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| FIRSTS ESCAPE LOSS - AGAIN! | |||||
Posted 07/02/12 (Round-16. Sat 4th Feb. Div-2 Sec-3) With only 12-ends to go on City of Heidelberg’s s tricky 17-second plastic, KHSC were buried & staring a shock thumping clearly in the face, - with x 3 rinks down & trailing by eleven shots. It was round-16 on a 30 degree summer Saturday. The result looked gloomy, save for Grant Pickering’s enthusiastic inspiration & loud encouragement to “LIFT“ across all rinks, and remarkably they all did!! “They’re an amazing group of players” said skip & former state player Graeme Clements. We have looked dead & buried in so many matches this season, yet can find the mental strength to reverse the form slump and pull these matches out of the fire when it looks like we’ve just run out of ends, and blown it.!! Simon Collett was trailing 21/24 and over his last 3 ends collected NINE-shots to NIL. (9/0) What a bag full.. Clemmo’s rink was being belted & down 6/21, but his rink then pulled it together claiming 5+ shots to nil over their final 3 ends. A vital contribution. Grant Pickering’s boys grabbed 4+ to 1-, & Ray Jansen’s rink held their nerve conceding only 2 shots to 1+ on their last 3-ends. So, over the last 12 ends, (x 3 each per rink still to play) KHSC scored 19+ shots to 3- to steal the 10 match points back by 5+ shots and walk away with 16 points, preserving the clubs ladder position in second spot. Whilst there is no double chance in this current BV finals playoff format, the top two finishing clubs get a home ‘knockout’ semi final. A win guarantees promotion back into Division-1, so holding 2nd place is critical. This was another “come-from-behind” win for the club. One of about 7 so far this season. It’s been exciting & satisfying when we get over the line like that, but it does suggest there is too much erratic bowling through a loss of focus or concentration far too often, too early by too many. Ray Jansen called for better attendance to every Thursday night practice, which will include a more disciplined practice routine & drills, & more suited to the positions of all players, he said. Hopefully our topside players don’t just take their selection each week for granted, because if they were to believe their position was under threat after a couple of ordinaire performances, you would expect they’d be the first at training & be there until the sun went down. Line & length doesn’t just magically return on match day with any regularity if not worked on out on the practice track to maintain accuracy, rhythm & confidence. I hasten to add that there is no suggestion the top side doesn’t have the talent & skill to finish off the season with pride and celebration, it’s just that now the chips are down with the knockout final in sight, (only 3 x weeks away) and the last two rounds against first & third, we all need to respond in displaying absolute confidence over all 63 ends of these next 3 matches, if we are to achieve promotion back to Division-1, which is where we know we should be. It becomes a case of having the desire to want to improve our personal performance and contribution to the team. As the great coach & motivator Ron Barassi continues to say, even today, - “If it’s going to be, it’s up to me.” A good start to that objective might be to follow the training regimen of the world’s best, (the late great Glyn Bosisto) - to practice delivering our bowls over the same line focus mark x 10 times in a row before changing sides and doing it on the other hand. (Using a 5c coin marker) If you can do this with x 10 in-a-row on both hands consecutively at practice, then I’ll back you to have a 7-out-of-10 day in each of the last x 3 matches & KHSC would be unstoppable. Bosisto used to not only do it on the green at practice but on his living room carpet, until he’d perfected it. I think we could all do with a good dose of that? Round 17 is against 3rd placed Darebin who have been playing their season on the newish Tiff-Dwarf. In the earlier round on the rained out Saturday
at Darebin, they chose not to transfer the match indoors, believing we think, because their carpet would suit our experience better & probably more than theirs, so the match was abandoned. Watch this space. THE TEAMS & RINK RESULTS. Round-16. (4/2/12) WON 18/16 LOST 11/21 WON 30/24 WON 19/12 Next Round 17 v Darebin. - Home……………………………………………………………………………………… GIRLS LEAD 2NDS TO A WIN. The second’s have been struggling through the lack of any consistent form & plummeted into the dreaded bottom-two relegation zone prior to round 16, - to be played against Yarra Valley (only a handful of points above us) at Barkers Road. (4/2) The biggest problem over the recent past has been the lack of bowls in the head from the leads & two’s mainly, and skips & 3rds who just couldn’t handle the pressure continually demanded of them to convert, - far too often. As a result we were being belted on the main board by teams below us as the season wore on, and the sides confidence level was just evaporating. When that starts to happen it shows on the practice track too in attitude & or absenteeism. But what a refreshing afternoon it was last Saturday (4/2), to witness the female members of the ‘Magoos’ leading the way to a critical victory for the club. They all starred. The girls took the match by the scruff of the neck on our surprisingly slow synthetic green. It was running slower than it ever has since being installed, and in glorious sunny cloudless conditions. (around 13 seconds.) The match ended in a clean sweep whitewash over Yarra Valley with all 4 rinks up & a 37 shot win (97/61) Chairman of selectors, Con Doherty asked the side for a solid early start in his pre-match address, which we hadn’t been able to produce over the past 5 matches, but this week, by the 27th end we led 34/21, and went into the tea-break leading 60/36. What a relief. There was a clear sign of confidence & belief in one another after these first 47 ends. The only question remaining at that point was, ..could we secure all 4 rink wins & take the 18 crucial points? Unexpectedly, John Joyce’s rink, who were leading 10/4 after 9-ends, dropped x 8-shots immediately before going into to the break and then later were trailing by one-shot with only 3 to go. On their last end, leading by one and 2-shots down in the head, Phyl Major (John’s 3rd) produced the shot of the afternoon by pushing up the two KHSC bowls sitting 3rd & 4th for 2+ shots that the skips couldn’t alter, - and the 2 rink points & clean sweep was ours. Great shot Phyl. (A weighted backhand on the ditch-rink drive-way side was smack on target & a double-banger result) The 40-odd spectators all erupted in well-earned applause, even some of the opposition. Norm Roughley’s rink has had a rough ride of late but his lead (Lorraine Broussard) & 2nd (Jill Donaldson) had other ideas, and set up end after end with their yellow & red bowls combination that just mesmerised the opposition, In fact, this dynamic up-front female combination was responsible for producing eleven multiples out of the 12-ends won. Remarkable. They did have a bit of help from 3rd (Neil Hookey), and Norm himself, - but it was the two girls who starred and made it happen winning the rink points with their 30/16 score. Norm rated his player’s individual performances, using his marking system, (Lead) Lorraine Broussard = 61 out of possible 90. Con Doherty’s lead (Cheryl Muttock) & 2nd (Virginia Crean) were the other starring female front-end combination, setting up their rink win (21/15) in spite of losing more ends than we won. KHSC had held the end lead x 11 times on the crossovers, but retained only 8 of them. The girls packed the head on numerous occasions to take total ownership which resulted in scores of 1 x 4, 3 x 3’s & 2 x 2’s which sealed the match. Geoff Mathers performance as Con’s 3rd was only ordinary, and Con’s own form was way below his usual high standard, where he put down no less than 17 bowls that were way short of the head out of 42, - but he did deliver some knockout blows by converting x 4 heads when we were 3 & 4-down, which were rink saving blows & kept the scoreboard in the black from the 2nd end & then put paid to being able to bank the 2-rink points. The player performance rating scores were as follows; (Skip) Con Doherty = 13.75 out of a possible 42 Ivon (with an ‘O’) Brewer continued on his arrogant way with a bold x 13-shot rink win. (27/14) He was headed in only one end of the match, trailing 5/7 after 5, when his rink dropped 7-shots over x 2 ends. They toughened up and marched away with the next 4-ends, and then won 6 of the last 8, scoring 12/4 to smother the Yarra Glen teams flickering belief they might be able to steal the two points. It was a strong performance again by the Brewer rink, - given a great start too by his lead, (Tony Shortis) who has returned to some excellent form, and a reliable match by his 3rd (Rod Donaldson) With only 2 rounds to complete the fixture KHSC must win at least one. We play Greensborough on their plastic next Saturday, and then Heidelberg Golf at home in round-18 to end the season, hopefully still in Division-4 for 2012/13. We beat Greensborough comfortably at home the first time around, (which didn’t count due to the washout results that round) so with a performance like last Saturday from the entire team, we could expect to win both matches, & that should be the confidence we take into both matches. One of the Yarra Valley players made an interesting observation prior to the start of Saturday’s match, saying,… All the KHSC players were just as surprised at the greens slowness too, and some suggested that it be watered prior to the start of the match to speed it up, - but it was decided to leave it as it was. Fortunately it turned out to work in our favour, but it does suggest there is a need for some maintenance to be given to the synthetic green if it is going to be the home ground advantage we would like it to be for the remaining home matches of the season. Including, we hope, a top-side semi-final. We seem to be able to water the lawn greens on the morning of pennant matches, which regrettably slows them down, so it should provide no added burden to water the synthetic green too when it is the chosen field of play, - which would speed it up? THE TEAMS & RINK SCORES. Round 16 Sat 4th Feb. Div-4 Sec-3. WON 21/15 WON 27/14 WON 19/16 WON 30/16 Next Week Round 17 v Greensborough. Away. “Up & at em” Geoff Mathers……………………………………………………………………………………… The strong rumour doing the rounds this week is that a proposal by Bowls Victoria to change Saturday Pennant matches to 3-RINKERS is planned to be voted on by the board for adoption next season. If this is to be introduced, it would mean dropping x 4 players from every 16-player side, - from Premier down to division-8. The change to 3-rinkers in Tuesday Ladies Pennant has not been the saviour Bowls Victoria had hoped for, so it’s difficult to see any real benefit to either Clubs or players if this concept goes ahead. All it will do is create a mass exodus by many of the players who’s ego’s will be bruised, - and they’ll search for another club where they can play at the level they think they deserve to represent. Imagine a player being dropped from a Division-1 side to the Club’s seconds who are in say Division-5.? Many players won’t want to do that. So they will ask for a clearance to another club that will give them a game in a higher division. It would create utter chaos in the first couple of years for all clubs.. Let’s hope this alleged proposal remains just a rumour, because it certainly won’t get the popularity vote. ………………………………………………………… BRING BACK 25-END PANNANT MATCHES. Whilst there has been some support for this current season’s 21-end pennant matches - reduced from 25 last season, the overwhelming preference is for the 25-end format to be reinstated next season. A sample vote taken by the Bowlsworld website (over 1,500 subscribers) clearly indicated a 70% preference for the 25 end format. All that’s left to be agreed upon now is if & when the home club takes the tea-break. (Or duty of care water break, which is essential, on hot summer days) Bowls Victoria appear to like to make a one rule fits all, - but maybe they should consider returning the 25-end format to Premier Division down to Division-5, - and then Divisions 6 – 8 remain at 21 ends, which seems to be the preference of the more senior players, not unexpectedly. The KHSC committee will advise BV of the Club’s preference in writing when this season ends. Geoff Mathers gwmathers@bigpond.com……………………………………………………………….
