Steve, Graham snaffle silver in all Natal pairs
The Lahee Park sides played some six ends before being called off with the same directive.
By Bob Hayward
THE all Natal Pairs continued on Monday when the Wanderers Bowling Club pairs team of Steve Van Rooyen and Graham Funnell faced Brad Lezar and Larry Goldberg of Durban in the semi-finals.
With a superb display of leading by Graham and solid backup by Steve, the Wanderers men won comfortably to secure a place in the finals against a Maritzburg team skipped by Kevin Williams.
All went well with Wanderers leading all the way until the 14th end. Then disaster struck and they dropped a six, giving their opponents the lead for the first time by a few shots. This they clung onto until the final 21st end was played, securing a win and the title. Final score was a creditable 21-19 to Maritzburg. Well done Steve and Graham on a fine performance.
On Wednesday the All Natal pairs was due to get underway with Wanderers’ two teams entered. Steve van Rooyen with Roy and Graham Funnell and Eric Smit were to play at Lahee Park and another skipped by Johnny Goosen with Lofty Cawthorne, Ken Thomas and Bob Hayward due to play at Westville Bowling Club. Unfortunately, heavy rain the night before and a light drizzle on the day put paid to the Westville teams, and games were called off until Thursday. The Lahee Park sides played some six ends before being called off with the same directive.
On Thursday, two full matches were played and the Wanderers teams both won both their games. Resuming on Friday, and switching venues for the day, the round robin was switched to three games of 15 ends. Again, Johnny Goosen was successful with the first match to give his team a leading position in their section. Unfortunately he lost the next two – narrowly – but was still in the hunt playing the last against Ken Fann and team. The winner of this match was destined to proceed through to the playoff stages, but unfortunately they lost by three shots. Steve peeled two in a row and was also in the hunt playing the last against a Klipbank team, to whom they lost by a narrow two shots. So near, but so far for each team. Well, there’s always next year.
No club competitions were played due to inclement weather, but a number of matches could be played during the week. Co-operate where possible and get those matches played timeously.
Last Friday the R700 snowball which was up for grabs was not won as B Geddie was not present. The various meat pack winners were: Lamb pack Lara; rolled beef Sheri; pork roast Jackie; rump steak John Fourie; chicken pack Carl van Rooyen; chicken Des Demmer.
Due to popular request, the club will be doing another English Premier Soccer League pub draw for the 2015/2016 season, the same as last year. Cost is R100 per team on a first come first paid basis, and monies are payable to Eric, Danny or Patti. The draw for the teams will take place on Friday night, 7 August in the main bar at 6.45pm. The winning team will receive R1,000, second R400, eighth R300, 13th R200 and last team R100.
