REPRESENTATIVE

Our Bushranger Major Pairs champions, Viv Russell and Robert “Pooch” Dukes travelled to the St. John’s Park Bowling Club in Sydney last week to play in the Bowls NSW Champion of Champions tournament.

Their first game was against the highly rated pairing of Kaylyn Huwyler and Harley McDonald from the strong Taren Point Bowling Club.

Many tipped the Taren Point team to feature deep into the tournament play-offs, so it was a tough start for the Bushrangers, and they were soon under the pump trailing by 8 shots in the first 4 ends.

This got out to 16 to 1 midway through the game before the boys slowly started to adapt their game to the unfamiliar green and get themselves back into the contest.

They managed to slow their opponents' scoring markedly and started to pick up shots toward the latter part of the game, but they couldn’t breach the gap and lost 23 to 7.

While they were not quite able to match the skill and tactics of the Taren Point pair, their opponents were quick to acknowledge the quality of the bowls played by the Forbes boys and that the score did not reflect the closeness of the game.

The second game was against the St. Mary’s team featuring a couple of players familiar with Forbes with both having previously played in the Easter Carnival.

Jock Brown and Paul Luke were friends with legendary Forbes bowler, the late Lindsay Willding and Paul is also the son-in-law of former Forber residents, Ross and Judith Antram.

This encounter was played in very difficult conditions with rain falling prior to, and throughout the entire game. Undaunted by the conditions the Bushranger pairing proved too good for their St. Mary’s opposition and recorded a strong 20 to 10 victory.

Viv and Pooch seemed to adjust better to the unfavourable conditions than their opposition did and they combined well to keep the lead throughout.

In the last game against another formidable pair of No.1 Pennants players from the Gwandalan Club, Viv and Pooch could not maintain the quality of the bowls they played in their earlier games.

They only trailed by just two shots midway through the game but a couple of poor ends put them right on the back foot and allowed their opposition to jump ahead.

While they held shots on a number of occasions the opposing skip, Mark Wheatley, and lead, John Arrowsmith, kept them on the wrong side of the scorecard with some exceptional bowling. In the end the Bushrangers went down 29 to 15.

Viv and Pooch were full of praise for the event. Pooch commented that it was a great experience to compete against some of the top line bowlers in the State at such a renowned venue as St John’s Park Bowling Club.

He said they played some good bowls, met some great people and thoroughly enjoyed the friendship of the players and the hospitality of the host Club.

He would encourage any players that get a chance to play in this tournament in the future to take the opportunity. Viv and Pooch also thanked all their supporters for the encouraging messages and calls they received.

BENTICK TROPHY

Our second semi-final has been played for our Bentick Trophy Tournament to determine who will be facing Viv Russell in the finals.

Tim Everest (handicap of 8), who is continuing to go from strength to strength in his game had to play Brian ‘Spro’ Asimus (handicap of 14) who is no stranger to being in finals of any competition.

Spro had the first points on the board and only led by 1 point on the 6th. Picking up a 4, Spro increased his lead and had to maintain his position.

Tim had other plans and won the next 4 in a row, picking up a 4 and two 3’s Tim hit the lead 15-9 on 11.

Spro had to lift and gained a 3 on the next to start closing the gap.

Tim showed no signs of nerves and kept his composure to continue scoring runs on the board. Spro had a lucky run answering Tim’s four end win in a row to win the next four in a row to trail by 1, 21-22.

Only gaining singles from the 21st end on, Spro levelled the board 23 all on 24, Tim only needed 2 points to finish the game, Spro needed to reach 31 for the win. Tim pulled out all the stops and picked up two singles on the last two ends and won the game 25-23.

Tim will now face Viv Russell in the final to crown the 2025 Bentick Trophy Champion.

MINOR SINGLES

Our 2026 Minor Singles Club Championships has commenced, and games are starting to flow through.

Joe McClinden, first time playing in our club championships, drew John ‘JC’ Cutler.

JC was off to a flying start and won the first 4 ends and the scoreboard showed 8-0. Joe started to find his momentum and got runs on the board on the 5th.

JC showed no signs of slowing down and put his foot flat to the floor and led 17-3 on 9. Joe dug deep in his bags of tricks but couldn’t match JC with JC winning the game 27-3.

SOCIAL BOWLS

Due to the much-needed rain we received last week, there was no social bowls on Wednesday morning or Thursday afternoon.

Sunday: Everyone must have had withdrawals from not playing bowls due to the rain last week and most social bowls being called off which saw 24 bowlers on the greens for Sunday morning bowls.

Although the elements opened up again early throughout the game there was a short delay in the middle but this did not deter the players.

Dick Sharkey led for Bert Bayley when they were just pipped at the post by Tim Everest and Lyall Strudwick. Tim and Lyall won the first 4 to lead 6-0 on 4. Dick and Bert started to find their groove and hit back. Dick and Bert only trailed by 1, 10-11 on 13, Tim and Lyall won two of the last 3 ends and won the game 13-11.

Maynard and Steve Turner proved to be a dynamic duo when they played Aarons Evans and Peter Tisdell. Maynard and Steve were scoring 3’s left and right and gave them a 12-2 lead on 8. Aaron and Peter were only able to score 1 extra point to add to their score board whilst Maynard and Steve won the game 15-3.

First time bowler Gill Taylor was paired with Mick Merritt when they drew Tara Shaw and Billy Cowell. Gill was a little nervous and playing on a heavy wet green was certainly going to test her out. The heavy wet green didn’t seem to affect her skip, Mick Merritt who won shot after shot after shot. Gill and Mick won the game 18-7.

Nathan Suttie who is on fire again, led for Al Hilder in their 24-5 win over John Simmonds and John Kennedy. John Kennedy has his work cut out for him as John Simmonds put quite a few bowls over on their neighbours' rink. Nathan and Al led 14-1 on 8 put their foot flat to the floor to the finish line following the half time break.

A nice friendly game was played on rink 10 between Juss Scifleet and John Cutler verse Chris Simmonds and Scott McKellar. Juss and John, first point scorers including a 4 on the second, gave them a 5-0 lead. Chris and Scott had to do it the hard way but singles and trailed by 1 on the 6th. Only three more ends were played due to the heavy rain and it was 7 all when game was called off.

Our last game of the morning was played by Noel Hocking leading for Robert ‘Pooch’ Dukes against Ange Dwyer and Brett Davenport. Ange and Brett holding an 8-point lead at half time, Noel and Pooch re-fueled and hoped this would be the turning point. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way and Ange and Brett won the board 20-11.

Winning rink: Ange Dwyer and Brett Davenport. Losing Rink: John Simmons and John Kennedy.

Resting touchers: Juss Scifleet, Chris Simmonds, Scott McKellar and Pooch Dukes.

Raspberries: Joh Simmonds. Our jackpot winner for the day was Tim Everest.

Chicken raffle winner: Pooch, Lyall Strudwick, Steve Turner, Ian Hodges, Renee Pout, Alfie Andrews x 2, Ron Thurlow and Peter Cook.