Photo: Peter Gribbin - Pakenham BC

Action A Plenty at State Bowling Arm Championships

by Team BV

At the end of Day One of competition in the Bowls Victoria Bowlers Arm State Singles Championships being played at Armadale BC, there have been some familiar faces from within the Armed Bowling fraternity and an array of new talent previously undiscovered who’ve survived the rigours of sectional play and a knockout round to advance to the Quarter Finals of this event to be played on Friday 11 January.

In the top half of the draw, current and defending Bowlers Arm State Singles Champion Michael Rose (Lilydale) advanced by defeating Winston Taylor (Whittlesea) 21-10 to set up a match with Wayne Frazer (Burden Park) after he was able to score the points over Ron Johnson (Palm Lake) 21/14. Keith Archer (Pakenham) survived a real nail-biter against former State Team representative Arthur Parker (Mt.Martha) and hung on to win 21-20 in a thriller. Archer’s opponent in his next encounter will be Greg Ritchie (Warrnambool City Memorial) after he was put through his paces by Ken Perkins (Paynesville) to record a 21-17 victory. It’s great to see some new faces making the quarter finals of this event, such is the depth of talent amongst the playing ranks of the bowlers arm exponents.

In the bottom half of the draw, there were two sensational matches that could have gone either way, the first of those being the dust-up between former State Arm Side representative Doug Corrigan (Ringwood) and current ”Armed Vic” State Arm Side rep. Rod “Bluey” Fletcher (Cohuna Golf), the latter sneaking over the line to record a 21-20 victory that pundits stated could have gone either way. The winner of this match (Fletcher) will now face Ross Higgins (Shepparton Park) after he too was successful over another former Armed Vic in Peter Gribbin (Pakenham) with the identical score line again of 21-20. Former Victorian Open Singles Champion Neil Crisp (Warrnambool City Memorial) couldn’t recapture the form that saw him win that tile as he fell victim to Peter Toovey (Eltham) who surged to the winning post and claim victory over Crisp 21-16. Toovey’s next match will be against another current State Arm Side player in Vern Rehe (Moama) who was pushed all the way in his match with Damian Riches (Cobden), with the wily Rehe doing what he had to do to record his 21/19 win.

Quarter Finals in the Men’s Singles Championship will see the resumption of this event on Friday 11 January at 8.30am along with the Women’s Pairs Championships and continuation of their Singles event as well.

Today (Thursday) the Women’s Singles and Men’s Pairs are underway with sectional play.

Finals of all events will be contested on Friday 11 January at Armadale BC, 41 Sussex Road Caulfield South.

Photo: Carole Klop – Glen Waverley BC