Cheers president Ziggy

Narooma Golf Club

Very wet ground conditions prevented a normal start for the field with only 126 playing on Thursdaay. A Grade was taken out by Peter Ward with 39 points off his handicap of nine while a three-way countback on 38 points decided the minor positions in favour of Geoff Lanham and Rick Porter with Jackson Taylor missing out.

Kevin Seamons prevailed in B Grade with 39 points off his handicap of 19, albeit on countback from Commonwealth's Brendan Dart, with Bill Anderson in third place on 38 points. In C Grade Tim Millward posted the best score of the day with 41 points off his handicap of 25 with Denis Davies runner-up on 39 points, while Frank Caruana finished in third place with 36 points on countback from Colin Boxsell.

The NTP winners were Greg Riley on both three and nine, Nigel Roberts on 14 and Mark Porreca from Gungahlin Lakes on 17 while the ball competition went down as far as Mitch Mitchell on 33 points with 18 on the way home.

The field of 157 players enjoyed the conditions and the scoring was good despite the lack of run on Saturday. In A Grade Ben Smith registered a score of 41 points off his handicap of 12 to win by one point from Queanbeyan's Brent Chalker while Will Monteith took third place with 39 points on countback from Robert Sayers. B Grade saw the best scores of the day with Jan Shevlin posting 42 points off her handicap of 17 to win on countback from new member Mark Clifton while Brendan Dart from Commonwealth edged out Chris Marshall from Queanbeyan on countback to finish third with 41 points.

A countback was needed to decide the winner in C Grade where Tina Wilson prevailed with 41 points off her handicap of 24 ahead of Tim Millward who registered his third podium finish in the past four rounds.

Obviously handicap reductions await. Ann Durnan took third place with 40 points. The NTP winners were Richard Goodridge on three, Darcy Sealey on nine, Henry Savage from Duntry league in Orange on 14 and Ken Brown on 17 while the ball competition went down into the 33 points range on countback. RGI

Narooma Croquet

This first week of reporting on Narooma Croquet Club activities spanned the hot and sunny Christmas and New Year break, but ended in cancellation of a promising morning of golf croquet on Thursday, January 6 due to the return of heavy rain. The presentation of prizes for the association croquet Christmas Cup tournament was held on Tuesday, January 6, in conjunction with a farewell function for our beloved Pearl Hanson, who relocated with her family last Wednesday to Tin Can Bay, Queensland. In her final appearances of playing croquet on the greens at Club Dalmeny, Pearl played so well that she was presented with the 'Blue Cow Award' in December, and was suitably honoured with a splendid photograph in the Narooma News newspaper - a nice touch before her departure.

Golf Croquet

On the Monday prior to Christmas five players participated in the final of croquet competition for 2021 at Dalmeny. In the four matches contested club captain Christine Stent, together with Pearl Hanson, were the most successful players. Detailed scores were:

Game 1 - Pearl Hanson 7-6 Jean Phillips. Game 2 - Christine Stent and Louise Starkie 7-1 Lesley Miles. Game 3 - Christine Stent and Pearl Hanson 7-5 Louise Starkie. Game 4 - Jean Phillips 7-5 Lesley Miles.

The morning of the first Monday of the new year dawned hot and muggy, with five players contesting four smartly completed golf croquet matches, including Pearl Hanson in her final appearance on the croquet greens for Narooma Croquet Club, the day prior to her actual farewell function. Fay O'Connor, returning to play after a short break, was the outstanding performer, and partnered Pearl Hanson in Pearl's last winning match of croquet at Dalmeny. Detailed scores were:

Game 1 - Christine Stent and Sally McGourty 7-4 Pearl Hanson. Game 2 - Fay O'Connor 7-3 Louise Starkie. Game 3 - Fay O'Connor and Pearl Hanson 7-3 Louise Starkie. Game 4 - Christine Stent 7-5 Sally McGourty.

