Another beautiful day at Victoria, weekend has been by far the nicest bowls conditions of the season so far.
Women’s Club Fours Final
The first club champions of the season were found, with Sarah Taukamo, Tanya Wheeler, Nina De Munnik, and Mary-Ann Wilson winning the club fours. Sarah was defending her title from last year, and keeping going her extraordinary club title winning streak, after winning all four titles last season. Tanya was a strong replacement in their team for Robyn who has unfortunately been stuck overseas. Congratulations to them! Didn’t take Tanya Wheeler long to get on the club titles board at Victoria! Nina is now up to 18 titles won!
Men’s Pairs
Morning matches
!Upset alert! in Round 3 of the club pairs. James Fairhall & Alf De Munnik who have made the final five years running, lost to Graham Goudge & Paul Dunham. The Paul/Graham combo, coming off an interclub pairs win together yesterday, were playing extraordinarily good bowls. They ran out to a convincing win. Fairhall/De Munnik up against Ruane/Finlayson next, with both teams needing a win to stay alive.
The Gary Ruane/Calum Finlayson combo were up against Jeremy Kydd & Colvin Inglis this morning. Goz & Calum had given Colvin a beating in the fours yesterday afternoon, so Colvin knew he had to up his game to try to enact revenge. Goz went out to a small lead early on after playing some absolute bombs on the first few ends, but the pendulum quickly swung. Goz wasn’t too happy with his favourite number 4, after getting stuck on that for too long, they couldn’t close the gap and suffered their first loss of the competition.
Adam & Lou Newman went head to head again this morning, as they did in the fours yesterday. Lou & Ian are already out of the competition after two losses last week, but clearly Lou wasn’t going to lie down for his son. In a cliffhanger game, Lou was one ahead on the last. Adam did sit the shot bowl on last end, but not quite hard enough. That’s 2-0 to dad so far this season. Adam & Steve now need to win their last to qualify. Adam is next up against the in form team of the morning, Paul/Graham.
With Rhys Barlow back in town, him and Neil Reid played their first match of the competition. The new pairing in this competition got a good win, running out to a 21-8 victory against Bas Dynan & Alan Woods.
Ray Martin & Robert Gray didn’t play last week as Ray had an international camp. They got off to a win 20-11 against Roy Gibb & Liam Crowley.
New club member Chance Hausman got short notice for his first club championship match, was a late call-up to play as a replacement, playing with Antony Foster. They were up against last weeks giant killers, Jayden Ravji & Gavin McFadyen. Jayden was quick to realise he probably got the short end of the straw with the young replacement playing some great bowls. Chance’s team were up 15-5, but dropped two 3s in a row to make it a close game again. With a few ends to go Jayden was three behind, and despite a 10 minute deliberation on what shot to play, he couldn’t complete the comeback.
Afternoon matches
Now more & more matches become do or die…
Adam/Steve needed to win their last match to qualify, against form team of the morning, Paul/Graham. With the Adam Newman pair up 18-3 after 11 ends, it looked like the New Zealand title holder was coasting through to post-section. Graham/Paul plugged away, they picked up a 5 to make the scoreboard more respectable, then got to 5 behind on the last end. On the last end, they HELD FIVE!!!! In a near repeat for Adam Newman last week, who on last end was 5 ahead on last end, 6 down on the head, it came down to him to save victory and avoid an extra end. Adam did it again, and drew fourth shot to win by two. Two nail-biting wins for them in their road to qualification.
James/Alf vs Goz/Calum both needed the win. After 9 ends, the score was 9-9, then the James pairing ran away a bit, picking up 9 shots over next few ends. Despite their morning loss, James/Alf became the first team to qualify, as is pretty much the norm for them.
Jeremy (JK) & Colvin were up against Rangi & Rhys. After JKs good win this morning, they again burst into the lead, going up 14-6. Rangi killed a few ends when they were in trouble, and they hung in there. Rhys started regularly smothering the kitty to put JKs pair under pressure. Rangi added to two of Rhys’s shots on the 16th end to get one behind on the second to last end. They couldn’t keep up their momentum though, and dropped a 3 on the second to last end. JK & Colvinator hung on to become the only team so far to progress to post-section with a game in hand.
Defending champions Robbie Bennett & Sid Roddick had a bye this morning, then were up against Ray & Robert in the afternoon. Robbie & Sid showed why it’s important to have a roll-up before playing after a bye, and zoomed ahead quickly to an 11-0 lead. Robbie & Sid were playing too well to let Ray & Robert back into the match, and kept piling on the pain.
Chance Hausman & Antony Foster are currently playing against Barry O’Brien & Mark Burgess who are already eliminated, trying to play spoilers. A close start to the match, at 6-6, but Chance & Antony, helped by having more to play for, got ahead and didn’t have to play the last end.
So far, qualified teams are:
James Fairhall & Alf De Munnik
Jeremy Kydd & Colvin Inglis
Adam Newman & Steve Nicoll
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