YMGCR BOWLS CLUB
Midweek Pennant had the A1’s travel to Wangaratta who were in 3rd on the ladder and had pushed us at home in the season opener, but since then we have made a few changes to the rinks and we look a better unit. Laureen Smith rink jumped out of the blocks and were leading 17/2 (I put that down to Rory’s inspirational speech before the game). Claire Sanders was all over the jack and got great support from her team mates and they won 27/13. Anne Miles rink was always in control and won 27/11 and Greg Green rink was out bowled all day but hung in there to lose 19/21. YMGCR won 12/73 to 2/45 and puts them a game clear on top.
The A2’s travelled to Yackandandah and lost 0/46 to 14/67. Doesn’t help when you lose 2 skippers and that reflected on the result, but Marcia McGrillen stepped up to skip from 3rd to take up the reins and her rink played a great game losing 16/20 (she played Yack’s top skip). Garry Hart had a tough battle all day but lost 15/20 and Bob Evans lost 15/27.
The A3’s played top side in Kiewa at home and lost 0/34 to 14/90. When I looked at the Kiewa team their 3 skips all skip in their A1’s on weekend pennant (hard to beat that). Eugene Hodson rink was our best losing 12/27, Marie Whitehead lost 13/28 and Doddy losing 9/35.
The B1’s played Moyhu at home and lost 1/50 to 13/81, but the good news is that we may have unearthed a new skip in Col Withers and with another newby in Lyn Baxter playing 3rd and Lois Ellis and Jill Lamson combining together to draw 21/21. The selectors tried anther new skip in Terry “Shagga” Baxter and his rink put up a competitive effort losing 17/25 and Carolyn Boston rink lost 12/35.
Wednesday Social bowls had 25 players and with only 3 two game winners, getting the chocolates were “Pinkie” Lidgerwood and Col Withers with +19 (not a bad effort when you consider that when you come to play bowls you should bring your bowls, luckly Pinkie lived close by). Runners up were Greg Green and Jill Lamson with a great score of +17 and the jackpot failed to go off. Good to see Tony Durkin back on the green.
Also on Wednesday Anne Miles and Claire Sanders played the O&M State Ladies Pairs Final at Corowa Civic against Kerri Leask and Sue Middleton winning 30/11.
On Thursday at YMGCR we had the O&M Over 60’s Ladies and Men’s Pairs Finals, with Anne now partnered with Caroline Reilly from Yarrawonga and they won 16/14 in a tight game against the Wodonga team. The Wodonga team had earlier put our girls out in Marie Morffew and Pam Dodman winning 6/20. In the men’s section we had Doc Martin and Doddy Dodman play a Milawa team and with Doddy leading well and the “Doc” playing like a surgeon as he sliced his way through the head to draw shot after shot and they won 18/5. They will now play a strong team from Wangaratta next Thursday at our club at 9:30 so come along and give them support.
On Friday night the A1’s fronted up against our old foe in Yarrawonga and always these games are an epic battle and this one was no different, but YMGCR prevailed winning 14/81 to 4/74. With 2 ends to go YMGCR were 3 shots up and on Junior LeFevre rink, lead Garry Presnell put 2 great bowls near the jack and they remained there until Junior drew a 3rd with his first bowl and the Yarra’s skip had a drive and missed. Junior then played the bowl of the night to trail the jack to still hold 3 and they won 22/16. At the same time Suger Ray Irvine drew 1 to win 29/21, but they had a great lead 17/2 but the Yarra rink fought back but couldn’t close the gap. Szab’s rink was in a tight contest all night but lost 16/19 and Cabbage Spencer was in all sorts of trouble but they won the last 6 ends to go down 14/18. They are now a game clear of third place on the ladder.
The A2’s were sitting on the bottom of the ladder but were showing enough to suggest they could do some damage against 3rd team Myrtleford at home and this is what happen. When the selectors threw “Rory” Brown into the top job, he lifted his rink to a fantastic win winning 29/9. Well lead by Rowdy Haynes and well support by Doc Martin and Pricey, the rink was like a well oiled machine. Grumpy Loveridge welcomed back Dougie Wheeler at third and they always had the game under control winning 24/11. In Kerry Kinnane game they were scoring like a cricket match (with multiple 5’s and plenty of 3’s to each side), but on the 16th end one of Myrtleford’s players went down with heat trouble. So the Myrtleford rink was down to only 6 bowls, but Kerry bravely held on to his lead and won 26/22. Cat’s game was always tight and it took a Cat special to draw 2nd shot to tie the game 21/21. This now lifts them to sixth on the ladder and only a game outside the top four.
It was a costly loss for our A4’s at Corowa Civic when they lost 5/82 to 13/86. In a tight game across the 4 rinks with Steve Gann winning 19/18 and Ian Morffew winning 22/21. Good to see Bob Liddell back and he drew 22/22 and Marie Whitehead losing 19/25.
The B2’s also played Corowa Civic at home and lost 4/58 to 10/62. Ross Lloyd won 22/17 and Noel Millar who does a good job looking after our new bowlers also winning 25/22 and John Wenzel losing 12/23.
Thought we might try something new and have a rink of the week over both Pennant days, and this week it will go to Rory Brown, Pricey, Doc Martin and Rowdy Hayes (well done boys).