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| TWO'S SECURE VITAL WIN | |||||
Posted 25/01/12 Round 13 Sat 14th Jan, 2012 KHSC seconds came from behind to steal a critical win against bottom side Keilor on Saturday (14/1) in a match that saw us 8-down & in trouble with only 10 ends to play. It was the Ivon (with an ‘O’) Brewer rink that pulled us out of the abyss snatching a SIX+ on their 19th & winning the last 2-ends. “The only time they’d led on their score-board all afternoon,” but proving that persistence pays off if you stick at it and maintain belief in your own ability, to tuck away the two rink points. John Joyce’s rink certainly did their bit with a 9-shot win due mostly to the terrific combination of Phyl Major (3rd) & Joyce who took total command of the match. Norm Roughley’s rink took on a new look with Jill Donaldson as his new lead producing a steady game, and Graeme Morey-Nace coming in as Norm’s 3rd to be the stand-out player in their 21/14 rink win. Unexpectedly, Con Doherty’s rink was in trouble big-time from the start, after they dropped a 6 on the 2nd end and never recovered to go down by 14 shots (12/26). Dennis Parkes (3rd) produced another solid match, saving & reducing the debit on many of the heads, & was well supported by the rinks new 2nd, Virginia Crean, - but Con & his lead Cheryl Muttock couldn’t find the form that had seen them demoralise opposing teams so often in pre-Xmas matches. Con was probably unlucky to have dropped the 6. He’d missed the head altogether with a running shot when 7-down, but with his last bowl on their 2nd-end he hit the target dead centre, splitting the 2 x front bowls, only to watch his bowl barrel on into the ditch whilst the opposition bowls bounced around but stayed in the head, all except one. That kind of set the tone to the match for the Doherty rinks afternoon as they just could not take control on the free running lawn green.(Timed at 14 seconds.) This 16-point win now means that there is only 10 points between 5th to 9th place, and KHSC moves up one position to 7th but only 9-points out of relegations 9th spot. Every match from now on (5 to go) takes on the significance of a final with EVERY rink point being as valuable as gold. The Teams & Rink Scores. (S) John Joyce, (3) Phyl Major, (2) Geoff Birch, (L) Lorraine Brousard (S) Norm Roughley, (Graeme Morey-Nace, (2) Geoff Mathers, (L) Jill Donaldson WON 21/14 (S) Con Doherty, ((3) Dennis Parkes, (2) Virginia Crean, (L) Cheryl Muttock (S) Ivon Brewer, (3) Neil Hookey, (2) Brendan Annesley, (L) Tony Shortis Rink Performance Rating: The Norm Roughley rink performance rating scores for the Keilor match were;
1st x 13-ends = 6.00 Last x 8 ends = 9.25. Total= 15.25
1st x 13 ends = 16.75. Last x 8 ends = 7.50 Total = 24.25 THE LADDER. (after Round-13) Diamond Creek 199 Heidelberg Golf 127
Greensborough 101 Next Weeks Round 14. v Diamond Creek at home. Div-4. Sec-3 SECOND HALF POWER PLAY. KHSC top-side were unconvincing in the first 48 ends against 4th placed Kingsbury on our 14 second grass, going in to the tea-break with a narrow 3- shot lead with only 2-rinks up. (43/40) It was the 2nd-half where the match was won, with KHSC scoring 40/24 over the final 36 ends. The Clements & Pickering rinks carried the day building the winning margin for the main board, whilst Ray Jansen’s rink was trailing 8/17 until the 16th end when they picked up a valuable 7 shots to 5 over their final 6 ends, to only go down by 5-shots. (15/20) Simon Collett’s rink lead changed 5-times over the 21 end match, and they were one down, with one end to play. (20/21) When the skip’s crossed over KHSC was one up at the head. Simon’s fist draw was just wide, but his last was a cracking drive that blew the suitcase off the Kingsbury rink skip’s 2nd shot, cannoning their bowl straight into the ditch, and the subsequent count when all the dust & chalk had settled, delivered 4-shots to Kew Heights. Whilst it hadn’t been Simon’s most brilliant game for the season, (and he’s played many & this wasn’t too bad either) it was certainly one of his most brilliant drives. Grant Pickering’s rink had led from the 1st end winning 16 of the 21 ends to take the 2 rink points comfortably 20/10. It had been a strong combined performance from his rink where Grant had produced one of his quality performances of running out bowls to convert on many occasions or just adding to the head. Graeme Clements rink too was never headed through the 21 ends winning 13 to take the rink points by 9-shots 24/13 with another excellent match from his 3rd Paul Wintrip, and a useful debut match by Clemo’s new lead Pat ‘Patto’ O’Connell. The Teams & Rink Scores: (Inc Team Performance Rating Score as…. KHSC 83 d Kingsbury 64 (16/2) Div-2 Sec-3. Round-13 (S) Ray Jansen, Average (3) ‘Deadly’ Doug O’Connell, Average (2) Rod Donaldson, Fair (L) Peter Lambert. Fair LOST 15/20 (S) Graeme Clements, Very Good (3) Paul Wintrip, Very Good (2) Graeme Spry, Good (L) Pat O’Connell. Good (S) Grant Pickering, Very Good (3) Brian Wintrip, Good (2) Peter Scerri, Very Good (L) Ray Runting, Good (S) Simon Collett, Very Good (3) Angus MacIsaac, Fair (2) Ron Makin, Fair (L) Ron Scerri, Good. The Ladder. (After Round 13.) Preston/Reservoir 178 Up & at ‘em.Geoff Mathers |
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| PAUL WINTRIP RESCUES TOP-SIDE | |||||
Posted 05/01/12 KHSC found themselves the East Ivanhoe match win in doubt with only a couple of ends to play after Ray Jansen's rink dropped a SIX on their last end, to give East Ivanhoe the chance to snatch the 10 match points. With only 5 ends to play and a 10 shot lead in the Round-12 match at East Ivanhoe the match looked securely in the bag, until a serious Oooooops on the last end of Ray Jansen's rink when they dropped a SIX, and the main board was reduced to a 3-shot-lead with only 4-ends left to complete the match. Fortunately Ray has gone into the last end with a 7-shot lead so, whilst they dropped a 6, they had build a big enough margin to tetain ther 2-point rink win by one shot. It turned into a nail biteing finish for the other x 3 rinks in a match KHSC didn't deserve to lose. With heavy pressure now on, and East Ivanhoe sniffing a late come-from behind win, Graeme Clements rink was 4-down at the head when Paul Wintrip (Clements 3rd) stepped onto the mat. His first bowl buried the jack clean as you like into the ditch & was direcly followed by his bowl which would have sat alongside the cake on the sand - but asonishingly Paul's bowl rebounded off the ditch wall back up the green about 12 feet, so as NOT to be in the count. KHSC were left holding 2+ shots & 5-bowls still to come. The East Ivanhoe 3rd missed, and Paul with his last bowl, drew to within 2-feet of the cake in the ditch to hold 3+shots, which both skips couldn't change. It was a crucial 3+ for KHSC that probably saved the match against 6th placed East Ivanhoe, on their very ordinary lumpy & bumpy green, quoted as being in 'very poor condition' by the KHSC boys Those 3+ shots not only saved the match for the club but also gave the Clements rink the priceless 2 x points for their 20/17 win. KHSC won the match by 3-shots in a super tough encounter on a very uneven green with 2 x rink wins & a draw. Grant Pickering's rink the only loser, but by only one shot 17/18. The Teams & Rink Scores. Round 12 Div-2 Sec-3 (S) Ray Jansen (3) 'Deadly' Doug O'Connell (2) Rod Donaldson (L) Peter Lambert (S) Graeme Clements (3) Paul Wintrip (2) Graeme Spry (L) Eng Ang (S) Simon collett (3) Angus MacIsaac (2) Ron 'Prez' Makin (L) Ron Scerri (S) Grant Pickering (3) Brian Wintrip (2) Peter Scerri (L) Ray 'Roller' Runting Graeme Clements Eyewitness Match Summary,... "Geez, what a game at East Ivanhoe. (Round 12, Dec 17) It really does make you wonder if we can ever produce a game when we can be reasonably consistant for 21 ends. We look to have a heap of talent but only a handful of players at their full potential. I guess that if at the start of the season we thought we could go into the Xmas break with only ONE loss we would have considered that to be a good result, - & so it is. I am extremely confident that after the break we will come back & produce a more even & consistant performance over all rinks. Another nerve racking finish could have gone either way, but credit to our guys for finding a way to produce that telling bowl at a critical time. I know there would have been big bowls played at different times on other rinks, but surely the x 2 bowls played by Paul Wintrip (my 3rd) very late in the match, most likely saved the game for KHSC. Paul arrived on the mat looking at being 4-down at the head & we're in serious trouble. It was going to be very difficult to draw to save, so I asked Paul to HIT IT!!! He fired off a bullet-like drive that hit the jack on the nose & buried it in the ditch, followed by his bowl, which unfortunately rebounds out of the ditch & finishes 6-7 feet back up the green. Astonishing!! We now hold 2+shots of what should have been 3. His opposing 3rd fails with his last bowl and now Paul draws the absolute to within 2-feet of the ditched jack. Two brillilant shots from Paul, and a very relieved skip, as we pick up a valuable 3-shots that not only wins the 10 match points for KHSC but the two rink points as a bonus." You could call it a 12-point end win to Paul Wintrip. Congratulations. A great Xmas gift for the Club going into the break. Quote from Graeme Clements THE LADDER (After Round-12) Preston/Reservoir 162 Skip Results: Skip P W L D + - Jansen 10 6 4 211 183 Player Performance Rating Re-introduced. The Bowls Committee sanctioned the re-introduction of a player performance rating ater each pennant match in each of the 3 teams. Whilst some players would prefer player performance ratings are not discussed, the majority of pennant playing members have requested it take place, with the results published each week on the notice board. Hence the Bowls Committee ruling on its re-introduction, after a 2-year absence. It' a simple system that only takes a 5-minute rink discussion at the conclusion of each match. Each player rates himself and his team members,...& the majority vote rules. In the event of a tied rating vote (2-all at a different rating) the skip has the casting vote for the rating to be noted & published.. It's a fair & transparent way of noting how a player performed during that pennant match, and the post match discussion helps strengthen the rink & team camerarderie. There are only x 3 rating levels,... GOOD or AVERAGE or BELOW AVERAGE. Common sense will determine at what level players are marked & rate themselves. MANY HAPPY RETURNS. The Club is delighted to announce the return of 4 players in the new year who have not played this season. Jill Donaldson, - Virginia Crean, - Pat (Patto) O'Connell - & Graham Morey-Nace - have re-joined as KHSC playing members and will add some much needed strength to our pennant team squad, not to mention the pleasure of their company. Justin Donaldson who played most of the first half of this season with great distinction in the KHSC top-side will return in January after holidaying in Cambodia, & complete the season that he started so dynamically. Kew Heights is quickly returning to being the happy friendly place it always was with the combined club membership now exceeding 500 members. 21 VERSUS 25-END PENNANT MATCHES? A return to the 25-end pennant matches appears to be overwhelmingly preferred by a ratio of almost 3 to 1, after the 21-end trial this season. The 21-ends game has created total uncertainty, - and was only introduced with the Bowls Victoria announcement that "it's time for a pennant change." This we understand was predominantly demanded by Premier division clubs" but it has it has failed in popularity by a hgue majority preferring a return to 25-end pennant matches. Some clubs like 21-ends, some hate it. Some choose to play straight through, others want a tea-break. Basically it's a mess that BV must address with some urgency. Most importantly, the majority of bowlers (read clubs) want the 25 end pennant match restored, and that's a matter for our committee to canvass with other clubs in our region & Bowls Victoria. Even we (KHSC) decided to have a tea-break with a salad roll lunch this season, but have been through varying attitudes over the first 12 rounds, because the 21 ends is too short really to have a break, unless the temperature demands a water break as a duty of care. KHSC like all other BV pennant team clubs is now required to submit our pennant format preference for next season, and that may be;... * A return to 25 end pennant, - including a 15 minute tea-break. If you have a differering view please email me gwmathers@bigpond.com or write to the club bowls committee. MAGOOS GET THE BLUES. After an encouraging start to the season with more than half a new team, the two's have crumbled through a form failure & are currently in 8th spot on the ladder only 3-points out of the relegation zone, - yet only one match win off 6th place. There's only 2 match wins between last & 6th, so the run home (x 6 rounds) is going to be critical for KHSC. Our crash has mainly been due to too many of our players only delivering one bowl in 4 or 5 anywhere close to the cake, & conversions seem to take place most often when we are holding shot! The 'Two's' have generally lost the plot & the confidence to take ownership of a pennant match & as a result keep being belted by teams lower on the ladder. On Saturday the 17th we lined up at Barkers Road against bottom of the ladder Thornbury where it was decided to play them on our front show-green which was running around 16 seconds on the Thursday prior. A wise decision given that Thornbury play on a swift running plastic on which they'd thumped us in the opening round. The excitement of playing the first pennant round on the show green was short-lived in the 11am roll-up when it was experienced that the green had been flooded the night before to protect it from the heavy 'corporate' & 'barefoot bowls' use it was copping every day prior to Xmas. It was disappointingly wet & dead slow as a result of the watering saturation.. At 11am in the first pre-match roll-up the green was lucky to be running at 10 seconds! It was a terrible shock to our player expectations & reason to consider switching the match to the synthetic, because it was plainly clear after the first few pre-match practice rolls, 2 hours before the match was to start, that KHSC had relinquished it's home ground advantage if we were to pursue playing on this wet/slow front green. Most of our players were having serious trouble getting a bowl up to within 8-feet. That's how wet & slow it was!! The pre-match chute timer produced a 13 second report which was totally unrealistic. Closer to 10 seconds might have been more accurate. There was bugger-all draw, & no bowl speed or finish. Thornbury may have been a bottom-of-the-ladder team, but they led us into the tea-break with KHSC trailing by 18 shots. 35/53 (48 ends) Whilst 2 rink's got across the line to provide 4 vital points, including John Joyce winning 24/10 & Con Doherty winning 20/11 the other two rinks fell way short. Ivon Brewer battled hard after the break to score 9 shots to eight in the run home but was still left 12 shots short. Norm Roughley's rink simply copped a belting, and from being 6/20 down at the tea-break, they were absolutely throttled 9/27, which is probably the rink result that cost KHSC the match, - as the main board fell only 7-short by the 84th end close. The rink scores at the break (48 ends) were; Round-12 Div-4 Sec-3.Final Match Score KHSC 70 lost to Thornbury 77 (4/14) It is clearly evident that the difference between KHSC winning & losing is the inability of at least 10 of the 16 players to put 2-consecutive-bowls up the same correct line. Until we start to do that on at least 10 of the 21 ends, we will remain in the relegation group of the 3 teams making up the 8th, 9th & 10th spots. At present our average of putting 2 consecutive bowls up exactly the same correct line is around 20% - & that's just one-in-5 bowls on the correct jack line. In reality that means we are only delivering x 2 consecutively accurate bowls on 5 ends out of 21!! To remain in Division-4 this percentage must improve dramatically, and that can only occur with practice of NOT just drawing to the jack, but practicing delivering a draw up exactly the same line, as the priority of a practice session.. It's easier to fix the bowl speed & weight than the incorrect line. As I have stated previously, all our ordinaire & fringe players should practice drawing over a 5c marker from a mat placed as close to the ditch as the point of focus you use to pick your line in match play. The jack is irrelevant. Practice only on delivering up the correct line to hit your (5c) vision mark. When you've can hit the 5c mark x 10 times in a row on each hand, you can then go & practice something else & your game will improve around 30% in no-time, - as will the success of the club because of your practice program...!! That's how Glyn Bosisto became a Bowls Australia legend, by practicing his focused line delivery for hour upon hour on his home dining room carpet. He was regarded as the best 'line' bowler in the world as a result of this practice dicipline. The 'Player Rating' scores being introduced by the Bowls Committee for the final x 6 rounds will no doubt evidence whose putting in and who isn't! The final 6 rounds for the Magoo's will be tough and unless we win at least two of the 6, we will be relegated back to Division -5 & that would be disasterous, with our top side likely to be promoted back to Division-1. The gap is just too great. The Two's must hang on & that can only occur with improved personal performances. I'm sure no-one will disagree. Player Rating Score. Round-12 Div-4 Sec-3. (S) Norm Roughley 13 (Out of a max score of 42) Rating = "Below Average" A highlight of the Thornbuty match was the personal performance of Barry Cronin leading for Norm Roughley. It was not Barry's fault that the rink was whalloped as he was the rink's best player. Sadly the difference turned out to be that the usual 'conversion' genius of Naughty Norm went missing in this match where he only managed to convert x 2 ends of the 13 we were down on the crossover, & added only to one other. The return of x 4 past players in the new year, plus Justin Donaldson's return from overseas for the remainder of the season, should give KHSC the extra strength it requires to keep our 2nds & 3rds out of relegation trouble & boost the top-side stocks to take the club back into Division-1. (Currently 2nd in Div-2) The rinks; The Ladder. Div-4 Sec-3 Diamond Creek 185 Greensborough 97 The Skip Record After Round-12. P W L D + - ........................................................................ |
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| WINTRIPS DRIVE DRAWS | |||||
Match Reports - 1sts, 2nds, & Tues-12. Round 11, Sat 10th Dec The KHSC top-side were guests of Montmorency on Sat 10th Dec to compete round eleven on their 17-18 second carpet in overcast & gusty conditions, which is how it usually is up high in their valley.
