Wee Waa Bowling Club head into the pennants playoffs undefeated

Wee Waa Bowling Club ended the 2024/25 season North West Bowls open gender pennants grade five section one campaign in style on Saturday as they scored a 19-shot away win to finish the sectional play undefeated.

Wee Waa had already secured a spot in next month’s grade five playoff against the section two and three winners but they took three strong teams to Barraba Bowling Club for their round six clash.

Wee Waa won all three rinks and outscored the hosts 65 shots to 46 on the overall scoreboard to claim all 10 competition points on offer.

That saw them finish with 37 out of a possible 40 points following four wins from four matches, well clear of the second-placed side Lightning Ridge (12) and third-placed Barraba (11).

Brett Pillar, Chris Crutcher, Bruce Cowan and Steve Berger were the most dominant Wee Waa team on Saturday as they outscored Peter Summerell, Ashley Miller, Adam Russell and Timothy Coombes 20 shots to 11.

The other rinks saw Phil Lawford, Clancy Hamilton, Kevin Baker and Ty Baker take down Jack Coombes, Lachlan Smith, Mitchell Reed and Stephen Hall 20 shots to 16, and Kyne Allen, Renee Doring, Peter Doring and Trinity Kelly defeat Will Russell, Michael King, Leslie Coombes and Ray Walker 25 shots to 19.

Other section winners were Inverell RSM in section two and Armidale City in section three. Both of those sections went down to the wire.

Inverell RSM had the bye in round six of section two and were only nine points clear of second-placed Glen Innes, who travelled to take on the winless Inverell Sporties. The hosts scored their first win of the campaign to deny Glen Innes top spot.

Uralla entered the final round in first place on the section three ladder but were unable to finish on top, with one of either West Tamworth or Armidale City guaranteed to progress. Armidale City got the job done as they won two of the three rinks to prevail 66 shots to 41 overall.

The grade five playoffs will be contested in Bingara on Saturday and Sunday, April 12 and 13, where all three teams will play against one another once each. The team with the most points after the three matches will progress to the state playoffs.

Wee Waa has the bye first up on the Saturday and will then challenge the loser of the Inverell and Armidale clash on the Saturday afternoon and the winner on the Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, Narrabri Bowling Club were beaten convincingly away from home against Gunnedah in the final round of the grade six section one season despite taking out two rinks.

Ian Macmillan, Graham Rose, Tony Redman and Eva Sadler defeated Kevin Selway, Brett Green, Gary Fordham and Jeffrey Palmer 23 shots to 21 while Helen Woodward, Steve Daskey, Stuart Coleman and Len Ryan edged out Paul Lodge, Joanne Briggs, Kyle Cameron and Gregory Campbell 23 shots to 22.

However, Gunnedah’s John Clark, Charli Cameron, John Pryor and Craig Cameron secured the win for Gunnedah in style as they cruised past Debbie Gleeson, Lyn Tuckey, Colin Armstrong and Scott Dewar 45 shots to six.

Club Gunnedah placed first in section one and will meet the section two winners West Tamworth and the section three winners South Tamworth in the grade six playoffs.