The Men’s Fours Championship was held today and for a time, it nearly looked as thought it wouldn’t be played. It had rained most of the night but cleared enough for Tony to cut and roll the green early this morning.
At the appointed time, just before the 9.00am start, the two teams to play the the semi final started their trial ends, only to get caught in s downpour. Luckily it was short and sharp and play was soon under way on the cotula green.
Joe Wnek (s), Murray Griffin, Omeka Feaunati and Brian Thompson were up against Neville Turnbull (s), Shoota Ballinger, Steven Felgitscher and Selwyn Riwaka. The scoring was close for the first half of the game, being 7-5 to Neville’s team and by the 15th end, Joe was only 2 points behind with the score at 12-10. But from there, Neville’s team went on scoring and ended the game, winning 19-10.
“It was a game worthy of a final,” said Shoota after that game.
Time for lunch and then it was my teams turn to play Neville in the final.
Noel Larsen, Barnaby Hamid, Paul Gardner and I had a few ends in the morning to get the feel of the green and then it was into the real thing.
For most of the game, we trailed, and by the 12th end, were behind 6-11, but by scoring on the next 4 ends, we finally got in front, the board now reading on the 16th end, 12-11.
Dropping a four on the next end put us in a difficult position for the final end and we dropped another point to end the game, 12-16.
In the early part of the game, when we were holding a shot or two, Neville played some excellent draw shots to get his team out of trouble and throughout the game, Selwyn lead consistently well for his team, a great performance for a first year bowler.
It often seemed that we had to play some exceptional shots to get back into the game, and all my team had their moments, but overall, our opponents proved to be just too strong overall for us.
No doubt as we think over the game later in the evening, we will remember that we nearly did it, just a pity about the 17th end!!
Thanks to all players in the game for a match played in great spirit, and congratulations go to the winners.
1009-2010 Men’s Championship Fours Winners
Neville Turnbull (s), Shoota Ballinger, Steve Felgitscher, Selwyn Riwaka