WR Engineering Pennant Wrap Round 1
What a fantastic weekend to kick off Round 1 of the WR Engineering Men’s and Women’s Pennant!
In Men’s grade 1, City played Norths and came away with the major points despite going down in two rinks. Cliff Gilbert’s rink had a 17 shot win against Deeves’s rink – containing two former City players, White and Hueston. The departure of these two has resulted in a reshuffle of some long standing rink combinations at City that will warrant keeping an eye on. On the other two rinks, Beau Johnston and Paul Totterdell had 7 and 2 shot wins respectively. The overall win for City was hopefully a small consolation after the Club received the disappointing news that it must vacate the Braddon greens by 3 March. City are hoping for an emergency extension til the end of the pennant season, but there is no guarantee of this. Bowls ACT will update people on the situation as details become clearer. In the meantime, the City players are financial until 30 June so can continue playing as a club at least until then, albeit without a ‘home’. A really pleasing aspect of this match was the support for both teams with a decent crowd on hand to watch the proceedings!
Over at Belconnen, without last year’s key players Adam Jeffery and David Thomas (both to Grandviews, NSW) and Hemi Palmer (to WC) the remaining players showed they still have what it takes when they defeated QRSLM 1.5 rinks to 1.5 (with only a one shot margin on one of those). With three generations of the Watts family members playing in the top grade, Wattsie “senior senior” showed that he still has it when he continuously worried the younger QRSLM lads. Although his was the rink that went down, without his finishing touches, the score might have been monstrous! Some lovely shots by Tonks, Murto, G Ryan and the “middle” Watts were stand outs but across the board the game was a delight to watch, with the summer break not seeming to have affected skills on either team to any extent. Chris Grebert (QRSLM) had the shortest retirement in history, but his team struggled against their rep team colleagues going down by 7 shots.
Over the border, Tuggeranong went down to Yass 58-71 despite taking two rinks. A good result for Barry Bush’s rink sees him leading the skips ladder. Queanbeyan went down on two rinks to Canberra 58-62. The Queanbeyan side looks largely unchanged from previous years but the Canberra side boasted several “new names” following player transfers – most notably Cooper Pike (WC) and Heath Blomfield (Tugg) and unavailability’s. Although gaining Peter Kirkland from Belco, the majority of the new names in their grade 1 team come from within the ranks, earning their selection through past performances – well done, chaps!
Weston Creek got the day off (aka, the bye!).
In grade 2, with only four teams making up this grade, the home teams of both Belconnen and Weston Creek posted similar scores against their oppositions. At Belco, against Queanbeyan, new President John Bice was in good form but he was ably supported by the rest of his team – David Campbell putting down some perfect lead shots. They took their rink 30-14 although this doesn’t really reflect the many great What a fantastic weekend to kick off Round 1 of the WR Engineering Men’s and Women’s Pennant!
In Men’s grade 1, City played Norths and came away with the major points despite going down in two rinks. Cliff Gilbert’s rink had a 17 shot win against Deeves’s rink – containing two former City players, White and Hueston. The departure of these two has resulted in a reshuffle of some long standing rink combinations at City that will warrant keeping an eye on. On the other two rinks, Beau Johnston and Paul Totterdell had 7 and 2 shot wins respectively. The overall win for City was hopefully a small consolation after the Club received the disappointing news that it must vacate the Braddon greens by 3 March. City are hoping for an emergency extension til the end of the pennant season, but there is no guarantee of this. Bowls ACT will update people on the situation as details become clearer. In the meantime, the City players are financial until 30 June so can continue playing as a club at least until then, albeit without a ‘home’. A really pleasing aspect of this match was the support for both teams with a decent crowd on hand to watch the proceedings!
Over at Belconnen, without last year’s key players Adam Jeffery and David Thomas (both to Grandviews, NSW) and Hemi Palmer (to WC) the remaining players showed they still have what it takes when they defeated QRSLM 1.5 rinks to 1.5 (with only a one shot margin on one of those). With three generations of the Watts family members playing in the top grade, Wattsie “senior senior” showed that he still has it when he continuously worried the younger QRSLM lads. Although his was the rink that went down, without his finishing touches, the score might have been monstrous! Some lovely shots by Tonks, Murto, G Ryan and the “middle” Watts were stand outs but across the board the game was a delight to watch, with the summer break not seeming to have affected skills on either team to any extent. Chris Grebert (QRSLM) had the shortest retirement in history, but his team struggled against their rep team colleagues going down by 7 shots.
Over the border, Tuggeranong went down to Yass 58-71 despite taking two rinks. A good result for Barry Bush’s rink sees him leading the skips ladder. Queanbeyan went down on two rinks to Canberra 58-62. The Queanbeyan side looks largely unchanged from previous years but the Canberra side boasted several “new names” following player transfers – most notably Cooper Pike (WC) and Heath Blomfield (Tugg) and unavailability’s. Although gaining Peter Kirkland from Belco, the majority of the new names in their grade 1 team come from within the ranks, earning their selection through past performances – well done, chaps!
