A strong contingent of Kangaroo Valley bowlers continues to brave the elements and make the perilous journey over Berry Mountain, dodging potholes and drivers who think that they are entitled to a greater share of the road than the rest of us, for the sheer enjoyment of playing bowls.
The following are the results of social bowls matches in the past month:
20 April – Peter Haddon and ‘Tige’ Lidbetter played consistently to defeat Col Good and Peter Heffernan. Keith Pepper and Rob Folkard had a slow start against Derek Raymond and ‘Jingles’ Chittick but finished well to take the victory. Despite being tied at the ninth end, Ron Nelson, Ros Hackett and Lindsay McNamara scored consistently in the second half of the match to take the win over C.Hackett, Darryl Goodger and Bill Chittick.
23 April – Deb Folkard and Terry Hayes defeated Russell Tulloch and David Badger in a very tight match that was drawn on a number of occasions. Tige Lidbetter won a very competitive game of cut-throat against Jingles Chittick and Peter Grunfeld.
30 April – In a very tight match, Bob Dunn and Terry Hayes were eventually defeated by Russell Tulloch and Tige Lidbetter. Despite a strong comeback, ‘Skippy’ and Jingles Chittick lost a close match against Brad and Steve Kellet.
4 May – A see-sawing match between Terry Hayes and Bob Dunn against Mark Power and Peter Haddon resulted in a one-point victory to Mark and Peter. Jingles Chittick and Col Good won a very tight match against Bill Chittick and Lindsay McNamara. Tige Lidbetter and Ron Nelson ran away with the second half of the match to defeat Derek Raymond and Russell Tulloch.
7 May – Derek Raymond and Tige Lidbetter won a close match against Deb Folkard and Lindsay McNamara. Skippy Chittick, Rob Folkard and Jingles Chittick came good in the second half of the match to take the victory over Peter Haddon, Bob Dunn and Col Good.
A trial match was also held on 20 April between the Berry Men’s Senior Fours team of Russell Tulloch, Deb Folkard, David Badger and Terry Hayes and the Huskisson Men’s President’s Reserve Fours team of Bob Strauss, David Sanson, Mark Hensall and Bill Benson. Berry won the match 21 points to 13 and a return trial match will be held at Huskisson on 18 May 2022. Both teams will compete in their respective events at the State Championships in Ettalong between 26 and 30 May. Good Luck to both teams.
It is also worth mentioning the excellent job that the Green Keeper, Rod Armstrong, has done in keeping the greens in very good condition throughout the worst period of wet weather in recent memory. We are very lucky to be able to play on such well-maintained greens.
Ladies’ bowls
The proposed State Carnival team I mentioned in the last edition of the Voice had to have a late change due to one team member contracting Covid19! Luckily Anna Stewart was able to step up and join Gillian Portener, Irene Dunn and Jane Haddon (skip), for this fun competition running from 2 to 6 May. As I was looking after my elderly mother for the week in Wollongong we decided to make an afternoon outing of it and had a lovely lunch at the Bomaderry Club while watching the game. The game the girls played did not disappoint, winning comfortably by 27 to 11. However, after the match I was advised that they had lost the morning match by one point on the very last end by the opposing Skip’s very last bowl. They had comfortably held a four shot lead until this moment. Disappointing to say the least, but as they say “that is bowls”. After another two early mornings to make the escorted passage over Cambewarra Mountain the team had a fun time, met some lovely ladies but continued the theme of winning one and just missing out on the other match for the day – better luck next year.
Covid-19 has also affected our upcoming Major/Minor competition set down for June. Our President has had to make the sad decision to cancel, so as not to interfere with our new bowls calendar which will begin in July 2022. With Covid-19 nothing seems to be a sure thing anymore. The positive I suppose is that it will give us extra time to practise for the upcoming Pennant season. The Pennant format consists of two teams of four, making the club side and playing only two bowls each. The extra practice will come in handy. We travel to other clubs to compete as well as taking our turn to host. It is nice to have the opportunity to play against other clubs rather than against one another.
The Pennant competition is made up of three stages: District, Regional and State. On winning the State level the team receives the Pennant to fly proudly at your Club. The Berry ladies have not won a Pennant since 2016 – fingers crossed.
Rob and Deb Folkard
