Bowls LAST Tuesday Mansfield Bowls Club's Home Pennant saw the Black team of Pam Zierk-Mahoney, Tom Ingpen, Tony Pridham and Christina Smith have a good win over the Orange team of Vicki Klein, Kathleen Bock and Lyn Holland 20/15. The Green team of Kevin Nikkelson (Nikko), Trevor Thompson, Renee Prosser and Anne Wileman had a great win over the Gold team of Carolyn Close, Ross Parsons, Gwen Gray and Alan Hatcher 28/6. Finally the White team of Dom Diaz, Steve Lewis, Harry Smith and Brian Sinclair had a win over the Yellow team of Graeme Tyers, Peter McNeil, John Lobbe and Elva Healy 22/12. The next game saw the Red team of Mick Walsh, Doug Morley, Ian Morley and Anne Tilbrook too strong for the Blue team of Mike Harrison, Glenda Revell, Denis Sharpe and Michelle Mios 27/10 and the Lime team of Winston Taylor, Tom Tomic, Coral Taylor and Ida Rachele snuck home against the Pink team of Marco Bohren, Yvonne Robinson, Belinda Snider and Theo Scheltinga 16/11. The ladder sees Lime on top with 24pts +54 followed by White on 22pts +37, Pink 20pts +32, Green 20pts +8, Yellow 18pts –4, Red 16pts –6, Black 14pts –11, Orange 12pts –13, Blue 10pts –30 and lucky last is the Gold team on 6pts –67. Home Pennant now breaks until January 16, 2024 but there will be social bowls on Tuesday’s and Friday's (both now morning games). Tuesday’s O&M Pennant saw Mansfield playing Club Mulwala at home. With top spot playing the bottom of the ladder, Mansfield took an easy win 87 shots to 35. Lyn Foots, Ray Close, Jenny Walsh and Enid Smith got off to a flyer and never looked back taking a great win 31 shots to 9. George Peterson, Elaine Peterson, Chris Laws and Brian Revell were brilliant all day only allowing their opponents to win six of the 21 ends taking the easiest of wins 37 shots to 10. The final rink of John Foots, Noel Jackson, Marian Ryan and Irene Fuller got away to a great start leading 9 to 1 after seven ends. Club Mulwala kept plugging away all game and after a gallant effort, they went down swinging 16 shots to 19. Mansfield is still on top of the ladder and will travel to Rutherglen this week hopefully finishing on a high before the Christmas break. Thursday saw the completion of the Ladies Championship final with Irene Fuller defeating Lyn Foots 25/23. The score does not reflect the wonderful bowls that Irene played all morning and with Lyn struggling on the day, Irene was very much the deserved winner this year. Congratulations Irene, awesome effort. Friday saw a few bowlers having some fun with results unclear on the day. Saturday saw the Mansfield A2 side travel to Chiltern who were on top of the ladder and after a great day of bowling, Mansfield took a surprise win 77 shots to 65. John Foots, Lyn Foots, Mark Bettany and Ray Close battled hard all day and after 12 ends they were in front 14 shots to 10. Chiltern fought back winning five ends in a row to take the lead 17/14 but Mansfield won the last four ends to take a great win 22 shots to 17. George Peterson, Elaine Peterson, Chris Laws and Marian Ryan began well and after winning five ends in a row, they had a good lead after 11 ends 14/6. Chiltern has no answers to Mansfield’s good play and went down 12 shots to 23. Mike Harrison, Peter Roberts, Noel Jackson and Shane O’Brien were slow out of the blocks and were down nine shots to nil after the sixth end. The team kept plugging away but could not bridge the gap going down 10 shots to 18. The final rink of Ray Robinson, Graham Smith, Brian Revell and Enid Smith flew out of the blocks leading 16 shots to one after the sixth end but Chiltern kept chipping away at the lead and by the end of the game, Mansfield hung on to win 22 shots to 18. Mansfield still remains in sixth place on the ladder but their win has relegated Chiltern to second on the ladder. The next game will be on January 20 with Mansfield travelling to Wodonga. The A4 side played at home against Swanpool with the visitors taking a close win 84 shots to 80. Graeme Tyers, Nick Klein, Don Cameron and Doug Morley had a close game early but after winning five ends in a row, they took the lead by the 13th end 19/10. Swanpool kept trying but fell short by the end, going down 19 shots to 22. Rick Nichols, Jenny Walsh, Kevin Nikkelson and Lyn Holland played very solid bowls all day to hold out Swanpool 19 shots 16. Winston Taylor, Gary Fuller, Mick Walsh and Tom Tomic were down four shots to 14 after seven ends but they dug in to level the game at 23 all after 20 ends. The final end was there for the taking with Swanpool managing to pick up a count of 2 to win the game 25/23. The final rink of Steve Spence, Irene Fuller, Yvonne Robinson and Mick Hoban struggled for most of the day to lose their first game for the season going down 16 shots to 24. Mansfield dropped from second to third on the ladder and will play Corowa RSL away when play resumes on January 20, 2024. Last Sunday saw the completion of the Men’s B Grade Championship which saw the morning winners being Shane O’Brien over Kevin Nikkelson 26/6 and Mark Bettany had a good win over Steve Lewis 25/17. The final in the afternoon saw O'Brien beginning well having the lead after six ends 5/3 but Bettany turned the tables and took the lead by the 13th end 13/7. O'Brien wasn’t done yet and by the 22nd end the game was all square on 21 shots a piece. Bettany managed to win four shots in the next two ends to snatch the win 25 shots to 21. Congratulations to both men on a fantastic game. On Sunday, December 10, three Mansfield ladies played in the District State Singles at Benalla. Section three saw Lyn Foots defeat Kerry Ralph from Tungamah 25/21 then had a bye in round two and in the last game Foots played Kylie Whitehead from Wodonga who was too strong, taking the win 25/16. With Whitehead defeating Ralph in round two, Whitehead was the state section winner. Section five saw Vicki Klein play Kylie Alexander from Yackandandah with Alexander taking the win 25/14 then Klein had a bye in round two and in the final game Klein was defeated by Laureen Smith from YMGCR 25/14. Smith won her game against Alexander to win the section. Section six saw only two players having to play with Lyn Holland defeating Peta Kelly from Swanpool 25/22. Holland will now play Laureen Smith in the knockout section of the competition on Sunday, January 21, 2024. Good Luck.
