Playing Ditch Weight

The annual Cherry Festival Bowls Carnival concluded on Thursday 27th November with the completion of the fifth game and presentation of prizes for the Men’s Triples tournament.

A Calcutta for this tournament was held on the Monday night and was enjoyed by those in attendance. Special thanks to Joe Bargwanna, Mark Joliffe and Luke Corcoran for their work as auctioneers. Mark and Luke were representing Kevin Miller, Whitty & Lennon.

Thanks also to Glen Benson for his efforts in the sale of tickets prior to the auction. The maximum of twenty–eight teams played the first of their five standard games of 3 Bowl Triples on Tuesday morning.

While there was no actual disruption to play in any of the games the conditions on Wednesday were unusual to say the least. There were two or three rain periods early in the morning followed by fine conditions for the remainder of the day but the players had to contend with wind gusts of up to 60 kilometres per hour during the afternoon.

Only one of the twenty–eight teams – Ian Sullivan, Peter Pascoe and Harry Proctor from Springwood – won all five games to be the tournament winners. A very good reward for a team that has participated for a number of years.

Geoff Holt, Terry Ricketts and Chris Grimson were in second place with 4 wins and a draw and a margin of 30 shots to finish just in front of the Huskisson team of Bob Strauss, Bill Benson and Dave Caldwell who also had 4 wins and a draw and a margin of 28 shots.

The local team of Glen Seward, Mark Anderson and Denis Rosen had 4 wins and a 65 shots margin to come fourth and fifth place went to Dennis Hull, Trevor Schram and Ian Townsend from Lithgow with 4 wins and a margin of 58 shots.

Prizes for these teams were presented by John Gerrard local manager of Kevin Miller, Whitty & Lennon.

The prizes for the game winners were presented by Mick Manning the President of the Young Bowling Club Fishing Club.

Both these organisations are regular sponsors of the carnival.

The game winners were: Game 1 – Ian Tyerman, Mitch Johnson and Tony Leslie (Ettalong); Game 2 – Michael Munn, Darryl Murphy, George Somerville (Boorowa/Young); Game 3 – Tony Cheetham, Ray Smiles and Peter Bennett (Figtree); Game 4 – Mick Tough, Mark Bogart and Russell Baker (Springwood); Game 5 – Ray Walter, Peter Mead and Mark Fitzalan (Grenfell/Nyngan).

Thanks to the many people who helped ensure the success of the carnival – Mitch Cameron and Damien Miller for their work on the greens and to Damien for his work umpiring and on the scoreboard.

Thanks to Elsie Hines, Geoff Holt, Cliff Traynor, Russell Boyd and Joe Read for umpiring. Thanks to Venue Manager Carlie Kemp for her tireless work during all three tournaments, to Rebecca Scott from Young Services Club for her behind the scenes work and all the bar staff during the carnival.

Thanks to the caterers for lunches on six days and dinner on Monday night.

Numerous club members helped with tournament organisation, raffles, 100 clubs and Thursday’s BBQ lunch. These included Jill Rosen, Margaret Gailey, Jenny Holt, Ann Gardner, Robyn Tierney, Robyn Apps, Colin Chapman, Tony Ruhl, Chris Wright, Joe Bargwanna, Glen Benson, Russell Boyd, Michael Webb, Jonno Watson and Cliff Traynor.

Thanks to Stephen Walsh, Ian Schofield and Albert Carter who filled in when visiting teams needed a substitute player.

The club is very appreciative of the great sponsorship support received from many local businesses for the two–week carnival. Organisers ensured that all sponsors were acknowledged during each of the three tournaments.

Play in the Guy Pickering Charity Challenge continued on Thursday night with Fill Ins the winners for the night with 16 points. They finished just in front of Hilltop Hoods who scored 15 points.

Only one game was played in the Friday Night Pairs event and after a very even start to the game Jonno Watson and Brian Madden won most of the ends in the second half to win 20–9.

Unfortunately, the rain that started on Saturday morning and continued through to lunch time deterred the usual Jackpot Bowls players and there was no play.

IMAGE: Mick Manning with Game 1 Winners – Tony Leslie, Mitch Johnson and Ian Tyerman from Ettalong (wearing their Young shirts).

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• Bowls