COBRAM BOWLS CLUB
The weather event at the start of last week led to cancellation of bowls events, restricted practice for the finals and led to much speculation about how heavy the greens might be.
And then it was Friday and time for the trip to Berrigan for the grand finals for divisions on and two in the mid-week pennant competition.
Cobram 1 was destined to take on Tocumwal Golf and Bowls 1 and the Berrigan volunteers had done a fantastic job and presented a perfect green, even though the heavy dew on the surrounds made many wonder what to expect.
There were some great match-ups on all rinks and the individual rink scores didn’t necessarily reflect the quality of the bowls played.
Carol Doherty’s rink was in touch with Jill Whiteside’s crew until the final five ends when, despite some great shot saving bowls from Cobram, the bowlers could not actually score.
Being first off the green and with a deficit of nine shots, they could not do anything but watch the other two rinks.
Marj McDonald’s team was in a battle with Judy Harvie’s four all day.
Glenn Murphy led magnificently for McDonald, then along came Effie Eaton, Dave Hansen and Harvie herself all playing very accurate bowls.
Fortunately it was Cobram that kept Tocumwal scoreless on on final four ends to secure a four-shot win for Cobram.
This left Kerry Baldacchino and team out on the green against Leigh Hansen’s four.
All Cobram players on this rink contributed to a comfortable 15-shot lead with 3 ends to go — meaning that Cobram was up on the overall scoreboard by 10.
Three shots to Tocumwal in two ends meant with one end to go, Tocumwal needed seven shots for a tie, to force the extra end.
And they had shots in the head, but with her first bowl, Baldacchino disturbed the head and stayed in it, to make it impossible to score the required seven shots.
With her last bowl, Hansen attempted to kill the end, but when this did not happen Baldacchino was prepared to concede three shots, win the rink by nine, and the premiership for Cobram by four shots.
What a great game it was and the Tocumwal bowlers should be proud of the way they played the game.
This was the 10th premiership for Cobram’s division one in 13 years and Marj McDonald and Christine Dunne have played in all 10, while Kerry Baldacchino and Joy Mynard have played in nine of them.
Celebrations back at the club had to be a little restrained as a number of players had to back up and play again in the Saturday pennant grand finals.
The day had come, not as big as that one day in September, but the last day in March certainly means something to the Cobram Tigers.
Division one Saturday pennant bowlers have been riding a wave of confidence in the past month with convincing wins earning them a place in the grand final against red hot favourites Wunghnu, played at Numurkah.
While the Tigers were the underdogs, they certainly weren’t going down without a fight.
Ray Parks’ rink managed to get out to a good start against Drew Henderson’s rink and only went down in the end by two shots and Greg Dunn’s four also had a very good day against Barry Cosgrove’s rink, winning by six.
Mick Toohey’s rink certainly had opportunities against Peter Revell’s rink but with Kerry Baldacchino needing to leave the green and Colin McDonald stepping in without a roll-up, they had their backs to the wall and went down by five shots.
The day came down to Steve Tatnall’s last end with the rink score 13 to 15 in Trevor Hosie’s favour and Cobram needing four or more shots on the final end.
Tatnall’s last bowl only just managed to fail to move the jack in the right direction for the Tigers with Wunghnu managing to hold on by just seven shots for a tightly fought grand final.
A great effort by all who represented the first side during the entire season.
Also at Numurkah, Cobram’s number two side took on Wunghnu’s second side.
While it is Wunghnu’s first season in division two, Cobram bowlers know they would have a fight on their hands.
This game was played on the back green, and compliments to the greenkeeping volunteers for the surface we played on.
A couple of light showers during the game barely affected it.
Wayne Nelson’s team played Ian Newby’s four and it was Peter Malins for Wunghnu that did most of the damage.
However, once again, Nelson’s rink played well at the end of the game, working off an eight-shot deficit to go into the last end with the score even.
This time it was the Wunghnu skip with a wick, then a precision draw bowl that gave them three shots.
Peter Wood and team were relentless against Rob Rodda’s rink, winning 15 of the 21 ends. What a great team effort.
Barry Walker and crew got off to a slow start against the Ian Gray led four, only winning one of the first six ends. But then Cobram won 13 of the remaining 15 ends. Well done Tigers.
Meanwhile when Pat Quinane’s rink took on Les Clark’s rink, the score card was heavily in favour of Cobram in the early part of the game, but from end 14, the teams took it in turn to score single shots, resulting in tied scores on alternate ends.
Cobram bucked the trend in the 20th end scoring two and that became the winning margin in Cobram’s favour.
So a solid win for Cobram by 28 shots.
At the end of the day, Wunghnu and Cobram each got to take a flag home. Cobram members are proud of having had teams in the grand finals in three of the four competitions contested.
On Sunday, March 28th, the rain-delayed Champion of Champion pairs were contested at Wunghnu.
Cobram’s women’s pair of Marj McDonald and Christine Dunne won their semi-final over Finley, but were beaten in the final by Barooga champions Kerry Ralph and Cheryl Townsing.
With the finals out of the way, all members should be concentrating on finishing their remaining championship events.
Dates to remember
Sunday, April 18: MBD presentation day at Sporties at 1pm. Bookings necessary for catering and winners of pennant and MBD events should make an effort to be there to collect trophies in person.
May 1-2: Peaches and Cream event. Entries should be in ASAP
May 11-12: Mulgrave Country Club visit. Names on the board please.
May 28: Cobram presentation night.
If you are looking for something to do on Easter Saturday, put your name down for a game of club-selected triples to start at 1pm. Names in by 11 am on Saturday.
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