Montmorency’s green’s reputation appeared to hold terror in the minds of a few of our players who had already begun to concede uncertainly in the days leading up to the match, - being psych’d by the fact that Montmorency has a history of very rarely being beaten on their slippery home patch. Their green’s reputation too often produces a fear & intimidation, instead of focusing on a positive strategy of how to apply the positive wider-line discipline required to play on a slippery track. Clearly no apparent mental adversity had been experienced by our players in the first half of the match, - as there was plenty of confidence being displayed by 3 of the 4 rinks to go into the break with KHSC leading by 17 shots. That said plenty about how we’d focused & quickly adjusted to this extraordinary home ground advantage fear, and up to that stage we’d demonstrated why we were a top side and they weren’t. It looked at that stage as if the majority of our players were feeling confident about maintaining their line & bowl speed to comfortably take the 10 match points, & that any prior fears about the green were unfounded. Rink Scores at the break were: (After 48 ends) Simon Collett led 13/8 And then what happened immediately after the break is still a mystery, where x 3 of KHSC rinks appeared just to lose it & struggled to get bowls even near the head. So let’s have a look at were the match started to go pear shaped. Grant Pickering’s rink lost the next consecutive EIGHT ends on the trot, after leading 16/6 at 12 inc 2 x 2’s & x 6 singles, but they wrestled back the two rink points on their last end scoring an astonishing down-to-up 3+ to rescue a rink win and secure a main-board tie. Phew!!! Graeme Clements rink was down 4/13 (12 ends) then immediately dropped 7- shots over the next 3 ends on their return to the green, and by then they’d given Monty just too much start to chase down, which they didn’t, falling over 11/25. And just to add to the ignominy, Clemmo’ released a WRONG BIAS just when the match was at a crisis point on the main board & on his last end on which he dropped two shots. Oooooops! Ray Jansen was well in control at the 12th end tea-break leading 15/4, & then remarkably dropped a SEVEN on the first end back, - picked up a 3+ on the 14th, but then lost the plot conceding the next 6 out of 7 ends to go down unexpectedly 20/23. Simon Collett’s rink were the only 4 team players asserting any authority in the 2nd half where they continued to build their lead & keep KHSC in the match, - which was slipping away rapidly on the main board. Simon’s rink had led 13/8 at the break and then powered on another 13 shots to 4 to take the 2 rink points by 14-shots. It was as it turned out, the margin that kept KHSC in the match whilst the other 3 rinks were falling apart. With only 3 ends to play in the match, the main board showed KHSC still holding a narrow lead of TWO shots, but the rot had set in & our up front Graeme Clements is quoted as saying after the match,….”it was a very difficult surface where our front end players (leads & two’s) appeared to dictate the outcome of most ends, (read into that, couldn’t get one close)…so it was very difficult for the back-end players (3rds & Skips) to get us out of trouble!!” With the Pickering rink playing the last end of the match (84th), KHSC was now 3-down on the main board, and 3-down at the head. Both opposing rink skips had the result of this match in their own hands, with 2-bowls each left, (& the rink score was tied at 16/16) so they could each dictate who wins & match & the rink points. - But Grant & his opponent couldn’t manage to add to, or remove any of the 3+ KHSC shot bowls, which ultimately resulted in 5 precious match points to KHSC for the draw, stolen out of the jaws of defeat, and due in the end to the gun-barrel accurate drive by Brian Wintrip. Not too many drives in a pennant career have resulted in such high value. Wintrip’s successful drive turned out to be worth SEVEN of the 9 points KHSC scored for the day. Wow, - what a priceless hot shot Brian, and thank’s from all of us KHSC members. However, of those top side players spoken to later, they all admitted it was a match we had no right to have conceded so cheaply, and to a large extent they said, it was more through the up front players losing their way when the match was set up for us to walk away with. This was probably the difference, as confirmed by Clemmo’ & he’s a bloody good judge & bowler. The measure of a good draw bowler is one who can deliver their 2 bowls from the same end on the same line to within a meter of the jack regardless of the length, around 60 – 70% of the time. Glyn Bosisto became a household name and Bowls Australia legend because he was the best in Australia at continuously finding his same line, and then all he had to work on for the conditions of the day was his bowl speed, and he got that right most of the time. He achieved that greatness by practicing rolling his bowl to a line mark on his living room carpet until he was crossing it continuously, and he used to do that for hours in his own home every day before dinner. A little bit of this training & discipline will take our pennant bowlers up to the next level if we are going to advance to Division-1, and If we don’t, we may not be consistent enough to get there for next season. Bowls Line Training Drill?A good training drill to improve your line accuracy & consistency on our green, is to place a mat back from the ditch the distance to the point where you usually focus on for your line in a match, then place a 5c piece on the grass on that focus point 3’ inside the ditch, and spend one hour rolling up at that line as a training drill, - with 30 minutes on either hand. Keep at it until you can hit that 5c piece 10 times on each hand on the trot. If you get your line perfect, bowl speed is the easiest to adjust during a match. Pennant Player Performance Rating. This round was the first (Round 11) where the re-introduction of a player performance rating system was applied in all of our 3 pennant teams, - as requested by the Bowls Committee. It will be interesting to see on the notice board if the post match analysis offered for the surprise Montmorency draw proves to be correct about the up-front players? THE TEAMS & RINK SCORES. Div-2 Dec-3 KHSC 77 drew 77 with Montmorency 9 points each(S) Simon Collett (2) Angus MacIsaac (2) Ron Makin (L) Ron Scerri (S) Grant Pickering (3) Brian Wintrip (2) Peter Scerri (L) Ray Runting (S) Ray Jansen (2) Doug O’Connell (2) Phyl Major (L) Peter Lambert (S) Graeme Clements (2) Paul Wintrip (2) Graeme Spry (L) Eng Ang Next Weeks Round-12 v East Ivanhoe. Away.…………………………………………………………………………………. GREEN CHOICE XMAS GIFT?KHSC seconds were lulled into a sense of false confidence on Sat 10/12 when they rolled up on our ‘Stride’ green prior to Round-11 against 5th placed Whittlesea. A match we needed to win if we are to keep clear of the relegation zone. Timed at 14.5 seconds, - the green was running with good speed, but minimum draw. In fact on one hand it was so narrow (well inside the rink marker) that a few inches too wide in delivery and the bowls would roll on dead straight. It got marginally wider during the afternoon, but x 3 of our rinks had no idea how to handle it, choosing to continue to play it as we’ve come to know it’s draw. But the truth is it performed like an away grass green on Saturday, and more in the mould of Whittlesea’s own lawn green, - so it was no surprise when Whittlesea just ran away with the match early, and buried us as the match progressed through the afternoon. KHSC were thumped by 23-shots, with only one rink winner. Ivon Brewer & his rink showed no fear, and powered away with the match from the start winning 13 ends to win their two points by 22 shots. 32/10. The rink included (S) Ivon Brewer (3) Rod Donaldson (2) Brendon Annesley It was a steady confident performance by all 4 in the rink and a special mention required for Rod Donaldson’s polished display as Ivon’s 3rd. Unfortunately his solo team effort was futile on the main score board because the other 3 rinks were being wasted with relative ease. It’s true that Ivon actually pushed us to a one shot overall lead by the 58th end (56/55) but that one-shot lead lasted only long enough for the scoreboard to be changed, as John Joyce’s rink immediately dropped a consecutive 5 & 3, - Norm Roughley’s rink dropped 6 & 1 over 2 consecutive ends & Con dropped 2. (That’s 17 shots blown away over 6 ends & the match was lost.) Any thought of a revival was totally erased from us all. It then only became a matter of playing out the match in the warm arvo’ sun which had emerged for that last hour of play. It was also the first time the seconds have played 21 ends straight through without a tea-break at Barkers Road. We discussed this ‘straight-through’ decision later and generally agreed that if we are to continue to play the shorter version of the pennant game at 21 ends, then it is probably better to play straight through, otherwise it is considered the halves are too short & an unnecessary interruption to the match momentum. Over 25 ends, a break is appropriate & enjoyed. The only time that ‘straight-through’ play will now change at KHSC, is when there is a searing heat forecast, which will require a duty of care water/tea- break for the health of those playing. THE TEAMS & RINK SCORES (S) Ivon Brewer (3) Rod Donaldson (2) Brendon Annesley (L) Lorraine Broussard (S) Con Doherty (3) Dennis Parkes (2) Geoff Birch (L) Cheryl Muttock (S) John Joyce (3) Neil Hookey (2) Tony Shortis (L) Pam Fry (S) Norm Roughley (3) Howard Cheng (2) Geoff Mathers (L) Liz Lambert A highlight of Norm’s rink was on the 14th end when we are trailing 13/18. Norm struggled as we all did on the green for any consistency, but he did complete 7 conversions out of the 14 ends we were down on the changeover Another amusing moment took place late in the game when there was a measure for a multiple against us. (Norm’s rink) The individual rink performance scores & rating were; (S) Norm Roughly 19.5 (Out of a possible 42) Average It was significant that the ‘Magoos’ had always planned to play Whittlesea on the plastic in view of their lawn only status, yet strangely our players without instruction all followed one another onto the grass for a pre-match practice on Saturday, and they voiced their preference to play there! What they should have been directed to do by the selectors & manager was to practice on the synthetic with the statement “this is where the match will be played” - as it had been previously announced earlier in the week.” As a result we were thrashed, and several senior Whittlesea players “Thanked With the bottom x 6 teams in Section-3 all appearing to be so close together in talent, we find ourselves in troubled waters & are now in the relegation mix as one of the bottom 3 teams. Unfortunately our win against Greensborough 3 rounds ago on the rained out Saturday didn’t count, as there were over 50% of washouts in our division. It is critical now that we beat the teams in the out-of-four-mix or we’ll face the inevitable ‘stacking’ of some sides as we get closer to the end of the season. Unfortunately we don’t have that luxury to be able to pull down a few of the top-side players to save our second side from relegation, so the existing ‘Magoos’ squad have to extract the digit & stave off this unthinkable demise with 7 rounds to go. That means we all must lift to improve no less than 5-bowls each over 21 ends, and to do that means rolling no less than 100 bowls each week on the practice track & if you don’t, we’re doomed!!!! We’ll have to save the ‘Magoos’ ourselves, and that means treating the remaining x 7 pennant matches more seriously on a personal performance note, so we discipline ourselves to more consistently find the line with 2 consecutive bowls, instead of less than one in 4 as we currently deliver now in Division-4. The division-4 performance average of drawing a bowl somewhere near the head appears to be around 18 – 20, and that’s out of 42. Bowls within a mat-length are few. On that basis, our Second-Side (Div-4) at present is bowling ‘Below Average’- and that’s just BA. (As the new rating system identifies.) If we are to get back on the winning list we must improve that rating by at least another 5 effective/accurate bowls, (out of the 42 opportunities) and start getting TWO effective bowls back to back up the same line, - & not one in three or 4 as we are averaging now. That’s just social bowls stuff & Next Round-12 v Strathmore. Home. 21 OR 25 ENDS? Recent polls on various websites and general discussion on the subject of which length of pennant game is preferred, - it appears that the 25 end format is overwhelmingly favoured, AND including a tea break. In other words a return to the way it was last season. On this basis, KHSC should be joining all other BV clubs to make our preferred view known to the Association decision makers, so it can be changed in time for next season. It was a BV trial that has not been popular. So if we don’t tell them they will never know . If BV want a change to the format of pennant play they need to look at another trial for introduction, such as;;
