TIME away from the green was not a problem for Jim Kelly when he added the 2021 Lithgow City Bowling Club's handicap pairs title to his fours honours.
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Kelly teamed with long term handicap pairs bowling partner John Perry to take the title, defeating the much younger pairing of Garry Sutherland and Scott Simmons in a dominant display.
Kelly's win added to the 2021 fours title he won a few weeks earlier.
Coming up against the less experienced Scott Simmons, Kelly was able to put his steady lead bowling ability to good use, allowing the normally more aggressive skip Perry to control the head against Sutherland.
Sutherland and Simmons opened the final in good style to lead 3-nil but for the next seven ends it was a steady progression of success for Perry and Kelly to lead 10-3.
This lead was briefly interrupted on the ninth end for a single shot to Sutherland, however a further five shots over three ends saw Perry and Kelly jump to an 11-shot lead at 15-4 on the 12th end.
From here it was end for end interspersed with a pair of threes on the 16th and 18th ends that saw the lead blow out to 22-8 to Perry.
The final may have been dispatched to the history pages but Sutherland and Simmons scored a minor comeback, winning the final three ends to eventually go down 22-10.
This added to the 2021 fours title Kelly won a few weeks earlier with Frank Mierczak, Michael Hughes and Scott Van Der Draay.
The final margin of 13+12 in the handicap pairs final was not enough to take top money for the day when Gil Mendoza skipped Greg Hunter and Jeff Martin to a mammoth 34-7 (16+27 margin) win over Maurie Nugent, Mick Wren and Michael Brown.
The 2022 handicap pairs players hit the green on Sunday with two games producing what many considered to be upset results.
Al Kenniff teamed up with Dennis Weekes to score a convincing 24-15 win over Scott Achurch (making a comeback to the Lithgow City greens) and Scott's father Barry for a 12+9 margin.
It was a much closer affair, but still something of an upset when Peter Kearney and Eric Fitzgerald defeated Jeff Madden and Jim Bannerman, both of whom have been involved in many major title victories.
The final outcome was a 20-15 (11+5 margin) win to Kearney and Fitzgerald after dropping three shots on the first end to then go on and never be headed over the remaining ends.
The only other game on Sunday was a social fours match up where top spot for the day went to Graham Pitt when he skipped W Callaghan, Amanda Mannix and Dave Robson to a 22-17 (13+5 margin) over Cheryl Wotton, Peter Nightingale, Col Wotton and Tina Banasiak.
The final 'day on the green' event was the men's Wednesday bowls on June 22 where Mike Johnson and Bob Gallagher were too consistent for John Perry (tuning up for his handicap pairs final) and Barry Achurch, winning 21-11 for a 15+10 margin.
Second spot went to Darryl Campbell, stepping up to the skip's role to team with Dennis Weekes and Gary Marshall to win 25-12 for a 12+13 margin.
The men bowlers involved in the 2022 winter pairs campaign are to check the locker room noticeboard for the draw and play or forfeit dates while there is also a list on the outdoors mixed noticeboard for the McMurtrie mixed pairs championship.
Bowlers still have plenty of time to arrange teams for this event with entries closing on August 21 and the first round to be played by August 28.
- Don Kipp is a valued contributor to the Lithgow Mercury.