Both Tuross Pennant teams started the 2019 season on a winning note recording good wins in the first round of the competition. The Grade 5 side travelled to Moruya and chalked up a 9 – 1 victory. The Grade 7 side had a win over Tomakin at home by the same score.
In Moruya, Joel Hilliard started the year in the way he played in 2018 leading his team to a thumping 30 – 4 victory. He teamed with Peter Davies, Noel Downie and Alan McLeod to dominate the game winning 18 of the 21 ends. This 26 shot win was the backbone of the overall win.
Above: Joel Hilliard
Above: John Monks
John Monks and Bruce Taylor had a welcome return, after a year out, to combine with Ivan Balentovic and Peter Bird to win their rink 21 – 19. They held off a fightback from their opponents after setting up a good lead.
Unfortunately, John Fahey’s team stumbled in the middle of their match and could not recover after dropping 9 shots in four ends. They went down 13 – 19.
Overall Tuross had a very good win of 64 shots to 42.
While the end result in the Grade 7 clash was the same (9 – 1), the contest was a much tighter affair that was not decided until the very last bowl was delivered. In the end Tuross won the encounter 49 shots to 48.
Mirroring the Grade 5 results the 7s had one very good win, a close win and a convincing loss. Allan Etheredge skipped the team of Michael Atkinson, Col Fletcher and Patrick Sager to a very good 22 – 8 win. They held the upper hand throughout.
The side of Des Jackson, Doug Williams, Lawrie Riley and Ray Downey (skip) survived a real fright in a game that they led for all but one end. After establishing a good lead they saw their Tomakin opponents gradually narrow the margin till they grabbed a 14 – 13 lead with two ends to play. However, the locals steadied and grabbed four crucial shots over the last two ends to win 17 – 14.
The third rink skipped by Stuart Graham started well but were outplayed by Tomakin and went down 10 – 26.
In the end it was a nail biting finish for the overall win. With one end to play on each rink Tomakin had a 47 – 44 lead. Etheredge finished first picking up 2 shots on the last end. Downey’s four were next with 3 shots that gave Tuross a 2 shot lead. Tomakin’s Steve Hall had one last bowl to win the match. He needed to score 3 shots but was only able to score one giving Tuross the closest of wins!