There is some rumour floating around that BV is considering reducing Before Bowls Victoria did that, it would be expected they would canvas their member clubs for their opinion? Let a KHSC Committeeman know your own view about these issues? PLAYER PENNANT PREFORMANCE RATING SYSTEM. It was agreed by the Bowls Committee that a player performance rating level score would be recorded after all pennant matches for each player in all rinks. (Starting with round 11) Each rink will discuss the days play immediately after the match as a four, & each player will rate themselves and their other x 3 team members. The rating levels are simple to categorise, but significantly useful for the selectors in their understanding of how a player in each of the 3 pennant teams is performing generally. It will prove the definitive measure we haven’t had for over a season & a half. These match-play performance ratings will be posted on the club notice-board after each round for all-3 pennant team players. The rating levels are as follows; Good, - Average, - Below Average. What will inevitably happen generally is that players will opt to suggest too often they and their team-mates put in an average game, - even if they didn’t. An AVERAGE game for the leads & 2’s means that they must have delivered no less than 26 of 42 bowls within a meter of the head in predictable conditions. In the case of 3rds & skips, consideration has to be given to narrow misses, - number of conversions & additions or reductions to a head score,& shots under pressure to reduce a deficit at the head. The ‘Fronts’ can never be measured against the ‘Backs’ bowl-for-bowl, as the same meter measure criteria does not apply to the 3rds & skips, as a degree of difficulty score rating must apply. For instance a lead drawing on an open green to the jack cannot be measured equally to a skip having to draw to within a meter when 6-down at the head, and having to thread his way through a minefield of short bowls. The flaw with the last system we used on player performance every bowl In the past we had rating markers who would score a skip or 3rd zero, for a draw shot that just shaved the target bowl with deliberate weight, and subsequently finished 6-feet through, when in fact it was almost the perfect bowl and should have rated the full bowl score. That system was flawed Common sense must prevail, and the now open honest discussion at the end of the match will help all players understand how each other thinks about the game & their contribution to the match in which they have just played. THE UNSTOPABLE TUESDAY-12’s. Simply amazing, and still undefeated on top of the Division-2 ladder, KHSC delivered another emphatic win over our neighbouring Auburn last Tuesday 6th Dec taking all x 3 rinks & a 31 shot win, - 81/49 Phyl Major’s rink stole the pants off their opponents by 19 shots, (35/16) and if she’d not dropped 7 shots over the last x 5 ends she might have been forced to sing the club song solo, - just for entertainments sake,… but a top performance by Phyl and her 4 including (3) Con Doherty (2) Ron Scerri (L) Cheryl Muttock. The other 2 rink winners were;… Dot Gascoyne who’d let her lead slip away on the 19th end to trail by one shot 14/15, - but then let fly with a fabulous FIVE on the 20th to grab back the lead emphatically, and in spite of dropping another 2 on the last Auburn were left 2-shots shy of the two points. Go Dot, - great to have you back with us. Peter Scerri & his girls just keep on delivering. They scored 2 x 5’s & 2 x 4’s along the way & were uncatchable, storming home with the 2 rink points 27/17, in spite of winning only 10 of the 21 ends. That just seems to be their way. Dropping low scoring ends, but picking up BIG multiples when the chips are really down. It’s the multiple end scores that win pennant matches and Peter Scerri & his girls keep nailing ‘em. THE TEAMS & RINK SCORES. Tuesday 6/12/2011 (S) Dot Gascoyne, (3) Pat O’Meara, (2) Fran Jeffers, (L) Liz Lambert (S) Phyl Major, (3) Con Doherty, (2) Ron Scerri, (L) Cheryl Muttock (S) Peter Scerri, (3) Carole Price, (2) Judy Wilson, (L) Terri O’Brien |
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| PICKERS’ SMASHES HURSTBRIDGE. | |||||
Posted 05/12/11 Match Reports, Round 10, Sat 3/12/11, 1st’s & 2nds A KHSC win was to be expected, but the rearranged rink skip’d by Grant Pickering for the first time this season, set the rink on fire with a 34/7 win by 27 shots. It was a green-storm from the first bounce winning 12 of the first 13-ends to lead 30/1. It was round 10 of Division-2 (Sat 3rd Dec) against 7th placed Hurstbridge on our ‘Stride’ green, running as perfectly as it will this season at 13.5 seconds. The Pickering rink could not have performed any better as a team, with each player recording a personal match performance score of between 7 – 8 out-of-ten, which included; (S) Grant Pickering, (3) Brian Wintrip, (2) Peter Scerri, (L) Ray Runting. If you could pick a best player out of that combined stella rink performance, Ray ‘Roller’ Runting was acknowledged as having played one of his best matches ever for the club. Grant Pickering had taken the skip reigns of the rink this round after performing solidly & reliably as Greame Clements 3rd for the first half of the season, and Paul Wintrip moved to take over his spot as Clemo’s 3rd. Both of these swap moves proved to be genius, and Clemo’ totalled his opponent by eleven shots (27/16) after grabbing the lead by the 9th end & never being headed again. They played as a well balanced dynamic group and are now going to be too tough & skilled for any opposition to knock off. The rink included; (S) Graeme Clements, (3) Paul Wintrip, (2) Graeme Spry, (L) Eng Ang. Simon Collett’s rink continues as the trail blazer with another resounding 15 shot win (26/11) allowing Hurstbridge only 7-end-wins & at the 15th end Simon’s rink led 22/4. He had certainly nailed ‘em. His rink included (S) Simon Collett, (3) Angus MacIsaac, (2) Ron Makin, (L) Ron Scerri. The highlights of this rink win included the 5-‘Dead-End-Kills’ by Simon to destroy any faint hope Hurstbridge might have had about winning the 2 rink points when they held shots at the crossover. Simon just wound up & killed ‘em, - five-times. And Ron Scerri played another of his outstanding lead games to set up the match so often with bowls in tight on the head. So far this season Ron Scerri has been the most consistent lead for the club which is so critical for the rink & ultimately team success. Generally if the lead gets around 60% – 70% of his/her bowls within a meter, the rink will rarely lose, - that’s how important a good lead is, and Ron’s one of ‘em. The only 2-point loss was Ray Jansen’s rink going down 19/25. It had been a tight match from the 7th end with only a couple of shots in it, and at the 18th end they grabbed a 4 to tie it up. (19/19) But sadly that’s where their confidence ended and they gave the 4-shots straight back on the 19th & didn’t recover. They had put themselves under extra pressure dropping 2 x 4’s 2 x 3’s & 3 x 2’s winning only 9 of the 21 ends. Phyl Major has taken over the two-spot in Ray Jansens rink from Justin Donaldson who has returned overseas to Cambodia for an indefinite period. Justin is a tough act to follow on the bowling green, - but Phyl will certainly make her presence felt. Ray’s rink includes; The 16/2 points win was a satisfying result after the last x 2 washouts (Rounds 8 & 9 rained out) and keeps us in the mix for the top two ladder positions which is paramount for the club to win promotion back up to Division-1. Next Weeks Round-11 v Montmorency, - Away. (Div-2. Sec-3) ………………………………………………………………………………………. MOGOOS DWARFED ON THE TIFF. The second’s were totally humbled on Saturday (3/12) by being outplayed by Ivanhoe on their Tiff Dwarf green which started at around 14 seconds & ended nearer 16. 3 of the 4 KHSC rinks were never in the match, and only Con Doherty’s rink looked like retaining some balance on the main score-board when he was leading 10/2 after 8, - then remarkably on their 9th end, Con was 6-down at the changeover. His opposing skip stuck both his 2 bowls in tight, while Con ran at the big wide costly head & missed both to give Ivanhoe back their 8-shot deficit & tie the rink up at 10/10. Oooooops! Con’s rink couldn’t get back the lead although tied it up again by the 16th at 18/18 but then gave away 6/3- to lose it on the run home and go down 21/24. Con’s 3rd Dennis Parkes continued his reliable form, but (L) Cheryl Muttock & (2) Geoff Birch had matches they’d prefer to forget. So I won’t mention it. Con’s rink included; (S) Con Doherty, (3) Dennis Parkes, (2) Geoff Birch, (L) Cheryl Muttock. However, Cheryl & Geoff weren’t on their own having had an ordinaire day. We had more than you could count on two hands in our 16 on Saturday who probably wish they hadn’t turned up, such was the demoralising lessons we were being given on the Ivanhoe green. We went into a tea break after 50 ends trailing 31/55 and never reduced the main-board deficit margin to less than 20 for the remainder of the match. It’s no excuse, just an observation, that the Ivanhoe ‘Tiff Dwarf’ green which was the pride & joy of their club & former green-keeper Andrew Rigg, up to & including last season, has deteriorated significantly & runs erratically. Even the visiting Division-1 Lalor team playing alongside us on Saturday were expressing their disappointment & surprise at the green’s strange behaviour. (And they were beating Ivanhoe’s home Div-1 side on it.) Bowls were running straight, some running away against the bias, and many others racing across the head unexpectedly. It was fickle and we were playing it with too much ‘guesswork’ instead of confidence, and it showed on the scoreboard. There was plenty of home-ground-advantage, - and remember Ivanhoe is one of only a very few Metro clubs who refuses to let visiting pennant teams have a pre-match roll-up. Could this shock factor of the greens fickle behaviour be the reason? Interestingly not all of our players were troubled by the green and handled it with some credibility. Not the least of whom was skip Norm Roughley who played a very good aggressive match with very little support from his rink. He changed over 13 times through the match when we were down. He converted x 5 of those times when we were down to up, including a 3-down to 4+, a 1-down to 5+, a 4-down to 2+ but he couldn’t be expected to keep on converting when we left him in trouble, and Norm’s rink finally collapsed under the weight of Ivanhoe’s better control & conversions to lose 15/30 including x 12 shots over the last x 4 ends, which regrettably included a 6 & 5. Ouch, - they hurt. Just to evidence this point, the rink performance scores of each of the Roughley players, based on the measurement of every bowls value, looks like this; (S) Norm Roughley. Scored 25.75 Out of a possible 42. Based on this performance rating it’s easy to see why we lost by double our score. The John Joyce rink was tightly in the match until the 16th end when leading by one (11/10), but then all concentration and confidence left them and they dropped 2 x 3’s, 1 x 2 & 1, on the last 5 ends to fall short by seven. (12/19) Ivon Brewer’s rink lost the match in the first half after giving away 1 x 4, 3 x 3’s & a 2 and trailed 7/20 by the 14th. In spite of winning 5 of the last 7-ends the lead was too great to peel back and they’d blown it 14/22. Ivon’s rink included; (S) Ivon Brewer (3) Rod Donaldson, (2) Brendan Annesley, (L) Lorraine Broussard So it was all rinks down to 2nd placed Ivanhoe by 33 shots. 62/95 After match at the ‘Steak & Salad’ dinner, Con Doherty was awarded his own personal big fat 8-inch cigar by bowls President Ron Makin, to acknowledge his dropping the magic 8-shots on the 9th end. His acceptance speech was “On behalf of the other three members of my rink I reluctantly must accept this award……,” - Next Weeks Round-11 v Whittlesea. Home (Div-4. Sec-3) TIME DIFFERENCE in MATCHPLAYI was intrigued to note that the Division-1 match alongside the ‘Magoo’s at Ivanhoe on Saturday (3/12) was 10 ends behind our Div-4 match when we all went in for a tea & bikkies break. We had completed 50 ends and their scoreboard displayed only 40 completed ends. When our (Div-4) match ended at 4.25pm, the Division-1 Ivanhoe v Lalor match still had 10 ends to play. It’s not the dead ends. There’s just a heap of stuffing around, standing looking at the head pontificating, and worst of all, the 3rds standing at the head with the skip almost every end, and then slowly walking back to take their shot on the mat. Drives me nuts. AFTER-MATCH B-B-Q. On Again - 14th Jan 2012 Simon Collett put on another excellent steak (with snags) & salad dinner after round-11 upstairs in the tennis rooms, which was well attended. He bought the meat, cooked it, and donated the $10 pp proceeds to the club. A brilliant & most enjoyable concept. Thank You Simon. He has planned a repeat performance (the 3rd) after the January 14th top-side home match against Kingsbury. Fix on the chaff bags at 6pm. If you have not been a part of one of these $10 gourmet steak & salad dinners, you just can’t be hungry. So get hungry for a pennant win AND a steak on the 14th Jan, and bring your partner. (1st match back after the Xmas/New Year holiday.) “Up & at em.” |
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| KEW HEIGHTS XMAS PARTY | |||||
Posted 30/11/11 In what one can only described as inspiring, John Joyce's show stopper "I did it my way" was a welcome return to form, after a scratchy performance a couple of years ago. The very entertaining In a duet with "Mr Caberet" was one of many highlights on the night.
Ray & Liz Runting took out yet another major prize in the raffle winning Medallion Club tickets for the LA Galaxy Vs Melbourne Victory game. Well done (and can you buy me a lotto ticket for Xmas). We also found out that Men's President Ron Makin has a love of hats, see the picture below with Men's Secretary Tony Shortis.
A big thanks to Spitting Image Catering who always do a superb job, Michelle at the Bar and Peter Scerri & Judy Wilson for decorating the Clubhouse.
