thursday.

On paper, the triples gun combination of Eddie McPhee, John Niddrie and Geoff Freeman were unbackable favourites over John Carr, Bob Freeman and Rob Irving. However, the under-dogs proved that the odds, and age are irrelevant and after 21 ends, team Irving won 23 shots to 21. 

Ray Jones and President Col Miller started slowly against Mike Valentine and Chris Harrison, to trail by 6 shots after 4 ends. 

Scoring a 5 and three 4s opened up the game for Jones and Miller and they didn’t back off winning by a big margin.

The combination of Mal Porter and John Ward proved too consistent against Ron Hornery and Marty Tighe in a tight game winning 24 shots to 19.

Saturday Bowls were washed out.

By Marty Tighe

The second semi-final of the Minor Singles was played last Tuesday between Gary McPhee and Greg Townsend. The scores were tight over the first 7 ends, only 2 shots the difference in favour of Gary. Playing good draw bowls enabled Gary to maintain, and steadily increase the margin over Greg, to eventually win the match 25 shots to 13. Gary will now play Mick Simpson in the minor singles final.

A high standard semi-final of Major Singles between Mick Simpson and Mick Went was played on Saturday in front of a large group of supporters. The defending champion Mick Went dominated early, leading 8 shots to 2. 

However, the very determined Mick Simpson gradually reduced the margin and briefly took the lead, 14 shots to 13. As the thunder and light rain added to the tension on the green, the defending title holder Mick Went outclassed Mick Simpson in the end, winning 25 shots to 16. 

Mick Went plays Peter McPhee in the Final, while Mick Simpson has a great opportunity to advance to the Major ranks as he plays Gary McPhee in final of the Minor Singles.

By Karma Chameleon

October has arrived, named ‘octo’ as it was the 8th month of the roman calendar. On Tuesday, 20 ladies were dressed to the nines at the Parkes Bowling Club ready to give their two cents worth!

Two matches of Club Minor Singles were scheduled. On Rink 3, Lorraine Baker put paid to the hopes of Kay Craft, scoring on the majority of ends.

Rink 4 hosted a much closer match between Heather Harvey and Maria Willcockson. As the score see-sawed, the girls gave it their all. Heather was on cloud nine after 25 ends, winning 25 – 22.

The final of the Minor Singles between Heather and Lorraine will be played on 18th October.

Social matches saw Vi West/Chris Curteis/Elaine Miller enjoy 15 minutes of fame with their narrow win over Julie Green/Merilyn Rodgers/Rose Mitchell on Rink 2. High fives all round for Lea Orr/Frances Charlton/Gwenda Carty/Brenda Davies with a sound victory over Carol Reed/Maureen Baillie/Maureen Miller.

Pocket money was claimed by Heather and Marja (card draw), and Merilyn, Rhona and Brenda (100’s club) while lucky Carol won the lucky door.

Next week, all our good luck wishes go to our Grade 3 Pennants team as they contest the Regional Play-offs in Mudgee! Anyone may enter the District Singles to be played on 8/9 November. Check the board for details.

Congrats and thank you to all who purchased Liptember products. We raised $104 for Lifeline and Women’s Mental Health.

To play social bowls next Tuesday, 11th October, call the club on 6862 1446 between 9 and 9:30am. Play at 10am, all welcome.

By Lea Orr

Congratulations go to Liz Byrne, Jan McPhee and Marja Iffland of the Parkes Bowling and Sports club. They are the new District Triples champs after a close final beating Orange Ex-Services 24 – 17 last week.

The stadium was filling as 12 social bowlers headed out on Tuesday in Parkes. We kicked off with a spider, and it was Marja’s lucky pink bowl that held its line!

Had we allowed for extra time, Heather Harvey and Liz Byrne, playing against Jan McPhee and Marja Iffland, would have decided their drawn match with a golden point on Field 2.

On Field 3, Merilyn Rodgers and Maureen Miller took advantage of open space to score 2 points more than their rivals, Carol Reed and Brenda Davies.

Fresh from her winter spell, Laurie Keane was keen to win, teaming up with Lea Orr on Field 4. They enjoyed some lucky breaks and won by 3 points against Rosemary Mitchell and Lorraine Baker.

After 9 ends, the whistle blew for the second half and many players were called upon to change positions on the field.

With full back, Brenda now in No 1 guernsey, Team Davies proved too strong for their rivals! Dependable Liz B took over the centre position and led her new team to victory! As Lorraine moved onto the left wing, she finished with a quick run down the line to score the winning point for Team Baker!

By Lea Orr