New England Bowls With Richie Clutterbuck
Well done to the zone three senior teams who contested the state finals at Ballina last week.
In their second round match they faced up to the powerful Illawarra teams and again they rose to the challenge to win 70-66 with Dave Kliendienst leading his team of John Jackson, Graham Smith and Vic Hudson to a 23-18 win. This meant that they had to defeat zone nine in their third round to progress to the play-offs. Unfortunately they found the opposition too strong going down 45-66 but they can feel proud of their efforts as zone nine finished runners-up to zone 10 in the final. Most of these players were experiencing their first taste of bowls at this high level and they held their own and must feel proud of their efforts over the event.
Versatility fours
The new format set play proved very popular with players at the annual versatility fours carnival at the City club over the weekend.
Thirteen teams of four took the greens in wonderful weather conditions and all voted the event a success. The format meant that players played singles, triples and fours on Saturday and pairs on Sunday. After the completion of the rounds only two teams managed to win all five games and they met in the two sets of five ends final. The team of Chris Brodbeck, Lindsay McIntyre, Kim Porter and David Lyes played Terry and Aaron McMillan. Graham Bourke and Brian Murphy and it was a convincing win for Chris’s team winning in two straight sets.
The highlight of the final was the performance of the two minor grade players, Kim Porter and David Lyes who played very well and set up many of the heads for their team. Third went to Mal and Mike Ahoy, Clifford Smith and Claude McFayden with fourth money to Todd Fuller, Dale Smith, Jason Prince and Thomas Inman.
Zone seven pennant finals
The Ex-Services number seven team travels to Inverell for the zone seven pennant finals this weekend and on Saturday they play Bingara, followed by South Tamworth and Lighting Ridge on Sunday. This is New England’s last chance to have a team in the state finals and we wish them well.
I do not have the final results at the time of going to press but I have been told that our junior pairs team of Justin Bullen and Jack Whitton have won the zone three pairs championship at Manilla on Saturday and they also reached the final of the fours when joined by Breanna Graham and Nick Ellem. Hopefully I will have the result of this match and a full report on our juniors efforts next week.