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| HOT DOT SCORCHER | |||||
Posted 30/11/11 'Hot Dot' Gascoyne skipped her rink to a miraculous come from behind win to save the day for the KHSC Tuesday 12's & retain the club's undefeated top-of-the-ladder spot in what is shaping as a stella season. It's the 3rd match in a row the Tuesday-12's have performed the near impossible to snatch victory back from the jaws of defeat when the match looked lost 2/3rds of the way through. On Tuesday (29/11) KHSC trailed Eltham by 14 shots on the main board with one rink being belted on their 16-second synthetic green in hot & sunny but tricky windy conditions. The Con Doherty & Peter Scerri rinks were holding their own, but Dot Gascoyne's rink was copping an absolute thumping Just like in the previous 2 matches, it looked all over with defeat a certainty & the Eltham team grinning from ear-to-ear. But their wide grins were slowly turning into frowns as Dot's rink turned up the heat, and her team of (3) Rod Donaldson (2) Pat O'Meara (L) Liz Lambert began to take charge & put a full stop on Eltham's run where a comma had been for 2/3rd of the game. 'Hot-Dot's' team stacked on 19 shots to one. Yes, Nineteen to one in the run home. They were reversing the match momentum end by end opiling on 19 shots to one & take the rink points 22/17, and in doing so giving KHSC the 10 match points by 17 shots, - with all rinks up. The other x 2 rink winners were Con Doherty 22/11 & Peter Scerri 22/19. It was another amazing come-from-behind performance. In fact this was the 3rd in a row won by KHSC in similar circumstances, - although this time it was even more important, because Eltham were breathing down our necks in 2nd spot on the ladder only a handful of points behind us, so this win adds a bit of breathing space. Will the bubble burst? That would appear to be highly unlikely with the confidence now being displayed each week by this mixed group. Geoff Mathers. |
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| WINNING IN THE RAIN | |||||
Postd 23/11/11 It had rained all night, & most of the morning on Saturday 19th Nov when our seconds to line up against Greensborough in Round 8 at Barkers Road. The plan had been to play them on the lawn ‘Stride’ green, they being a synthetic only club, - but the green was under water, and the front show green was still closed, so the match was moved to our synthetic which had drained well. Curiously, rink # 8 on the plastic had been closed by consulting electricians for safety reasons, as one of the overhead lights was hanging dangerously, so it meant that our 3rds had to abandon their pennant round, and could only have a social practice roll on the remaining 2 rinks. The Greensborough match started in cloudy humid conditions with the green running at 14.5 seconds, and it was to turn out to be a tense affair right the way through in all x 4 rinks. It had also been decided that with more rain threatening later, we should play straight through without a break. After 38 ends the main board saw KHSC trailing by one shot, at 50-ends the score was 50/44, at 70 63/60, and by 72 we’d let the match slip away, when John Joyce’s boys dropped a 7, which could easily have been an 8- had their skip not dropped 12-feet short with the last bowl of the end. It was an unexpected stunner. ‘JJ’s’ boys had been a couple down at the head when John pushed their only bowl out of the head and then missed with his second trying to cut down the 7-. Neil Hookey had called for a slightly weighted shot into the head with his last to save, where there were 4 or 5 short (away) bowls one-meter out. Joyce’s bowl was too heavy, and he narrowly went through all the gaps and the damage was done. Remarkably, after leading comfortably from the start, his rink was now tied at 16/16 and the main board in debt by two shots, - but it didn’t stay that way, with the Joyce boys getting home by one shot after winning the last x 2 ends. Norm Roughley’s rink had experienced a super tight match with the lead changing 4 times over the 21 ends, but it was the last end that recovered the one point tie to 19/19 when we were training 16/19. Holding 2+ at the changeover, Norm pushed out their 3rd shot to hold 3+ for us which they couldn’t change. Ivan Brewer’s team won 4 of the last 6 ends to win his rink by one shot and help us to secure the 10 match points. The key winner for the day was the Con Doherty rink which took the two points 21/15 so it became the handful required to get the club across the line. However it wasn’t the fait accompli that it looks, because they were trailing 13/15 at the 18th but then scored magic multiples of 4,2,2 over the final x 3 ends to close Greensborough out of the rink & the match. It was a very satisfying come-from behind victory for the club, and we hope the points will stand given the number of matches that would no doubt have been abandoned, - certainly those who had to play on grass. THE TEAMS & RINK SCORES. Div-4 Sec-3 Round-8 (S) John Joyce, (3) Neil Hookey, (2) Tony Shortis, (L) Peter Fry (S) Ivan Brewer, (3) Rod Donaldson, (2) Brendan Annesley, (L) Lorraine Broussard WON 20/19 (S) Con Doherty, (3) Dennis Parkes, (2) Geoff Birch, (L) Cheryl Muttock (S) Norm Roughley, (3) Geoff Mathers, (2) Phyl Major, (L) Liz Zambert Personal Player Performance Rink Sore
Next Week. Round-9 KHSC Seconds v Heidelberg Golf. Away. Top Side washed out. The top-sides Round-8 match against Darebin was abandoned. Surprisingly, Darebin could have transferred the match onto their blue indoor plastic, but abandoned the match when their x 4 tiff dwarf greens were all closed by their Greens Director as waterlogged & unplayable. More than 50% of Div-1, 2 & 3 matches were played last Saturday in the wet, which means all the scores are retained, and those who didn’t play share 9 points each. In Division-4, it has been reported that there were less than the 50% of matches completed so our seconds winning 17 points will probably not count, and revert to an abandoned round score of 9/9. BV will confirm that today. This will also be the case for our 3rds who will record a 9/9 point score too. Next Week. Round-9 KHSC top-side v Preston/Reservoir. Home.Geoff Mathers. |
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| TUESDAY PENNANT REPORTS - 8th & 15th November | |||||
Posted 21/11/11 FAIRYTALE COMEBACK The KHSC ’Open-Tuesday-12’ performed a fairytale second-half come-from-behind win, in their match against Greensborough, on their new 17- 18 second plastic. (Played on 8th Nov). It was most certainly a match of 2-halves. The first 39-ends saw Greensborough virtually wrap up the match going into the tea break leading by 16 shots (26/42) and in total control. KHSC looked done & dusted. Their new synthetic green was quick, - & it was taking a while for our side to get a handle on the speed required, - given that it was a few seconds quicker than our home track. There must have been fire-water in the tea though, because KHSC came out to play the last 24 ends with a different focus, and scored 34 shots to 9, to run away with the 10 match points & all rinks up. 60/51 final score. It was a remarkable come-from behind win, made even more remarkable because Dot Goscoyne’s rink grabbed an honest EIGHT on the 19th end (no lucky shots involved) which was all that was required to rip the game away from Greensborough. Dot’s rink was trailing 5/15 at the break, but won 7 of the final 8 ends, including the 8 to win the x 2 rink-points 19/16 & inject a winning margin back onto the main scoreboard. What a match it was, producing a deep sigh of relief at the end from team leader Peter Scerri whose rink had an equally daunting chase ahead at 7/17 down, (13 ends) but amazingly they too won 7 of the 8 remaining ends scoring 13 shots to 2. Enough to take the rink points by 2+ (20/18) & added significantly to the main board lead. Phyl Major’s rink was not idle either. They’d led by 4+ shots at the break, and then lost 6 of the final 8 ends, which might have created panic amongst the side, except for her rink picking up a SIX on the 18th, which helped the main score-board to now show only a 3-shot deficit, with only 9-ends to go in the overall match. It was tense, but Dot’s eight (on 19th) & Phyl’s 6 (on 16th) & Scerri’s 13/1 2nd-half score stitched up what was a most unexpected but very satisfying come- from-behind victory. The win leaves the Tuesday-12 on top of the Division-2 ladder. THE TEAMS & RINK SCORES. Div-2. Tuesday-12 Played 8th Nov. (S) Peter. Scerri, (3) Carol Price, (2) Judy Wilson, (L) Terri O’Brien (S) Dot Coscoyne (3) Pat O’Meara, (Rod Donaldson, (L) Liz Lambert (S) Phyl Major, (3) Con Doherty, (2) Ron Scerri, (L) Cheryl Muttock
DÉ JÀ VUThis is scary it is so similar. I called in to watch the ‘Tuesday-12’ on the Barkers Road green last Tuesday 15th Nov, after their astonishing come-from-behind win the week before. I arrived when they went for their tea-break against Yarra Valley with KHSC trailing 28/44. 16-shots down & appearing to be in serious trouble. Two rinks were down 3-shots, but Phyl Major’s rink was 10-down at 6/16 & struggling. Sixteen shots down over the last 24 ends is usually too big a chase even though we’d done it the week before from being 14-down. I had expected to see this match being played on the KHSC synthetic as our home-ground advantage - given that the Yarra Valley turf is very similar to our ‘Stride’ green. Our second-side had played at Yarra Valley the previous Saturday & announced it to be running almost identical to ours. Plus the fact that 4 of their (YV’s) top ladies in the team had played on the KHSC grass the day before in the State 4’s, so our grass track would hold no surprises, when the synthetic would have been expected to provide an early benefit to us.. So the x 16-shot difference at the break was perhaps not surprising as we’d relinquished our perceived home-ground-advantage. However, in-spite of the equal turf conditions, & just like last Tuesday, the last 24 ends of the 2nd half became a total performance turnaround in each of the 3 rinks. Yarra Valley were shell-shocked! So in hindsight & when the cheering from the spectator crowd had died down, the decision to play on the turf was vindicated with this astonishing 2nd-half win, - for the second week in a row. Here’s how the match unfolded from the 39th end,… Dot Goscoyne’s rink won 6 of her last 8 ends scoring 10/2 to win the rink points 18/13,…no 8’s this week, but they did snatch a 4 on the 19th which was brought about through a Rod Donaldson weighted draw that moved the jack to the ditch edge when we were 3-down, and then Dot sank the cake to hold 4+, whilst the opposing skip fell short with both of her bowls. Peter Scerri was mumbling & grumbling as usual when he was trailing 14/17 at the break, but came out to produce a whirlwind second-half performance to grab 2 x 4’s & a 3 winning 5 of the last 8 ends, and a take the rink points 27/21. It also produced a smile & some complimentary words from him too! Scerri’s lead, Terri O’Brien & 3rd Carole Price had started the day slowly, having some difficulty with the slow damp green, but over the last few ends with the match in the balance, they tightened up and where drawing & weighting in to the head converting & holding critical shots. It was a riveting match where every KHSC bowl was like a hand-grenade to the opposition as they watched an almost certain win get snatched away by some very impressive controlled bowling from the KHSC-12. Phyl Major steered her ship back on line scoring 9-shots over the last x 3 ends & taking 5 of her last x 8 ends, including a 5+ on the 19th that blew the match apart, and she finished up only going down by 2-shots. Their 2nd-half recovery was enough to help get the club across the line by 9 shots. 63/54 These come-from behind victories are not good for the feint hearted, but hugely entertaining & rewarding, demonstrating a spirit of determination for the long-term-future success of the Club. It had been x 2 almost identical astonishing match wins, yet both played in totally different conditions. The mere thought of having to play KHSC will now send a chill up the spine of all the teams in our section, because they’ll now believe that no lead will ever be big enough to escape our come-from-behind focus & determination to win. Simply brilliant. THE TEAMS & RINK SCORES. (Div-2 ‘Tuesday-12’ Played 15th Nov) (S) Peter Scerri, (3) Carole Price, (2) Judy Wilson, (L) Terri O’Brien (S) Dot Goscoyne, (3) Pat O’Meara, (2) Rod Donaldson, (L) Liz Lambert. WON 18/13 (Score at the Tea-Break 8/11 after 13 ends) (S) Phyl Major, (3) Con Doherty, (2) Ron Scerri, (L) Cheryl Muttock ………………………………………. Geoff Mathers |
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| MATCH REPORT - ROUND 7 | |||||
Posted 21/11/11 CRACK’S WIDENING. After a sequence of quite indifferent displays from our top-side, drawing comments of concern from senior players & skips about lack-lustre performances, - it all collapsed on Saturday against, 2nd last team Heidelberg to end our undefeated run, going down by 10 shots 76/86, with x 2 rink wins each. This group of 16 players have too much talent to be struggling like this, - but it’s not a time for panic, although it is a time to take stock of what’s going wrong & make adjustments? No one can blame the conditions, as our ‘Stride’ green was running Coming off their own slick plastic green, the Heidelberg side went into the match on our damp grass with a plan to attack the head from the outset, as one should do on slow greens, & deliver bowls with the aim of moving the cake. They did, & apparently we didn’t manage that too well or often enough. The week before, against lowly Fairfield revealed some worrying cracks, - but we wrestled back from a 3-shot deficit with x 4 ends to play, & scratched our way over the line to steal back the10 match points in a terrific last gasp win. It was hoped that the brittleness of matches over the recent past would be superseded by the Heidelberg match to restore everyone’s confidence & vision in our desire for promotion back up to Division-1. Sadly, on Saturday (Round-7) KHSC was trailing from the start – going into the tea break 23 shots down, and knowing we were in trouble. That was going to be just too big a lead to chase down in the now reduced pennant play format of 21 ends, and that’s the way it panned out. There was a late flourish from Ray Jansen’s rink who won 21/14, after he had been locked together at 13/13 by the17th, and then his rink won 3 of the last 4 ends picking up a 2, 1, 5. Paul Wintrip was only one-down after the 17th, but then dropped a 5,2,3 to go down by 9. The Wintrip rink had dropped 2 x 4’s & 2 x 5’s so they’d done well to keep it to a tight one-shot match at the 17th, but then they just got left behind dropping eleven shots over the next 4-ends when the chips were down. You can never win a rink match dropping 18 shots in x 4 ends at any division level. Huge numbers like that just blows any match to smitherines.. Graeme Clements rink has struggled through the first 6 rounds winning x 3 coming into round-7, but his rink only won 7 of the 21 ends for the afternoon, and went down 11/24. That eleven included 2 x 3’s, so they only scored x 5 single shots over the other 19 ends. The only positive highlight to come out of Clemmo’s rink loss was the brilliant leading by Eng Ang, but our top order couldn’t capitalise on the excellent starts he was opening with on most ends.. Simon Collett’s rink won their 6th of 7 matches thus far, and were never headed through the afternoon. It got close by the 18th end when they led by only one shot but then bagged a 4+ on the 19th and the 2 rink-points were theirs. It’s a worrying time for the top-side & the selectors, particularly in view of having to face Darebin on their turf next Saturday. (Round-8) Like us as the only two undefeated teams after round-6, they were thundered 18-zip against Montmorency, so the tussle of the top 3 teams continues, & the match against Darebin next week takes on even more signifigance. Sure, It’s only the first loss for the season, but without Simon Collett’s rink dominance thus far, (6 out of 7 wins, and one solo win) we might have struggled to even be in the top 4 in Division-2. It’s all been pretty shaky and as stated in this column last week, - The JITTERS were showing then, & this week were busted wide open. Both against lowly Division-2 sides!! Could this be a bit of déjà vu from last year in Division-1 when we were in the top-4 after Round 8, but then dropped the next x 10 matches straight, to be relegated. It should never have happened then, and it’s even more ridiculous to think that could even enter one’s mind now,- but unless we tighten the reigns and get players back to recognising their roles & responsibilities & supporting one another, it COULD happen!!! This is not to be a tedious bowl-by-bowl rating, - rather a summary rating, articulated as maybe - ”GOOD, or FAIR, or POOR” to be discussed at the end of each match by the 4-members of the rink. This will help strengthen camaraderie amongst the rink which is such a vital ingredient to overall team success. It’s still good and strong, but you can’t overdose on team mateship. Each rink member rates him/herself, and the other 3 team members in open discussion. The majority rating is the one recorded. This individual performance rating is then noted & published on the notice-board each week. In the event of a player getting a 2-all vote in the rink discussion, (such as 2 x Fair & 2 x Poor) the Skip has the casting vote, & that’s the rating to be recorded & published otherwise the majority rating prevails. This in a non-intrusive, fair & open player measurement information source for both selectors & pennant playing member interest. “Well done” to those who arranged to put on the sausage sizzle after Saturday’s home match. Excellent initiative appreciated by not just our members, but the opposition players too. Those who stay for a drink after the match are obviously going to benefit by having something solid & nourishing to eat before driving home. The Yarra Valley Club put on a ‘sausage sizzle’ (gratis) following the 2nds match, and it was greatly appreciated. Fresh bread, 2 varieties of snags & ontions. Yum Yum. THE TEAMS & RINK SCORES: Round-7 Div-2 Sec-3 KHSC 76 lost to Heidelberg 86 (4/14) @ Barkers Rd. ‘Stride’ Green. (S) Ray Jansen, (3) Doug O’Connell, (2) Graeme Spry, (L) Peter Lambert (S) Graeme Clements, (3) Grant Pickering, (2) Ron Makin, (L) Eng Ang (S) Paul Wintrip, (3) Brian Wintrip, (2) Peter Scerri, (L) Ray Runting (S) Simon Collett, (3) Angus MacIsaac, (2) Justin Donaldson, (L) Ron Scerri THE LADDER. After Round-7 Div-2. Sec-3 Preston/Reservoir 101 Montmorency 76 Kingsbury 72 ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2nds LOSE SIGHT OF TARGET. Chairman of Selectors, and last weeks rink hero Con Doherty, addressed the side on the 12 second Yarra Valley green before the start of play last Saturday. (12/11) “Don’t let them get a jump on us” he said. It’s terribly important that we get away to a strong start over the first 12 ends.” He was absolutely right. We were in 5th spot and Yarra Valley 6th on the ladder. A Kew Heights win would put two wins between us, which was vital if we want to have a chance of promotion. Their green was running a bit like our own ‘Stride’ green so there would be no shocks or surprises, - we just needed to keep bowls up & into the head. We all knew that, but as we walked back to our rinks, we forgot everything that Con had said when the match got under way. It was incredible to watch it all just disintergrate right before our very eyes. Short, wide, narrow bowls. You would have reckoned we had money on the opposition & didn’t want to threaten the heads!! So here’s a thumbnail of what happened over the first dozen or so ends of the match?
pep-talk score a 3 the first end, but then drop a SEVEN on the 2nd..
