The Tuross Head Grade 5 side has consolidated its position at the top of the table following a very good Round 6 win over Dalmeny. This was a good response after a very close loss to Malua Bay in Round 5. In the Round 5 match the final scores ended up tied at 53 all but Malua Bay won 5.5 points to 4.5 points after winning two of the three rinks.
In Round 6 Tuross, with a very vocal home crowd, had an excellent start and moved to a commanding lead on the back of strong performances by the teams skipped by John Fahey and Joel Hilliard. However, both of these rinks had to hold off fighting comebacks by their Dalmeny opponents.
Hilliard, spearheaded by excellent lead bowls from Alan McLeod, looked well in charge at 21 – 11 before Peter Drake and Ashley Shoemark inspired a Dalmeny effort that reduced the final margin to 21 – 16 in favour of Tuross.
Fahey’s rink followed the same pattern. After being down 11 – 8 after 11 ends Fahey picked up 10 shots in three ends to race to an 18 – 11 advantage. The final ends were very closely fought and Dalmeny was able to narrow the final margin to just 3 shots at 22 – 19.
The real excitement came on the third rink. John Monks had the better of the early ends and looked comfortable at 12 – 5 after 10 ends. But the Dalmeny players skipped by Barry Lymbery had other ideas. By the 17th end they had hit the front 18 -14. With rain threatening, Tuross hit back to grab a 20 – 18 lead with two ends to play. A short sharp shower changed the condition of the green as the teams battled for the crucial final point. Dalmeny won the 20th end to trail by just a shot. When the skips went to play their final bowls on the 21st end Dalmeny had several shots. Then the ‘bowls god’ intervened. Firstly, Monks had a favourable deflection to cut Dalmeny to one shot. In an effort to move this bowl, Lymbery was unlucky when he moved the jack to a Tuross bowl. This gave Monks a 21 – 19 victory.
Tuross won overall 64 shots to 54 and grabbed a crucial 10 – 0 win.
Unfortunately, the Grade 7 side had their match at Tomakin washed out before a bowl could be played!
Rounds 1 and 2 of the Major Singles Championships have been completed. Bruce Lidbury defeated Alan Skelton 31 – 16 and Peter Davies defeated Doug Williams 31 – 14 in the two Round 1 games.
There where some very good, close matches in the Round 2 clashes. Joel Hilliard just managed to hold off a very fast finishing Peter Macdonald to win 31 – 28. Stuart Graham needed all of his experience to get the better of Col Fletcher 31 – 25. New member Jonathon Green had a very tough struggle with Lou Kozlik before going down 31 – 23. John Monks seemed to have his game against Julian Penny in hand but Penny kept on hanging in and forced Monks to take 33 ends to win 31 – 22. Peter Davies needed all of his skill to get the better of Brian Currie who played very well. Noel Downie and Bruce Lidbury had a very tight struggle for 17 ends before Downie pulled away to win 31 – 15 after trailing 14 – 11. Defending Champion Stan Peck was no match for Ben Hewison who had an impressive win. Lawrie Riley grabbed the last place in the quarter finals with a good win over Michael Atkinson.
