Playing Ditch Weight

Lawn Bowls

The Riverina Murray Region conducted two major events over the weekend.

The Bing Wallder Shield matches were played at Narrandera. This men’s competition has been played for more than fifty years. The side representing the old Riverina District were the winners as they won all five games. In the first game they defeated the Wagga side 62–57 and won their remaining four games by margins that totalled 170 shots. The Wagga side finished second and the South Western side were third. The South Western side won three games and their two losses were to Riverina and Wagga.

The Riverina Murray Shield is a new event for women bowlers that was played for the first time last year. The competition is similar to that for the men but with fewer players for each side. This year’s games were played at Gundagai and unfortunately the rain on Sunday morning led to the fifth game not being played. The Southern Riverina side were the winners for the second year in a row when they won all four of their games. The South Western side won two of their games and finished in third place.

Local play started on Thursday afternoon with just 12 players taking part. Tom Preston and Brian McNair combined well in their game and their 26–12 winning score gave them the vouchers for the day. The other two games were closely contested with Aldo Malvicino and Harold Anderson winning their game 14 shots to 12 and Ann Gardner and Geoff Holt defeating Robyn Apps and Ian Schofield 17–16 after they needed an extra end when the scores were tied at 16–all.

The second round of the Guy Pickering Charity Challenge saw 60 players on the greens on Thursday night. The highest points score for the evening was 16 for the very experienced Bowl Terras team while four teams – Lachlan Street, Fill Ins, Hilltops Hustlers and Hilltops Heroes – all finished with 14 points.

Play on Saturday afternoon saw 14 players taking part and that was a good number considering that almost as many players were representing the area in the Bing Wallder Shield. For some players the highlight of the afternoon was that the jackpot was won for the first time in many weeks. The results for the three games had Albert Carter and Michael Webb winning their game 27–14, Tom Preston, Allan Langford and Cliff Traynor winning 23–22 and Darryle Miller and Greg Woods winning 21–20 on an extra end.

Players are reminded that entries for the proposed Pairs Tournament to be conducted on Friday nights close on Friday 31st October.

The club will be hosting two qualifying sections of the State Mixed Pairs on Saturday 1st November. The first games are scheduled to start at 9.30 am and the teams involved will play two or three games on the day depending on which section they are drawn to play in. Both the section winners will be involved in the Region Finals to be played at Temora on Sunday 2nd November.

A big thanks to those club members who were involved in the renovation work on Green 2 on Monday morning. Well done to all concerned.