The writing was swiftly on the wall & we were not making up any ground going into the tea break 35/48 down after 48 ends. Tea-Scores: - Ivan was 3+, Con was 11-, Norm was 8-, & John Joyce was in serious trouble trailing 9/26 It was a glum time during the interval, and we knew we would not be able to reverse it, and we didn’t. Only Ivon Brewer with his new 3rd Rod Donaldson troubled the scorers with an 8-shot win. Con Doherty got a 9-shot bath (18/27) quite unexpectedly after his whirlwind cricket score last week, but that’s bowls. And as he said, - “only Dennis Parkes gave me a few good bowls, the rest of us were pretty ordinary.” Surprisingly John Joyce’s rink was obliterated. He’d started off on the wrong foot dropping a 5, but then won only 2 of the next x 9 ends so by the 10th end was trailing 4/20 to add a cloud of ugliness to the main score-board. By end 58 overall KHSC was just playing out time trailing 45/70 as we were never in the hunt. After Yarra Valley had got the jump on us, - it was obvious just looking around the rinks that we had resigned ourselves to defeat on the main board, and basically just rolled over with a continuation of very ordinaire bowls, and little or no aggression to fight back. It was surprising how we were being belted with the way the green was playing because it was skinny & predictable on both hands, & not unlike our own green in damp conditions. They handled it well, yet we played wide, short & too erratic with too few controlled conversions or additions, but their were no excuses. A highlight of the ‘Roughley’ rink was the first game appearance of Gregg Crane playing # 2, who put in a capable performance for his first visit
to our pennant side since his arrival as General Manager of the KHSC The Teams & Rink Scores. Round-7 Div-4 Sec-3 (S) Ivan Brewer, (3) Rod Donaldson, (2) Brendan Annesley, (L) Lorraine Broussard (S) Norm Roughley, (3) Geoff Mathers, (2) Gregg Crane, (L) Liz Lambert The player match ratings of the ‘Roughley rink were; (S) Con Doherty, (3) Dennis Parkes, (2) Geoff Birch, (L) Cheryl Muttock (S) John Joyce, (3) Neil Hookey, (2) Phyl Major, (L) Tony Shortis THE LADDER. After Round-7. Div-4 Sec-3 Diamond Creek 117 Heidelberg Golf 75 KHSC 56 ……………………………………………………………. Geoff Mathers. |
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| MATCH REPORT - ROUND 6 | |||||
Posted 8/11/11 TOP-SIDE JITTERS Second versus 8th was never shaping as a tough contest last Saturday in the lead-up to round-6. In fact it was just expected to be a 4-rink KHSC stampede to take the 18 points against Fairfield on their small suburban back-yard green running at a damp slow 12 seconds. Well, not so. The selectors confidence did not translate to the players and by the 80th end, with only 4 ends to play, Fairfield had taken the lead on the main board by 3-shots. It was the shock required to get the team’s confidence & positiveness to lift & grab the game by the bowls to take it back. Fortunately the penny obviously dropped for a few of those who had just been coasting & ‘expecting’ to win, and all the rinks then collectively produced the level of adrenalin & accuracy required to win matches that had gone missing for a large part of the arvo’. Ray Jansen, trailing 14/20 picked up 3+ shots over the last 3 ends. He had dropped 7-ends on the trot, going from 14/7 to trailing 14/21 after the 18th. He finally went down 17/22 winning only 8 ends for the match. It’s reported that our boys could not handle the long ends rolled by Fairfield, and only came back into the game when they managed to roll the ‘cake’ to a minimum length. Simon Collett won 20/15 which included 4+ shots over the last x 3 ends. On the last end with the match up-for-grabs, he was 2-down at the head, and dead drew the shot with perfect line & weight to protect our 10 point win. Collett’s rink has won x 5 matches, with their only loss being in round 3 when Simon took out their only bowl in the head on the last end when leading by 3, & dropped 5 to lose the 2-points. Graeme Clements came home hard with some serious focus to win his rink after trailing 9/13 @ 16 ends. He won 5 of the next 6 ends including a 6+ on the 17th end. It was a confidence boosting win for Clemmo’ & his boys who had won only 2 matches from their first x 5. Paul Wintrip tied his rink after leading 18/17 (18 ends), and then dropping 4-shots on 19, but they recovered by picking up a 2 & single on the last two ends to save one point. The late KHSC rally was enough to get the club over the line by 6-shots overall for an enormously valuable 15/3 ladder result which sees us hold on to 2nd spot below the only other undefeated team Darebin whom we play in two weeks. Former Victorian rep’ and top-side-skip Graeme Clements is quoted as saying following the narrow come-fro-behind Fairfield win… “The top-side is NOT performing at it’s best. I think there are a number of areas we need to address, as Ray Jansen pointed out a couple of weeks back. We need to lift our skill levels along with our consistency. Each week we are getting into trouble through not having enough bowls in the head, - or when we do get bowls into the head, we fail to get bowls to cover dangerous situations. I feel we are getting too many negative comments & appear to be looking for excuses for poor bowls. If we are to be successful in Division-2 we need to start performing like a Division-1 side. Let’s hope we can be more positive, better focused & determined to achieve better outcomes with each bowl we deliver. I think we can achieve all the above but it will take a team effort.” Quote. - Graeme Clements. The Chairman of Selectors was overheard saying after round-6 that “a ‘Player’ Performance Rating System’ will be re-introduced for all 3 teams from round-7” after an absence of one-&-a-half-seasons. Not before time. This will no doubt be explained in the pre-match address at each venue next Saturday by the Manager’s. THE TEAMS & RINK SCORES. Round-6 Div-2 Sec-3 Graeme Clements (3) Grant Pickering (2) Ron Makin (L) Eng Ang WON 20/14 (S) Ray Jansen (3) Doug O’Connell (2 ) Graeme Spry (L) Peter Lambert (S) Simon Collett (3) Angus MacIsaac (2) Jason Donaldson (L) Ron Scerri (S) Paul Wintrip (3) Brian Wintrip (2) Peter Scerri (L) Ray Runting Next Week. Round-7 vs City of Heidelberg. HomeTHE LADDER. After Round-6. Darebin 96KHSC 91 Kingsbury 56 DOHERTY’s RINK BELTS A CRICKET SCORE. How’d you like to be the opposition rink going down by 37-shots!! (49/12) It happened to Montmorency on Saturday on the ‘Stride’ green at Barkers Road, running a true but damp 12 seconds, in superbly warm Spring sunshine. It was a delight to be out there & just astonishing to watch this demolition by 4 experienced & talented KHSC bowlers representing our seconds. Con Doherty’s team produced the highest rink-score for the club in over a decade at this level. It’s almost impossible to comprehend, so here’s an overview of the Doherty rink score card & some of what happened;…
Of course he did. That’s what team-players do.
(S) Con Doherty (3) Dennis Parkes (2) Geoff Birch (L) Cheryl Muttock. WON 49/12
Going into Saturday’s match Montmorency was only eleven points behind us so a win was vital on our home track because it’s tough to beat ‘em out there on their slippery carpet that can run up to 18 – 19 seconds. We got belted out there in our pre-season warm-up match. KHSC won 3 rinks to take the 10 points by 27 shots 108/81(16/2). Our 3rd win from 6 that keeps us in touch with the top 4, being now in the 5th spot, with next weeks match against 6th placed Yarra Valley on their grass. Norm Roughley was a comfortable winner by 10 shots (25/15) with his unchanged rink including;…. Norm’s aggressive approach to skipping did plenty of damage to the Montmorency confidence and the scoreboard. Whilst he only converted one end from down to up, (the 1st) he killed the 5th when 1-down, and added to the head on x 6 other ends to personally contribute another 11-shots onto the main board. It was another very strong leader’s game from Liz Lambert who recorded a match rating score of 23 out of 42, and Rod Donaldson (2) who capped off his BOG last week with another top rink score of 24.50 out of a maximum 42. Geoff Mathers (3) scored 19.75 & Norm’s match score amounted to 19.25 out of 41. John Joyce, who fell short by one shot last week, got over the line this week by the same margin 22/21, after trailing 9/16 @ 14th, so it didn’t look positive with 7 to play. They had gone into the tea-break at 9/9 (12-ends), but then dropped 7 shots over the next 2 ends. But in typical Joyce style he maintained the composure of his rink & his own concentration to score 12-shots on the run home, - which nearly came undone on the last end when leading 22/18, they dropped a 3-, but managed to hang on to the two rink points by one shot. The rink included; After his 28 shot belting last week, the Howard Cheng rink with Ivan Brewer as his new 3rd, couldn’t stop the rot & copped another 21-shot thumping. (12/33) Howard had been only 6-down at the break (8/14 after 11 ends) but then lost 7 of the next ten ends to drop to an unrecoverable10/30 after18 ends. Nothing appears to be wrong with the talent mix in the rink but maybe the positional balance needs some review? Their rink included;… Next Week. Round-7 vs Yarra Valley. Away. THE LADDER. After Round-6 Diamond Creek 99Heidelberg Golf 75 KHSC 54 ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. Our 3rd side was whitewashed by second placed Lilydale on Saturday on our own plastic running a very comfortable 15.5 seconds in glorious Spring sunshine. Amazingly, on our own track, our side just could not get bowls into the head. There were many of our players on our home-patch-synthetic that have not spent enough time practicing on it. If you don’t understand this green and its home-ground-advantage, then it’s totally wasted. The Lilydale team found the line immediately & just kept building on the main board score whilst we sprayed bowls all over the place. KHSC were never in it. It was like we were playing at an away venue. We trailed 35/44 going into the break (46 ends) Then by 68 ends we had lost all chance of catching up, trailing 46/71. And it didn’t get any better with our team absolutely lost on the predictable 15.5 second synthetic & just appeared to be guessing the line & bowls speed. We were bowling with loads of ‘hope’ but plenty of ‘guesswork’ & it wasn’t happening. Never does. Clearly, pennant players need to practice to get the feel of how our greens ALWAYS perform. It was crazy that we could not get enough bowls into the head. Danny Price’s rink was the only rink to get close 19/22, - but he had to put in one of his best personal performances to keep it tight, - because as Danny said later, “on almost every end we were trailing on the changeover by 3’s, 4’s & 5’s. It was hard going & I was mentally exhausted at the end.” Curiously, the Gordon Duxbury rink which has belted opposition rinks over the past 2-weeks, fell off the perch in round-6 with a 13/21 loss after his rink was tied up at 13/13 after 15 ends. The rink didn’t score again in the 6-end run home, dropping 2 x 5’s along the way. “Ouch!” Carl McCarthy went down 8/22. They only won 7 of the 21 ends losing the last 5 on the trot. Duncan Wilson went down 11/23. They won 7 ends too for the day which included a one shot win on the 18th but dropped 7 shots over the final 6. The loss has left our thirds in a vulnerable position in the bottom 3 on the ladder, and the only way up is for our side to come and get a handle on the ‘home-ground-advantage’ that our greens provide, so we can deliver a better performance than our visitors. That was not the case on Saturday. We generally couldn’t draw close enough & Lilydale showed us how to play on our very own turf. And that just should never happen so easily. THE LADDER after Round-6 North Balwyn 85Lilydale 75 Rosanna 55 ……………………………………………. Geoff Mathers. |
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| RUNAWAY WIN ON THE GRASS | |||||
Posted 4/11/11 KHSC firsts hosted the ladder cellar-dwellers Greythorn, at Barkers Road on the lawn ‘Stride’ green on Saturday running at a damp 12.5 seconds, following continuous overnight rain. It was a massive runaway win for our boys 108/51, not unexpectedly, but they struggled to get into gear over the first 40 ends, and only led Greythorn into the pavilion for the tea-break by 7 shots on the main board. There must have been plenty of yippy-beans in the arvo’ salad rolls, because KHSC bolted away scoring multiple after multiple and buried Greythorn into total submission, all except the Graeme Clements rink which had a monumental fight on its hands. Whilst the rink was playing steadily and getting plenty of bowls into the head, the opposing skip (Ron Langdon) was playing the game he will dream about in years to come, where he converted end after end, and in fact turned over 3 particular ends when down 5, 4 & 4 on the changeover. Clemmo’s rink went down by one in the low scoring 14/15 affair, but their skip had stolen around 20 shots over the 21 ends in a remarkable performance, as were Grant Pickering (3) & Ron Makin (2) for ‘Clemmo’. Angus MacIsaac coming back into the team as a skip replacement for Simon Collett (unavailable) produced the most significant post tea turnaround, as his rink has lost six-straight ends going into the break, - but came out fighting in the 2nd half, to take ownership of the rink points by 20-shots (32/12). His rink included 1st gamer this season Eng Ang (2) who has lost none of his deft touch, and Justin Donaldson delivered another outstanding performance as Gus’s 3rd. An interesting statistic of this rink after round 5 is that they have lost only 2 ends over the x 5 rounds (105 ends) in which they had dropped multiples bigger than 2. Pretty impressive. The biggest winner was the Paul Wintrip rink by 24 shots (34/10) denying Greythorn any score on 15 of the 21 ends. Ray Jansen recorded another bold win in the slowish damp conditions taking the 2 points 28/14. The combination with his 3rd ‘Deadly’ Doug O’Connell is an efficient formula to challenge any team that gets bowls in tight and they are being well set up by Peter Lambert (L) & Graeme Spry backing him up at two. The win moves the club into 2nd place behind the only other undefeated team, - Darebin.
