Club Championships have been on the agenda at Lithgow City for the last few weeks with the initial rounds of the pairs underway and the final of the Club Fours being decided.
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Jeff Madden's team of Garry Sutherland, Garry Bender and Gil Mendosa were victorious over Frank Mierczak's team of Scott van der Draay, Jim Kelly and Michael Hughes in a match where Mierczak was to lead by a fair margin, only to see Maddens lads come home strongly to win 24 shots to 17.
Madden's team, usually all 'lefties' were too consistent and with the addition of 'righty' Gil Mendosa they asserted their authority to win well.
Congratulations boys, well done. You are the 2019 Fours Champs.
The Pairs Championships have seen some mixed results. Col Wotton and Kevin Shorney proved too consistent for Ian Northey and Stan Campbell going on to win 26-12 after leading 13-8 at the halfway mark.
Dave Robson and Al Case were matched against Barry Achurch and Paul Crane. Having shown marked improvement over the last year Achurch and Crane would not have surprised with an upset, but steady bowls over the 21 ends had Case and Robson winning six of the final seven ends to eventually win out 26-20.
In a reasonably low scoring game, where 14 of 21 ends were single shot results, Michael Johnson and Michael Hughes defeated Phil Kellond and Jim Bannerman by 23-9.
Frank Mierczak and Jim Kelly played Jack Rayner and Peter Kearney. Beginning well proved vital for Mierczak and Kelly and they went on to record a 29-12 win.
The game of the round had current Pairs Champions, Jeff Madden and Ian Townsend against the wily old pairing of Les Barnes and Athol Roach. At 12 all after eight ends the game was showing that it was to be a great spectacle.
First Madden, then Barnes saw the lead come their way and disappear within ends. Barnes skipped away in ends 12-15 to a handy lead of 21-14.
Madden hit back to be behind 20-33 with end 21 to play. Somehow Madden and Townsend scraped a three shot score from the final end to square up 23 all, and set up an extra end to decide the game.
Even this end had dips and swirls, with the kitty being hit several times before Madden and Townsend could claim victory by the single shot.
Great game guys, well played.
Rounds of pairs will continue up until Christmas and with no real break in the weather expected the rounds should be well advanced by the New Year.
Social Bowls
Social bowls continues to be reasonably well attended at City Bowls Club, with Wednesday games attracting 24 starters, 30 plus regulars and new players enjoyed facilities on Thursday at Twilites and Saturday and Sunday continue to have good numbers.
Saturday numbers were 24 socials plus a game of Club Pairs.
Social results saw Gil Mendosa, Ian Northey and Warren Wade come in winners over new starter Darren Rushworth, Paul Crane and Al Kenniff, accounting for their opposition to the score of 26-8.
Dave Robson and Allan Case played Jim Kelly and Frank Mierczak in a Club Pairs game, leading throughout to record an excellent 30-16 win and advance towards the semi finals. Their score of 14+14 was enough to pick up second prize money on the day.
Another pairs game had previous champions Jeff Madden and Ian Townsend pitted against Iggy Vadkerti and Ian Birk. This was expected to be a tight, evenly balanced match and although the score of 23-12 to Madden and Townsend was reasonably easy the game was of high quality. Winning nine of the first 11 ends saw Madden and Townsend graft to a 16-4 lead which their opponents were unable to run down.
This pairs favourite, having won this event four out of the last five years, advance towards the semis as well. There are still some quality teams left in the draw and it remains to be seen if the Champions can prevail.
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