Last Thursday morning was eagerly anticipated by croquet players to have a large contingent of croquet players competing in golf croquet competition. Sadly, overnight precipitation of 50 millimetres led greenkeeeper Karl to declare the greens too soggy for play, and right on cue, a huge downpour at 9:05am finally dampened any hopes of play proceeding.

Association Croquet Regular Competition

On a fine sunny, Saturday morning and a good surface for croquet, the week's association croquet matches were cancelled due to there being only one player in attendance (Len at 8.53am), probably because of player's uncertainty and fears of COVID-19.

Weekly Awards

Nothing could top the last few weeks of Pearl Hanson's final days of her career of croquet with the Narooma Club. Pearl was presented with a trophy in 2020 for 20 years membership, being one of only two players remaining who were part of the inaugural year of the club in the year 2000. During her time with Narooma Croquet Club Pearl not only was a fine player, but was also mentor and coach of many players when they debuted in croquet play, some of whom are still currently top players. All the best and well done Pearl.

Bookings

Members please be advised that while there is a re-emergence of the risk of the COVID-19 infection the process of booking attendance at croquet matches is required as follows:-

Golf Croquet - Fay O'Connor, telephone 0421 352 527 and Association Croquet - Christine Stent, telephone 4476 3506, keeping to covid-19 protocols.

Narooma Men's Bowls

On Wednesday we had 40 bowlers making six rinks of triples and a rink of pairs. Winners, decided by Highest Winning Score, were Rod Holman and Peter Jones (skip) who had a tight first half where they led 10 to seven after 12 ends before they clicked into their top form to race away for a 30 to 12 win against Tony Fryer and Bruce Rapkins (skip).

Second place went to Baxter Smith, Anthony Palmer and Robert Murphy (skip) who were in fine form to lead throughout for a 30 to 13 win against Don Caldwell, Andy Thompson and Greg Riley (skip). The first resting toucher went to Bruce Rapkins at 13.30 showing that he had brought his deft touch into the new year.

On Saturday we had a good roll up of bowlers, some looking have their first win for the year. Winners were decided by Lucky Rinks. First place went to Trebly Treblecock, Dennis Maggs and Garry Carberry (skip) who led 19 to seven after 11 ends before Mick Cavic, Darrell Goodridge and John Scott (skip) fought back strongly to trail 19 to 25 at the end of the match.

Second place went to Kevin Callaway and Dave Herman (skip) who had a very close game throughout where they were down 11 to 14 after 13 ends and came back strongly to be all square after 20 ends before picking up a shot on the last end for a 21 to 20 win against Peter Dillon and Greg Ryan (skip).

On Sunday we had 18 bowlers enjoying a great day of bowls. Winners, decided by Lowest Winning Score were Kathy South, Merrie Downie and John Downie (skip) who had a great game against Clare Cork, Julie Smith and Darrell Goodridge (skip) where they drew away late in the game for a 16 to nine win.

Second place went to Garry South, Gail Palmer and Baxter Smith (skip) who started slowly to be down zero to nine before they found their mojo and found the line strongly for a 19 to 17 win against Peter Hawker, Mick Cavic and Kevin Callaway (skip).

President's Pairs

One game played this week between Barry Goodwin and Les Waldock (skip) and Graham Cummins and Terry Lewis (skip). Graham and Terry jumped the gun to lead 16 to nine after 11 ends and continued their fine form to take their match 28 to 14.

To ponder

The most wasted day of all is that on which we have not laughed. Jestyer Weight

Narooma Women's Bowls

What a lovely day we had for the first day of bowls for 2022. We had a small group of ladies keen to get back into the friendly competition for the year.

Four teams of triples played a six end, round robin competition against each other team with scores totalled for each game. The winners, decided by Highest Winning Score, were Sue Waldock, Clare Cork and Gail Palmer (skip) who had two wins and a total of 18 shots, on a countback from Jan Rapkins, Julie Smith and Vicki Herman (skip), also on 18 shots but only one win. It was a fun way to start the year. Vicki Herman consoled herself by winning the raffle prize. Thanks to Rapley and Son Plaza Meats for their continued support.

Bitmoregrass