Club News

The Handicapped Singles were played over the weekend of the 12th & 13th September. This was the last chance for some competitive green time before the 1st club championship of the season gets underway on 19 & 20 September. Apart from being handicapped this event was played over 21 ends as opposed to 1st to 21 shots as seen in a standard game of singles.

16 players turned up to start play at 10.00am but Saturday was virtually a complete wash-out due to an extremely heavy shower around 10.30am. Because of steady rain the night before the match committee made the decision to abandon play for the day as it was clear that surface water would remain throughout the day.

Play recommenced at 8.30am on Sunday and things ran very smoothly with 3 full rounds completed. This actually entailed 5 full games as the 1st two rounds needed to be split due to marking requirements.

Round 1 had some standout results - some being very close games and some being particularly one sided. Bruce Buchan overcame a 6 shot handicap but took till the very last end to beat Barry Neil 22-21. In a remarkable game Barry led comfortably 17-10 after the 13th end having not conceded the lead at all to that point. Bruce then picked up a 4 and a 3 in the next 2 ends to draw level at 17-17. However Barry remained defiant and maintained good form and led 21-18 going into the last end. Disaster then struck for Barry with him dropping a 4. Talk about get out of jail Brucie!! Just goes to show that 3 bad ends cost Barry the game. The person who once said "if you're going to drop shots in singles drop only 1's and the odd 2" is right on the mark. In another very close game Warren Dawson (The Warrior) also overcame a 1 handicap to sneak past Noel Rooney 19-18. Ironically in this game Warren also dropped 3 big ends but his consistency in getting the bowl in there that counted on most ends showed in that he ended up winning 13 of the 21 ends. Two other games in round 1 went in another direction. Despite having only a 1 shot start Terry Buchan convincingly beat Paul Hart 24-9 whilst in a match between two scratch bowlers Alan Peers managed to pick up 4 shots in the 1st 2 ends only to see Wayne Hart start the engine a little late but with devastating effect cruising to a 25-6 win after only 17 of the 21 ends. Wayne has been out of regular bowls for at least 12 months but showed that when in form there is no better bowler at 'The Park'.

Jason Buchan v Rod Eade was probably the pick of the games in round 2 with a very good quality of bowls played throughout. Rod had to give Jason a 6 point head start and Jason maintained that margin through to the 7th end when he proceeded to drop two 4's in a row. However despite Rodney holding an 11-9 lead after only 8 ends our Auckland Junior Rep made Rodney work all the way with Rodney breaking a 20-20 deadlock going into the last end - Rodney scoring a 1 to win 21-20. In other games Warren Dawson continued his strong form easily accounting for Ken Wills 23-6 while Bruce Buchan all but overcame another significant handicap (7) only to lose 23-22 to one of our gun juniors Willis. In his second strong performance of the day Wayne Hart made light of a 4 point handicap when he convincingly beat Terry Buchan 24-13. Following a fine 1st round win Terry had no answer to Wayne's classy , sometimes inch-perfect bowls and it was shake hands time after 19 ends. In my last column I made a tongue-in-cheek comment concerning Wayne being a handicap to his partner Rodney Eade in the handicapped pairs. Well Wayne certainly took care of that!! Just remember Wayne bro - Dave Poingdestre made me say it!!!

Round 3 saw the field slightly reduced with some players losing their 2 lives 'BANG BANG' in the 1st 2 rounds. This round saw 3 of our newest juniors have mixed results. Wayne Ruka showed he didn't need the 3 point head start Dean Croul gave him and coasted to a 26-6 win after only 17 ends. Willis also had a convincing win over Rodney Eade 23-10. Rodney had to give Willis a 7 point head start but Willis was good for this and more as the score indicates. Both Willis & Wayne can be proud of these results against such experienced bowlers. Looking for the trifecta for the new bowlers brigade was Jason Buchan who faced his name sake Bruce Buchan. Bruce gave Jason a 6 point start but ended up winning convincingly 26-15 after 19 ends. Bruce said later that he used short ends to his advantage in the hope that it would also show our newer bowlers' that this tactic, including varying the mat, needs to be learned. In a game where Warren Dawson's form continued and Wayne Hart's results reversed Warren comfortably accounted for Wayne 26-12 after only 16 ends. This will no doubt give 'The Warrior' great confidence going into this coming weekends Open Championship Club Pairs. No doubt ready to put the rest of us "To The Sword" "Ripping Us To Pieces" limb by limb ay Warrior.

The Handicapped Singles are due to be completed on 04/10/09. See Yous for another rave next week.