YMGCR BOWLS CLUB
Midweek Pennant had the A1’s travel to play 2nd side and arch enemy … Wodonga and as usual it was a titanic battle with YMGCR getting up on the last end to win 10/72 to 4/69, and of course it was the unbeaten rink that got us over the line, Milesy, Petro Velardo, Robyn Moore and Siggi Rempel won 32/19. It was looking pretty ugly but when the Wodonga’s 3rd had a dig at the Anne, a few words were exchanged that got the old girl fired up and the rink then went on their merry way. (Her teammates said her eyes took on an evil glow). On her 20th end Milesy rink picked up a 5 to give YMGCR a chance, then on her last end and 2 down on the main scoreboard, Siggi drew shot, Robyn then drew another and then Petro Velardo drew 2 and Anne drew one with her last bowl to hold 5. The Wodonga skip with his last bowl didn’t do any damage and the game was over and kept YMGCR’s unbeaten record intact. In the other game “GG” Green rink jumped out to a 19/1 lead against Wodonga’s top skip and with Irvine leading well, “Chop Suey” Middleton and Rory and GG all playing well, but then on one end there was an 8 shot turn around and the Wodonga skip got a sniff and all the momentum changed. With “GG” Green playing some great shots the 2 skips battled it out, but we went down 25/27. In the big picture it was a good result against their number1 skip. Laureen Smith rink was always in the game and took a slender lead, but the Wodonga skip played some big conversion shots in the last few ends to take the game 15/23 and this now puts us 22 points clear, but now we will have to refocus when the finals begin because we all start even again.
The A2’s travelled to Benalla and in a must win lost 2/54 to 12/61 and now drops them to 5th and 13 points out of the 4. Worse still is that they play 2nd side Wodonga twice in the coming weeks, but they are still in with a chance and must give it everything they have because they have the cattle to so some damage. Best rink Marcia McGrillen winning a nail bighter 20/19, Allan Goudge had a tough battle all day just going down 18/21 and Ian Morffew went down 16/21.
Our A3’s had to play Benalla over at Club Mulwala (thank you to Club Mulwala for helping us out) and lost 2/49 to 12/64. We still sit 4th and with our two remaining games against lowly Wodonga and 5th playing the top side we still have a chance to progress to the finals. It’s good to see Marie Whitehead’s all girl’s rink bounce back and win 20/13, Greg Fisher lost 17/25 and Doddy lost 12/26.
The B1’s had a bye and next week will play Wareena Park.
The Weekend A1’s travelled along the highway to play top of the table Wodonga at Wodonga and in a game worthy of a Grand Final, Wodonga won in a battle royale 14/70 to 4/69. It all came down to the last end with YMGCR leading by 2 and with Petro Velardo holding shot until the Wodonga 3rd moved the jack back for 2. Junior LeFevre then played a magnificent bowl to sit the shot bowl out and hold 1; but not to be denied, the Wodonga skip played the match winner to sit Junior’s bowl out for 3 and when Junior played his last bowl and missed the jack by a millimetre Wodonga had claimed the game winning 17/19. The rink was down 0/11 after six ends, but the boys kept putting bowls in the head and slowly they worked themselves into the game and on 3 occasions they were holding multiple shots but their opposing skip played 3 big drives to kill the end. Cabbage Spencer’s rink played the competition’s top skip and triumphed winning 22/17 with Cabbage playing some magnificent bowls and Smithy playing well and getting good support from Garry Sanders. Szab’s rink was in a tight battle all day and rallied on the last end to pick up a 3 and win 17/14. “Sugar” Ray was always in the game but the Wodonga’s third and skip played some big bowls to win 13/20. The scores do not reflect how close the game was. Bertie Doust played well as did the rest of the rink. We are still sitting 2nd on the ladder by 5 points from Wangaratta and next week’s game against Kiewa at Kiewa will be all important to where we finish.
Unfortunately the A2’s went down to Wodonga at home, losing 0/68 to 18/98 and this now puts us out of the running for the finals after a slow start at the beginning of the season and losing the first 5 games and being in some very close games that didn’t go our way and came back to hurt us. The team did the club proud as they showed a lot of guts and determination to fight back and take some big scalps along the way. Pinkie Lidgerwood had a tremendous battle and lost 23/24, Kerry lost 20/24, Pricey went down 17/25 and Cat lost 8/25.
The A4’s played Benalla at home and lost in a close battle 4/74 to 14/76 and in doing so is now out of the finals race. Marie Whitehead’s rink lead the way winning 24/14 with newly promoted lead in Shagga Baxter playing his 1st game in the higher grade. Bob Liddell also had a good win 18/14, Bob Evans lost 15/23 and Ian Morffew lost 17/25.
The B2’s had a tough assignment playing top side Corowa RSL at Corowa and losing 0/38 to 14/94. Best rink was Noel Millar with a 13/26 loss, Terry Matthews lost 14/28 and Billy Butterworth went down 11/40. I would like to thank all the players who played in our B’s this year because it’s pretty tough when your team can have many changes week to week, but we unearthed some new bowlers who will or already have played in a higher grade and have acquitted themselves well.
The final of the men’s pairs will be played between the 2 top teams in Spencer/Velardo and the defending champions, Junior/Senior LeFevre. I will try and keep you informed when the game is being played.
Our barefoot night bowls begins on Tuesday and if any members would like to give us a hand, it would be much appreciated.
Due to one of our teams having a bye, our rink of the week will have to wait to next week, sorry Milesy.
On Sunday we hosted the finals of the O&M Mixed Pairs and winning the final was Anne Miles and Ian Brimblecombe from Wangaratta who defeated the Yarrawonga team of Tim Cromie and Evelyn Calder.