Bega’S grade three men’s pennant bowls team travelled to Bodalla last Sunday to competed in the Zone 7 pennant finals.
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The club’s first game against Mollymook in the morning saw it start slowly, finding it difficult to adjust to the slow green, which was running at 10 seconds.
Bega were down 16 shots after 10 ends, with only the team skipped by Ken Snowdon holding its own, leading 9-8.
However, from there, the match began to swing in Bega’s favour.
Howard Blacker’s team picked up 10 shots in four ends, Richard Cock’s team picked up six and Ken Snowdon’s kicked away from their opponents in their match picking up another 10 shots.
Once in front, Bega didn’t let up to win overall 61-53.
The team of Howard Blacker, Augie Phillipzen , Ron George and Robert Stahmer won their rink 23-16.
Ken Snowden, Craig Colligan, Andrew Warby and Tony Hanscombe won 20-12.
The third team of Richard Cock, Reg George, Tony Sturt and Adam Taylor suffered a close loss 18-25.
Bega’s afternoon game was against the strong team from Tomakin, who had accounted for Mollymook easily the day before by 30 shots.
Bega needed to defeat the Tomakin squad to progress to the state finals.
The match was even at the halfway mark, but Tomakin benefitted from misplaced bowls by Howard Blacker, scoring them an extra five shots.
Tomakin offered him a life membership for his service.
However, in the later stages he turned it around to put his squad back in front. At one stage Bega held a 19 shot lead, but Tomakin came storming back to be within two shots at the 18th end.
Club officials said there were no real standouts, but fantastic all-round bowling for Bega to emerge with the win from the final end 66-62.
Blacker’s rink had saved the day, winning 26-18, while the other two rinks fell just short
of a win.
Snowdon’s rink lost 16-19 and Cock’s rink lost 24-25.
Just one bowler of the 12 is a new addition in the past four years and the win marks the club’s third zone finals win.
The squad now qualifies to compete in the state final to be held in Newcastle during August.
Players thanked team manager Pat Kilkelly and their supportive band of wives.
In major singles news, Howard Blacker defeated Adam Taylor in an extremly tight match over 40 ends on Thursday.
Howard will now meet Ken Snowdon in the final and what a match that should be.