PLAYER WEEKLY PERFORMANCE RATING. This is now the second season where player performance rating measurement is not conducted, in any form by the KHSC selectors. Is it time for this to change? If consistently good or poor play is to be treated openly in selection, should there be a level of measurement reference to weekly performance which adds a level of fairness & clarity to all who are available for pennant teams? This personal performance rating score doesn’t have to be a complicated or intrusive process. It can be as simple as the 4 players all agreeing on each other’s rating for the day, such as; POOR or FAIR or GOOD. Each player must give himself a rating too which is voted on by the other 3, and then recorded accordingly based on the majority view. In the event of opinion being 2-all, the skip’s will give the casting vote to be recorded. The weekly rating is then published on the notice-board on a member list provided. This rink discussion would take place at the finish of each pennant match. That appears to be an easy & fair way of dealing with it. Let the selectors know your view. THE TEAMS & RINK SCORES Round-5 Div-2 Sec-3KHSC vs Greythorn 108/51 (16/2) (S) Paul Wintrip (3) Brian Wintrip (2) Peter Scerri (L) Ray Runting (S) Angus MacIsaac (3) Justin Donaldson (2) Eng Ang (L) Ron Scerri (S) Ray Jansen (3) Doug O’Connell (2) Graeme Spry (L) Peter Lambert Grame Clements (3) Grant Pickering (2) Ron Makin (L) Tony Shortis Next Week. Round-6 vs Fairfield (Away) THE LADDER (After Round 5) Darebin 79KHSC 76 Kingsbury 42 ………………………………………………………………………………… Seconds Rink Slaughter. The seconds drove through light showers to get to Diamond Creek for a pre-match roll-up, which certainly was worthwhile for 3 of the 4 rinks, but sadly one of the rinks was simply slaughtered by 28 shots. The other 3 rinks were in a tight contest & if it were only a 3-rink match, we would have beaten the top-of-the-ladder Diamond Creek by 3-shots. However, pennant is a 16 a side contest, so we lost overall by 25 shots, with one rink up, and the John Joyce rink falling over by only one shot 18/19. We can’t blame the conditions as the Diamond Creek synthetic green is identical to ours. In fact it was our green which encouraged them to install it, and it runs just as true & enjoyably at around 15.5 seconds. Con Doherty’s rink was the only 2-point winner with a 10-shot margin 25/15. He had Dennis Parkes back as his third, who had played the first 4 rounds as a two in the top-side with Simon Collet’s successful rink, and he delivered another polished performance to give Con the support he needed to get the rink over the line. Norm Roughley’s rink was 6-short after the 21 ends and could have taken the points except that his lead, third & Norm’s own control fell away in the second half and we couldn’t convert the open heads whilst dropping 2’s, & when we won an end could only score singles. We just could not capitalise on those winning heads to get more bowls in tight & pinch the game. Rod Donaldson, Norm’s second, was the most consistent of our 4 recording a
personal score of 24.50 (from a max of 42), with the other match score ratings of the team being…
(Lead) Liz Lambert 16.5, (2nd) Rod Donaldson 24.50, (3rd) Geoff Mathers 20 Norm’s first 12 ends included x 5 conversions from being down at the crossover. And whilst he lost some of his bite in the remaining 9-ends, he still converted two more ends from down to up, - so his overall contribution to the rink was more dynamic than the story told by the total sum of his 41 bowls. “7-conversions for the afternoon is not a bad day at the office.” On the other hand, Howard Cheng’s rink had a nightmare of an afternoon going down 8/36. They were never in the hunt. By the 10th end they were trailing 3/19, by the 17th they trailed 8/21 and then over the last 4 ends dropped an incredible 17 shots including a 7-down on the last. (21st) Neil Hookey, Howard’s 3rd said after the match when chatting about what happened?. .“The opposition team was of Division-2 standard, and would have given one of our top side rinks a run for its money. That’s how well they played” he said. However, as we would have had the last bowl after each of their 4 had stuck bowls into the head over the majority of ends, we obviously had trouble converting & couldn’t get in tight or accurately enough. Therefore it would be a case of them playing well, and we didn’t. Sometimes when the wheels fall off in a game, there is little you can do to arrest it, the luck runs against you and the nightmare just gets worse. Fortunately that game’s gone and it’s a new sunny Saturday this week at home against Montmorency, whom we’ll be playing on the grass. There might be occasional exceptions to that belief, but generally speaking it’s usually correct. THE TEAMS & RINKS SCORES. Round-5 Div-4 Sec-3 (S) Con Doherty (3) Dennis Parkes (2) Geoff Birch (L) Cheryl Muttock (S) Norm Roughley (3) Geoff Mathers (2) Rod Donaldson (L) Liz Lambert (S) John Joyce (3) Ivan Brewer (2) Phyl Major (L) Pam Fry (S) Howard Cheng (3) Neil Hookey (2) Lorraine Broussard (L) Barry Cronin Next Week Round 6 v Montmorency. Home
THE LADDER After Round 5.Div-4 Sec-3 Diamond Creek 81Heidelberg Golf 60 Yarra Valley 38 …………………………………………………………………………………… STAN OATES SECURES TIGHT WIN FOR 3rds. Our 3rd side won a vital match against 4th place Rosanna on Saturday on their Tiff Dwarf green by 3-shots and moved 3 rungs up the ladder into 6th place. It was a pretty even match overall x 4 rinks throughout the day, and came down to the very last end to hang on when the main board showed KHSC holding a 2-shot margin, with 3 rinks back in the pavilion & 2 x rink wins already in the bag. Carl McCarthy’s rink was the last to finish, and was playing the 84th end to save the 10 match points. Carl’s rink was 4-down on their score-board, and 3-down at the head when Stan Oates (Carl’s 3rd) took the mat to play his last bowl for the day. - He dead drew a ‘resting toucher’ for 1+, - which the opposing skip couldn’t move, and the points were ours. The perfect bowl by Stan at a the most critical pressure time saved the day. “Simply brilliant!” Carl’s rink went down by 4-shots, but they’d secured the valuable 10 x match win points to push the club up 3 ladder spots into 6th place. Godon Duxbury’s rink had another comfortable win by 9-shots, after his whopping 28-shot win in round-4, and Duncan Wilson’s rink got over the line by a valuable three. Danny Price’s lead Steve Weatherhead played his first pennant match for the club on Saturday, and to quote his Skip, “Steve’s first 7 x ends were simply superb. He was brilliant, but then it went a bit pear shaped. However, for his first pennant match outing it was an excellent performance and he helped us stay in touch with our opposition.” At one stage after the first 6 ends we were The two rink winners were; (S) Gordon Duxbury, (3) Bert Gluck, (2) Ian Smith, (L) Colin Fong The rink losers were; (S) Carl McCarthy (3) Stan Oates (2) Brian O’Meara (L) David Bloom Next Week. Round-6 vs Lilydale. (Home) THE LADDER After Round-5 North Balwyn 69Lilydale 57 Croydon 46 …………………………………………………………………………………. Geoff Mathers |
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| KEW HEIGHTS. STAND TALL & BE PROUD | |||||
Kew Heights Wed 26/10/2011 Congratulations to every member of our pennant sides, including our ladies, for an outstanding performance, both on and off the field thus far this season. You have all demonstrated the pride that the century-plus history & heritage of the club has meant to us all. This pride has resulted in a number of unexpected victories, not the least of which was last Saturday when the x 3 club teams all saluted the judge, to force President Ron Makin to dip into his wallet again & ‘shout’ the bar. A ‘shout’ I might add he’s only too pleased to share with his colleagues who are present in the bar at the time of the pennant match results announcement each Saturday. “The way this new season is shaping, & with the positive attitude of our members’ clearly on display every week, the ‘Prez’ might have to take out a personal loan to survive the next 14 rounds!!” A very generous & spirited commitment Ron that everyone recognises & appreciates. COLLETT LEADS THE WAY – AGAIN. Just as he did a couple of weeks ago, Simon Collett & his 3rd (Justin Donaldson) led by example last Saturday & blitzed 6th placed Kingsbury with a superb performance of total domination to take the 2-rink points by 13 shots (24/11) which was a margin large enough to cover the other 3 rink losses, & give KHSC a 12/6 victory, making it 4-wins-in-a-row. Playing on the Kingsbury plastic running at around 14 seconds, our boys couldn’t get a comfortable handle on the local home ground advantage even after leading at the break by 10-shots, - and the Kingsbury lads just kept coming, - but finally ran out of ends still 8-shots short. Any away win is a bonus, and this victory was no different, - so the top-4 now sees 3 still undefeated teams (Inc KHSC holding 3rd place) Curiously we are not drawn to play the two teams above us until rounds 8 & 9, which means, if this early season form is any guide, the last round of the season (round 18) could hypothetically see us playing off to win top or 2nd position to gain the sudden death home-ground advantage for the 1st semi final. Even at this early stage it would be fair to suggest that the top 3 sides won’t change over the next 14 rounds, with the only likely variable spot being 4th place, which will be fought out amongst 6 teams who all appear to be fairly even. TEAMS & RINK SCORES Round-4 Div-2 Sect-3 (S) Simon Collett (3) Justin Donaldson (2) Dennis Parkes (L) Ron Scerri (S) Ray Jansen (3) Doug O’Connell (2) Graeme Spry (L) Peter Lambert • Ray’s rink had led 18/14 after the 14th but then won only 2 of the next 6
ends to be tied 20/20 going into the last, - which they lost. (S) Paul Wintrip (3) Brian Wintrip (2) Peter Scerri (L) Ray Runting • Multiple end losses was the difference in Paul Wintrip’s rink dropping a 4, 2 x 3’s & 3 x 2’s after winning 11 of the 21 ends but going down by only 2-shots. It had been tied after 17, but Kingsbury scored 5/3 in the run to the line. (S) Graeme Clements (3) Grant Pickering (2) Ron Makin (L) Tony Shortis • Graeme’s rink was tied at 20/20 after the 20th. Next Week. Round 5. vs Greythorn (Home) LADDER. After Round-4 Darebin 65 Montmorency 29 2nds GRAB A TENSION-PACKED WIN. 24 Kew heights eyes were glaring from the bank in anticipation & hope for a win over the last two ends of the 2nds match against Keilor last Saturday (22/10) being played on our synthetic green running about 13.5 seconds. (The green had been timed pre-game off the chute at 15.9 seconds, but it ran nothing like that lacking finish in the damp conditions.) A heavy downpour just prior to the 1pm start time had forced the skip’s to move the match from the now soggy ‘Stride’ lawn-green to the plastic, and both the 2nds & 3rds shared the green which was stretched out to 8 rinks. The match was a thriller with some pretty skilful bowls from KHSC under extreme pressure when the main board score showed Kew Heights leading x 3 shots & only 3 ends to play. John Joyce had wrapped up his rink win by the 20th end (22/13) with his last end under way. He was 2-down at the head. Their skip with his last bowl plays with weight going for extra numbers & manages to take out their own bowls, leaving KHSC with one shot, & a lead of 3 shots on the main board. There are 2 ends still to be played by the Howard Cheng rink with the other 3 rinks now nervously watching from the bank. Howard’s 20th end is a classic. The rink score is 17/15 & there’s now only 3 shots in the match. On the changeover, the Cheng rink is one-down. Their skip with his last bowl picks up the ‘cake’ and runs it back a metre to now hold 4 shots, - and Howard still with one saving bowl opportunity in his hand. He shapes to play a weighted running shot into the head in the hope of cutting a few out of the 4 shots being held by Keilor. Neil Hookey, (Howard’s 3rd) holds up play to suggest to Howard that he should play a dead-draw forehand, as the weighted shot is too risky, and could prove a disaster if the short bowls he’d be trying to knock up didn’t fall our way. Howard takes the advice, - takes his time, and then softly delivers the perfect forehand draw shot for a resting toucher, and one-up. This made the main score board difference 4 shots, and one end to play. The rink score is now 17/15 & Keilor require 5 shots to win on the last end. (84th) Not an easy task. Howard’s lead, Lorraine Broussard, gets her last two bowls for the match into the head & we are holding 2+ over the ¾ length. Their 3rd then smashes the jack into the ditch, himself going out-of-bounds, and pushes one of Lorraine’s bowls right up to the ditch edge, but 10’ wide. We hold one shot. The win has put KHSC into the top 4 which is an excellent result from a dedicated and spirited performance over the first x 4 rounds and all the indications are that it will only improve. THE TEAMS & RINK SCORES. Round 4 Div-4 Sect-3 (S) Con Doherty (3) Ivan Brewer (2) Geoff Birch (L) Cheryl Muttock (S) Norm Roughley (3) Geoff Mathers (2) Rod Donaldson (L) Liz Lambert • A see-sawing match where the lead changed 5-times over 21 ends. • Trailing 14/17 Norm’s rink grabbed 8-shots over x 5 ends, dropped x 3, then went into the 21st end all tied up at 22/22. • 21st end. Excellent tight pressure bowls from lead Liz Lambert & Rod Donaldson (2nd) left us holding x 2+ at the changeover, protected by Keilor’s short bowls, but their skip then managed to double cannon onto one of ours & take it out, but could not get a look at the other, and the valuable 2+ points were locked away for KHSC with a one shot win 23/22. • Liz Lambert Norm’s lead was the star of the rink, recording a performance rating score of 24.5 out of a possible 42 for the match. • The other team performance scores were; * Geoff Mathers 22.75 (Out of a possible 42) * Rod Donaldson 22.50 (Out of a possible 42) Next Week. Round 5 vs Diamond Creek. Away. A tough match this week against top-of-the-ladder Diamond Creek, on their plastic, which will run a touch quicker than ours. Our section is going to prove to be very even from top to bottom over the remaining 14 rounds, so every rink point will be critical, - even this early in the season. So we need to bank every rink point we can now even in the event of an overall match loss. LADDER. After Round-4 Diamond Creek 65 Greensborough 35 ………………………………………………………………… DUXBURY leads 3rds to victory. Gordon Duxbury skipped his rink to an emphatic 18 shot win on Saturday against 9th placed Bennetswood to ensure KHSC collected the ten match points, which we did by 12 shots overall, and x 2 rinks up for a 14/4 result. It was an outstanding display by Gordon and his team including (L) Colin Fong (2) Ian Smith (3) Bert Gluck who played on our plastic alongside the ‘Two’s. ’ Congratulations lads, - we’re ALL proud of your match-winning performance, and may I add, your ‘modesty’ afterwards!! Carl McCarthy was the only other rink winner taking the 2 points with a 22/19 win which looks fairly comfortable in hindsight, but he was trailing 15/19 after 19 and it looked gloomy until his team of (L) Barry Cronin (2) Peter Fry & (3) Stan Oates extracted the digit and stuck a few telling bowls into the head that the opposition couldn’t move, and Carl cleaned up on these last two ends taking a 4+ & then a 3+ to close Bennetswood out and take the rink win back by 3 shots after that stunning 7-shot winning wave to end the day. (Over the last x 2 ends) While beaten 21/25 the Danny Price rink did their bit to ensure a 10 point match win when trailing 13/23 after 18-ends, they then scored eight shots over the last 3-ends to finish only 4 short, and helped protect the main score board win for the club. A fighting finish boys. Duncan Wilson’s rink fell 5-short, (21/26) even though they had been leading right from the start by plenty. After the 15th, with only 6-ends to play, they led 20/14, but then went into a tail spin dropping 5 of the next 6 ends which included scoring only one shot to Bennetswood’s 12. But the hard work had been done and the 18 shot margin by the Duxbury rink,& the 8-shot close out by Price was enough to claim the 10 match points and go to the ladder bank with 14 points for the day. THE TEAMS & RINK SCORES. Round 4. (S) Danny Price (3) Charles Xerri (2) Mike Jeffers (L) John Scruton (S) Duncan Wilson (3) Peter McCarthy (2) Kevin O”brien (L) Don Curnick (S) Gordon Duxbury (3) Bert Gluck (2) Ian Smith (L) Colin Fong (S) Carl McCarthy (3) Stan Oates (2) Peter Fry (L) Barry Cronin THE LADDER. After Round 4 Nth Balwyn 51 Rosanna 38 Geoff Mathers. |
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| TOP SIDE IN TOP 4 | |||||
Posted 18/10/11 Three on the trot. Our top-side is starting to hit it's straps getting more comfortable with the team balance in each of the rinks. i. Their second end when down 6 on the changeover, & then Paul accurately drove the jack out for a 1+ (7 x shot turnaround) But it didn't stop them winning 12 of the 21 ends. 'Deadly' Doug O'Connell attracted praise from his Skip for a day of consistency, saving &
setting up heads for the win. Tony Shortis is reported to have played his best match for the club as Clements lead, with steading support from (3) Grant Pickering & (2) Ron Makin. |
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| THORNBURY BLOW-OUT | |||||
| Posted 18/10/11 The 'Magoos' played on the new Thornbury carpet, timed by hand at 15.5, but ending at a glass-like 19 seconds, after a 10 minute dose of rain quickened it up at around the 65th end. As the locals told us later, - cold weather & rain on this new carpet surface has the effect of changing the playing conditions like it has just been coated in oil. We learnt that lesson just a little too late, - as Thornbury adjusted more quickly than we did, although they too had their problems, but just not as many problems as we experienced. For instance, Cheryl Muttock leading for Con Doherty's rink, probably set a new Club, and maybe even Victorian pennant bowls record when rolling the jack to start the end x 8 times consecutively, - immediately after the tea break. The Doherty rink down 8/15 at the break, won the next 8-ends on the trot. Con called for the mat to come up and the jack rolled to near the 2m mark on each occasion when the green was getting quicker & the wind blowing harder making the surface glass-like. It certainly wasn't easy, and it's not a criticism, just recognition of what is almost certainly a likely record. - But yes, you guessed it, - the jack went into the ditch 7 x times and once when it was just too short!! Eight jack rolls consecutively out of bounds. (Ends 12 to & including 19) Wow. Can anyone beat that? In spite of that little burp in proceedings of giving away the jack roll 8 times, it didn't have any adverse effect whatsoever on the rinks overall performance. In fact it may have helped because Con's rink went on to win the 2-points by 3+ shots conceding only one shot after the tea-break on the 20th end. It was indeed a gutsy team performance which included two absolutely astonishing ditch-weighted draw shots by Con, to take the jack into the ditch when we were 3 & 4 down over the full distance & on the lightening quick green. The surface (which is like a feltex looking surface) ran well, but the wind & quickening green speed was just too much for our group to master, and we were boldly given a lesson on how to play with consistency on slick greens, and went down on the main board by 18-shots 73/91 (3/15) Howard Cheng's rink was the other point scorer grabbing a 4+ on the last end (21st) to tie the rink 25/25 after leading by 1+ shot at the break (11/10) Justin Donaldson skip'd a rink and was shaping up to look like a 2-point winner mid-way through the match, but dropped a painful 6- and they never recovered, - although they had got the deficit back to 3, & needing 4 shots on the last to win the rink. Nag & Kevin O'Brien put their 4 bowls into the head, and a win looked possible before their 3rd stuck his two inside our cluster and we couldn't change it, going down on the rink board by 4-shots 18/22. Graeme Spry's first match back this season at Division-4 level was a sobering warm-up when he skip's a 17-shot loss & was in trouble from the start trailing 7/16 at the break, then 10/22 by the 17th & finally going down 11/28. Like so many of us, his group just couldn't get a handle on the glass like green & gusty conditions, compared to their opposition who adjusted like they owned it, and continued to convert the heads whenever KHZ held shots. The overall loss gives us 1/2 start to the season seeing us in 8th spot on the ladder in what will be a fierce contest over the next 15 rounds right down to 10th place. There will be no 'gimme' matches, and in fact even though we are drawn at home this week against bottom of the ladder Keilor, we must treat the match as tough as a final. That's how important EVERY match will be in our section. Next Week. Round-4 v Keilor. Home. THE TEAMS & RINK SCORES. Div-4 Sec-3 Round 3. KHSC v Thornbury 73/91 (3/15) WON 19/16 Tea-break score 8/15 (11) (S) Con Doherty (3) Geoff Mathers (2) Jeff Birch (L) Cheryl Muttock TIED 25/25 Tea-break score 11/10 (11) (S) Howard Cheng (3) Neil Hookey (2) Brendan Annesley (L) Barry Cronin LOST 11/28 Tea-break score 7/16 (11) (S) Graeme Spry (3) Phyl Major (2) Rod Donaldson (L) Liz Lambert LOST 18/22 Tea-break score 7/8 (11) (S) Justin Donaldson (3) Norm Roughley (2) Kevin O'Brien (L) Ang En LADDER After round-3 Div-4 Sec-3 Diamond Creek 49 Ivanhoe 34 Heidelberg Golf 32 Yarra Valley 32 Thornbury 23 Montmorency 22 Whittlesea 21 KHSC 20 Greensborough 19 Keilor 18 Geoff Mathers. POST MATCH B-B-Q. Sat 5th Nov. Simon Collett has announced that he will put on a gourmet side of beef at a post-match Bar-B-Q on Saturday 5th November at a cost of $10 per player/guest. Keep the date free, and make a point of joining in the camaraderie. Bring a chum/wingman/woman too. See the notice-board for more details. |
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| Saturday Metro Pennant | |||||
Teams for next Saturday 15th October Division 2 v East Ivanhoe at Home R Scerri (L) D Parkes A MacIsaac S Collett (S) ** Duty Rink** Division 4 v Thornbury – Away C Muttock (L) G Birch G Mathers C Doherty (S) Division 6 v North Balwyn – Away D Thomas (L) M Jeffers S Oates C McCarthy (S) |
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| Perfect start for Kew Heights | |||||
Posted 4/10/11 Kew Heights opened the season with a stunning six wins from six teams in Round 1. Below: Match Reports (Saturday Metro Pennant). COLLETT SAVES TOP SIDE.
KHSC 2nds Combine for strong win. The second side walked off the green after Sunday's first pennant round with a 7-shot win & 2-rinks up over Ivanhoe. |
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| STROKE SUPPORT GROUP ARTICLE | |||||
Posted 21st Sept 2011
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| KEW HEIGHTS WINS BOWLS FEST | |||||
Posted 19th Sept 2011 Kew Heights Sports Club today won the inaugural City of Boroondara Inter Club Bowls Competition. The competition is an initiative of the City of Boroondara to foster competition and goodwill between the eight Bowling Clubs located within the Boroondara Council area. Thanks to Cr David Bloom a Kew Heights Member and Boroondara Councillor who attended along with the Mayor Cr N Tragas and State Government MP Ms Georgie Crozier (representing the Minister for Sport) Today’s competition was held at Auburn Bowling Club and each club was represented by a four and a triples that competed in a round robin tournament against the other 7 participating clubs. Final scores were:- Kew Heights Representatives were: By winning Kew Heights will be the first club to have it’s details engraved on the perpetual trophy.
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| LATEST NEWSLETTER | |||||
Posted 23rd Aug 2011 To view the Aug/Sept Newsletter... |
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| THE FOOTY SHOW PAYS A VISIT | |||||
Posted 19th Aug 2011
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| BOARD OF MANAGEMENT 2011-2012 | |||||
Posted 9th June 2011 The Board of Management was elected unopposed at the Club AGM held on June 2nd 2011. The new Board consists of the following 8 Members. |
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| Angus MacIsaac Jnr | Chairman & Treasuer | ||||
| Ian Bett | Deputy Chairman | ||||
| John Joyce | Board Member | ||||
| Christiana Colquhoun | Board Member | ||||
| Patricia O'Meara | Board Member | ||||
| Hugh Paton | Board Member | ||||
| Simon Pippett | Board Member | ||||
| Graeme Spry | Board Member | ||||
| SECTION COMMITTEES ELECTED | |||||
Posted 06/05/11 Congratulations to all our new Section Committee Representatives particularly Christiana Colquhoun (Tennis), Jan Mosley (Ladies Bowls) and Ron Makin (Men's Bowls) for being elected President of their respective sections. For a full list of the new committee members please:
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| JAZZ BY THE GREEN | |||||
Posted 21/03/11 The annual "Jazz by the Green" day was held at Kew Heights on Sunday 20th March. Apart of the Kew Festival, the event attracted a number of new people to the Club. Guests enjoyed a bowl to the smooth sounds of jazz and what was a hot and sunny Sunday afternoon. We also had a special guest, Life Member Jan Mosley celebrated her birthday with family and friends, and in true Jan style, treated them to lesson in how to play under the watchful eye of husband and Life Member Colin (partly obscured).
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| LAST BOWL SHIELD THRILLER (GLYN BOSISTO SHIELD, AUSTRALIA DAY 2011) | |||||
Posted 31/01/11
Lee Schraner (Brighton) played his last bowl with a weighted draw over the full distance, when 2-down on the last end of the 3-end final. He pushed out the shot bowl, and rolled onto the jack for one-up, and the prize-money. It was the shot you’d expect of the legendary Glyn Bosisto, who’s name it was on the shield they were playing for at Kew Heights Open-4’s on Australia-Day. Losing skip, Paul Wintrip (Kew Heights) & his rink, could only stare in amazement as Schraner nominated the forehand shot, then walked to the mat and delivered it perfectly in front of a huge gallery. It was breathtaking. It was the first ‘Glyn Bosisto Shield’ tournament (Open-4’s) to be held at Kew Heights on Australia-Day which attracted a ‘full-house’ of 42 teams including a star-studded line-up of high profile Premier division & state champions. Glyn Bosisto’s son Jon donated the shield and reminded the 200 strong luncheon crowd about how his late father came to acquire the imaqe tag of “The Bradman of Bowls,” which is certainly not misplaced, - as it is unlikely anyone will ever achieve what he did in the sport of bowls during his lifetime, as was the case with the late great Don Bradman. Kew Heights introduced the Glyn Bosisto Shield as a tribute to it’s former member & legend. His son Jon represented his Dad, & continues to be a member today. In just one full year alone (1951), Glyn Bosisto won;
This was at a time when lawn bowls was at it’s pinnacle of participation... There were waiting lists to become a member at Metropolitan clubs, - over 3,000 players entered National singles championship events, needing to win eleven rounds to reach the final. Bosisto was inspired by the practice regime of Don Bradman known to hit a golf ball continuously up against a wall with a cricket stump for hours. So, Bosisto believed if Bradman could improve his game that way to become the best in the world, he would apply the same hand/eye co-ordination practice procedure to become a master delivering a bowl. He achieved it on the carpet in the family home spare room, and would deliver bowls over various chalk marks on the carpet until he could bowl 20 bowls in succession over each particular chalk-mark without missing. He did that in half-hour sessions before & after evening meals at least 5 nights a week. Like Bradman, he became the best there ever was in being able to adjust his line of delivery, and because of this training discipline he programmed himself to concentrate for long periods, maintaining a high degree of fitness with this continuous practice schedule. No bowler in the history of the sport can match Glyn Bosisto’s record in major singles championships, and probably never will. He became a Member of Order of British Empire (MBE) in 1976. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985, and the RVBA Hall-of-Fame in 1998. Here’s a snapshot of his unchallenged lawn bowls record;
And don’t forget that he achieved all this with standard bowls. The Glyn Bosisto Shield (Open-4’s) will be a fixed tournament at Kew Heights Sports Club every Australia-Day. Geoff Mathers
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