Narrabri Bowling Club hosted a first-round clash in Zone 3 Bowls’ 2022-23 season pennant campaign when 12 local bowlers pulled on the blue and white uniform to represent their town on Saturday afternoon.
Narrabri has been placed in division two this year alongside Gunnedah Lightning Ridge and Inverell Sporties. Those four teams make up section one, and the other section includes Armidale, Kootingal, West Tamworth and South Tamworth.
In each section, teams will play one another twice each in a home and away format across six rounds. The winners of both sections will then meet in a sectional final that will determine which team progresses to the state finals to represent Zone 3 in division two.
Narrabri hosted Gunnedah at the John McNamara Owen Campey Green on Saturday and went down 64 shots to 51 in the clubs’ opening-round clash.
Gunnedah claimed two rinks and the two clubs were tied on the other, which meant that Gunnedah earned 9.5 points to finish the weekend on top of the four-team ladder, while Narrabri finished on the bottom with 0.5 points.
The other game was won 72 shots to 67 by Inverell, which won two of the three rinks to finish on nine points. Lightning Ridge accumulated one point after winning one rink in its opening-round loss.
At the Narrabri Bowling Club, Bill Rosewarn, Len Ryan, Paul Crutcher and Norm Walford formed team one, Tony Redman, Steve Daskey, David Dewar and Trinity Kelly formed team two, and Scott Dewar, Graham Rose, Larry Scott and Kevin Baguley formed team three.
Kelly’s team challenged Gunnedah’s Kevin Selway, Louis Flett, Wayne Campbell and Tim Thorning, and the two sides were locked at 20 shots each after 21 ends of play.
The Narrabri men led from the third end until the 18th before Gunnedah tied the score at 19-all with a five on the 19th.
Gunnedah scored a one on the 20th to edge in front, but the Narrabri side regrouped and scored one shot on the 21st end to tie the rink at 20-all.
Baguley’s team went head-to-head with Keith Hubbard, Kris Lodge, Craig Cameron and Scott Thorning and went down 17-15.
The rink was either side’s to claim as the Gunnedah team led 12-10 at the completion of the 16th end. Both sides claimed three of the final six ends while adding five shots each as Gunnedah held onto its two-point lead.
Walford’s team took on Paul Lodge, Brodie Towns, Paul Daniels and Caleb Cameron and went down 27-16.
The Gunnedah men established a dominant lead after winning the first seven ends a combined 18 shots to nothing.
Despite outscoring Gunnedah 16 shots to nine across the next 14 ends, the slow start was too difficult for the Narrabri men to overcome and they went down 27-16.
Narrabri will now travel for its first away match this Saturday when it takes on Lightning Ridge. Teams are as follows:
Tony Redman (car), Bill Rosewarn, Steve Daskey and Dave Dewar; Ian Macmillan, Len Ryan, Larry Scott (car) and Norm Walford; Scott Dewar, Graham Rose (car), Paul Crutcher and Kevin Baguley.
Reserves – D Briggs, L Gilbert, B Cantrill, R Wolters, D Field.
The remaining fixtures for Narrabri in the 2022-23 division two pennant sectional campaign are as follows:
Round two on Saturday, August 20 v Lightning Ridge (away); round three on Saturday, August 27 v Inverell (home); round four on Saturday, September 3 v Gunnedah (away); round five on Saturday, September 10 v Lightning Ridge (home); round six on Saturday, September 17 v Inverell (away).
