Playing Ditch Weight

Over the weekend the club hosted the Zone 8 Singles Championships. The games involved the Singles Champions from all six districts in the zone. The zone covers a very big area with some of the clubs on the zone boundary being Quandialla, Boorowa, Tumut, Albury and Hay. The competition has three divisions – State that is open to all bowlers, Senior that is open to bowlers over 60 years of age and President’s Reserve that is open to players with Pennant grades 5, 6 and 7.

The fine and sunny conditions were appreciated by all the bowlers and there was some excellent play on both days. Each game is won by the first player to score 31 shots and in several games the result was 31–30.

All six players in each division played two sectional games to decide who would play in the final.

In the State division Bruce Lack (Temora) won both his games 31–30 to qualify for the final and Brett White (Wagga RSL) won his sectional games 31–26 and 31–29 to be the other finalist.

Lincoln Gooley (Narrandera), Peter Forck (Henty) and Tim Crampton (Tumut) all played great bowls in their sectional games.

The spectators were treated to a great game in the final with excellent play by both players.

Brett took an early lead and after 19 ends he was in front 22–9. After 28 ends Bruce had reduced the margin and trailed 20–25.

Bruce won 6 of the next 8 ends and Brett had a 1 shot lead at 28–27. Brett then scored a single shot on each of the next 3 ends to win 31–27.

The final of the Senior division saw Peter Durnan (Narrandera) opposed to Rick McAlister (Tumut).

Peter had two comfortable 31–19 wins in the sectional games while Rick’s two games were much closer at 31– 26 over Bill Collins (Lavington) and 31–29 against Mark Pearce (Wagga RSL).

After an even start to the final Peter dominated the scoring to win 31–14.

In the President’s Reserve division Tony Parkes (West Wyalong S&C) won his sectional games 31–11 and 31– 16 to qualify for the final. The winner from the other section was Ron Bonat (Oaklands) with scores of 31–17 and 31–23.

After 15 ends of the final the score was 10–all. Ron then got a small lead and after 21 ends was in front 18–13. From that point Ron won 7 of the final 9 ends to record a 31–17 win.

Zone 8 President Mick Connor presented the winners and runners–up with their certificates and prizemoney.

On Sunday 23rd May, John and Kate Cooper won the District Mixed Pairs Championship when they defeated Sue and Lance Gault 21–8 in the final. They will contest the regional finals at Ariah Park on 12th and 13th June.

Despite the cold conditions on Thursday afternoon there were 16 players involved.

Terry Holmes and Colin Chapman won the vouchers with their margin of 14 shots.

Not far behind were Michel Alavoine and Denis Rosen who won their game by 12 shots. Other winners were Aldo Malvicino and John Cooper (6 shots) and Milan Brankovic and Les Fanning (1 shot).

With a number of regular players involved with duties associated with the Zone 8 Singles there were just 8 players on Saturday afternoon. Mark Brownlie and Albert Carter won their game by 12 shots and Brian Christie and Graeme Edgerton won their game by 5 shots.

This coming weekend the Zone 8 Pairs Championships will be played at the club. Play will start with six sectional games to be played on Saturday morning. There will be six games on Saturday afternoon, another six on Sunday morning and the finals of all three divisions to be played on Sunday afternoon.

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