Over the past two weekends the Levin Bowling Club juniors have been battling hard in the Junior Pairs Club Championships. With some very tight games, especially in the men’s competition it was a fantastic event for our juniors who had to play good bowls under a lot of pressure. What a great event for their bowling development.
The strong women pairing of Julie Stichbury (skip) and Jenny Watt (lead) comfortably won their two games in a three round robin event. Our first year bowlers Linda Moe (skip) and Lynn Cherry (lead) put up a good performance and can be proud of themselves. They pushed the winners Stichbury in the second round game however on the following day they struggled against the inform Bella Law (skip) and Donna Gripp (lead). All players gain a huge amount for this experience.
In the men’s event the hot favourites Peter Brown (skip) and Grahame Law (lead) was on top early on in their first match against Les Galloway (skip) and Arnie Taiaroa (lead) however the game turned and it become a cliff hanger, going into the last end all square. The hot favourites eventually losing by just the one point. The other first round games saw two extremely promising players Pat Albert (skip) and Stacey Thomas (lead) up against Jim Pailthorpe (skip) and Ron Evens (lead). Ron Even’s was on fire and put the promising pair under pressure with some great leading. Pailthorpe lead by 9-2 but Albert came back and eventually got on top winning by 5 points.
In the second round Galloway got out to a big lead 11 to zero but Alan Glynn (skip) and Colin Donnelly (lead) fought back gamely to within two points. Another close win for Galloway. The other game of round two was the hot favourities against the extremely promising. The game was tight all the way with neither side ever feeling comfortably in control of the match. On the last end Brown were two points up on the score board and holding shot when their skip played his last bowl. Trying to put a bowl around the back, behind the head to cut down options for their opposition he played it too narrow which ran through the head, clipped the jack over to three of Albert’s bowls. Game over for the hot shots, losing another game by just the one point.
Brown how with two loses probably couldn’t win as there were two teams with two from two. Next weekend the two winner Albert win again, however the other two winner saw Galloway this time came out on the wrong end of another very tight game, losing by 1 point. In the final round these two teams meet (Albert and Galloway) but with a superior differential Albert could afford to lose the game by less the 15 point differential and still win the championship. Although the match was tight of most of the game, Albert pulled away at the very end from Galloway wining by five points.
This event was a huge success for the development of our juniors and some fantastic bowls were played by all. For me the men of the tournament was for the leads Ron Evans, his lead bowls at times were inspiring for a second year bowler. For the skips it was Pat Albert, this player has made huge improvements this season under the watchful eye of Brain Coe. Well done everyone.
Congratulations to Julie Stichbury / Jenny Watt and Pat Albert / Stacey Thomas, you are the Junior Pairs Club Champions for 2014-15.