Weston Creek got the day off (aka, the bye!).
In grade 2, with only four teams making up this grade, the home teams of both Belconnen and Weston Creek posted similar scores against their oppositions. At Belco, against Queanbeyan, new President John Bice was in good form but he was ably supported by the rest of his team – David Campbell putting down some perfect lead shots. They took their rink 30-14 although this doesn’t really reflect the many great bowls put down by the Qbn lads. The other rinks were much closer 18-16 and 23-16. Overall score 71-46. At Weston, the Creek knocked off Norths on all rinks 71-37. Terry McInnes must have been happy with his rink’s 17 shot win but all four teams boast a star studded line up so despite this rounds results I’m predicting this will be a tightly contested grade.
In Grade 3, all eyes were trained on the “Lilac City” where Goulburn hosted QRSL in its first Bowls ACT pennant match. Unfortunately for the home team, QRSLM was too strong, taking the match 49-59 (2 rinks to 1). Dom Trovato’s rink was the best on the day with a 24-15 rink win. Our other Gd3 country team Yass had a good 3 rink win over Yowani taking all points 68-44. Bruce Murray’s rink was the best performed on the day. At Tuggeranong, WC were on fire defeating the home team 44-76 (1-2). Good rink wins to Jay Cullen and Norm Stewart.
In Grade 4 Goulburn had a huge 72-57 win over Weston Creek, despite going down in one rink. Jouko Karjalainen (whom some may remember from his time playing up here!) was clearly the skip of the match defeating his opposing rink 32-17. City’s Gd 4 team could not replicate their grade 1 team mates’ win, going down on 2 rinks to Canberra 50-70. Best performed rink was Hepburn’s (not Kirby’s as previously reported – incorrect scores entered! -sorry Harry!) , contributing 28 shots to 12 for the total. Tuggeranong notched up their first win of the round in grade 4 defeating Qbn 70-45 (2-1). Good rink wins to John Beaumont and Ben Griffiths – putting them in a good mood for a bathroom reno, I’m guessing….! (in joke!)
In Grade 5, scores were generally much closer with QRSLM, Yowani and Tuggeranong being victorious. QRSLM defeated Belconnen 66-53 (2-1), Yowani reversed the grade 3 fortunes against yass, defeating them 71-57 (2-1) and Tuggeranong defeated Norths 62-57 (2-1). Best rinks of the grade were QRSLM veteran John Gerakiteys who had a 15 shot win over his opponent, Tuggeranong’s Scott Smith with a 25-13 score, and Yowani’s Jacob Bink with a 13 shot win over his opponents. It was great to see a raft of youngsters playing in this grade: Liam from QRSLM, Ben from Yass, Sean from Tuggies (and not leaving out Pat from Yass in their grade 3 side!)
Grade 6 – Bungendore had a nice 2 rink win over City (67-52). As well as the usual bunch of Edwards’s, Bungendore has scored the father and son Marquet combo (Scott and Jack) for the season making them a team to fear this year! In other matches, Tuggeranong defeated Queanbeyan 45-68 (1-2) and in their first pennant test ‘proper’ in the ACT, Goulburn defeated WC 50-60 (1-2). Goulburn’s skips Garry Organ and Paul Johnson had good wins over their opponents, whilst Tuggeranong’s Mike Megee made short work of his opposing rink, giving him the best shots difference of all the grades skips!
Women’s Grade – I think it would be fair to say that all women’s clubs were pleased to see Tuggeranong fielding a side in the women’s weekend pennant and they certainly hit the ground running! At home to the experienced Queanbeyan Blue team, two good rink wins to Gillian Harris-Mayes and Ingrid Griffiths sealed the deal for the reds, taking the match 29-52. Over at QRSLM, new Qbn recruit June Maxwell did not get to test her skill against daughter Kelli (QRSLM) with her side going down on both rinks. A determined Catherine Hunt fought back from early shot losses whereas Kelli Cartledge demolished her opposition by 20 shots! (not that I’m counting but this is higher than any of the mens’ results, despite only playing two rinks! – just saying…!) In other matches, City were too strong for the combined Norths/Yass women, taking both rinks to win 41-25, and Belconnen took both rinks over Canberra to win 25-52. Experienced skips Nicole Mengel and Helena Megee both had good rink wins. In the final match of the day, WC had a close one 33-38, eventually taking the points from Norths, sharing the rink wins, one apiece.
Thanks to those responsible for putting in the scores in a timely manner – all women’s scores and teams were done before the end of the day! They’ve set the standard, lads!
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