The main event for Narooma Club Croquet last week, played on the beautifully prepared Club Dalmeny greens, was the Golf Croquet Doubles Championship. This event was conducted in sunny weather, on the morning of Monday of last week, with four doubles teams battling it out over six matches in total. The match results were very close, whereby the ultimate winners, the pairing of Paul Chenoweth and Janet Jones, just managed to scrape through with a win in game 3 over the pairing of Len Favier and Cathy Sforcina by one point. Game 1 saw some amazing croquet with Lesley Miles scoring with jump shots at consecutive hoops 2 and 3, while Len Favier hit back and scored at hoop 4 with a single strike from the far corner. The pairing of Di Sims and Helen Stannard played solidly to secure second place. On a wintery Thursday eight players ventured onto the Dalmeny greens again to play six matches of regular golf croquet. Here Lesley Miles starred again to win three matches with no losses.

Finally, with the weather clearing, the Saturday program of association croquet resumed with a six ball handicap match being contested.

Golf Croquet Doubles Championship Tournament (August 1)

Congratulations to Paul Chenoweth and Janet Jones, meaning that Janet again figured in a championship doubles win, repeating her performances of the past two years.

Golf Croquet Regular Competition (August 4)

Association Croquet Regular Competition (August 6)

In the association croquet regular competition, a six ball handicap singles match was contested on Saturday morning between champion Janet Jones, Len Favier and Paul Chenoweth. With the handicap standings Len Favier received 9 bisques from Janet Jones, while Paul Chenoweth received 11 bisques from Janet Jones and 2 bisques from Len Favier. Len Favier led early, scoring with his blue and black balls at hoops one and two. Then Janet Jones scored a break of five hoops with her brown ball, croqueting off her opponent's red and yellow balls. Then Paul Chenoweth finally got his red and yellow balls moving and scoring, while Janet's green ball was stymied at hoop one. With one hour to play the brown, black and yellow balls were all on hoop six, with the scores Len Favier eight points, Paul Chenoweth seven points and Janet Jones five points. Then, with his black ball at hoop nine and his blue ball at hoop four, Len Favier missed five medium range shots, while Janet Jones got her green ball moving and scored a four hoop break at hoops 5, 6, 7, and 8. Thus Janet overtook Len Favier to lead 13-11 with 15 minutes left to play. Thence Janet Jones went on to win by scoring 17 points to 13 points by Len Favier and 8 points to Paul Chenoweth. In all it was a very tightly fought match of handicap association croquet.

Weekly Awards

In a week of croquet competition where the golf croquet championship doubles event took precedence, Lesley Miles had a perfect record in regular competition of three wins and no losses and thus was presented with the 'Blue Cow Award'. The very consistent Diane Sims, with two wins, was presented with the 'Pink Pig' award.

On Monday, August 1, the game decider was the lowest winning margin system with the winners being Bob Luke, Bryan Adamthwaite and Max Carey from runners up Ashley Shoemark and Leigh Falkiner.

The resting toucher went to Bryan Adamthwaite.

Lucky Losers on the day went to Barry Limbury, Tony Cobcroft and Scott Kennedy and the Jackpot of $189 was not won so jackpots to 8th August bowls day.

The Thursday, August 4, social bowls day didn't eventuate due to uncertainty in the weather.

The final on the Minor Pairs Club Championship was held on Friday, August 5, in near perfect conditions between Brian Brown and Mike Rogers verses Brett Graham and Don Helmore.

Brown & Rogers got out of the gates with speed leading 12 shots to one after 9 ends, then after a compulsory beer break, Graham & Helmore bridged the gap to be down 8 - 12 by the 13th end, however, the resurge was short lived as Brown & Rogers steamed away to eventually win by 23 - 10.

Congratulations to both teams.

Have some good news on the ol' goose, Peter Benson, is that he's out of hospital recovering at his son's house in Sydney and should be back here (home) this coming weekend with some recovery weeks still ahead of him.....cheers from all of us, mate!

Don't forget the Annual General Meeting will be held on Monday August 22 in the clubhouse starting at 10am.

Last Wednesday 18 women golfers played the Bermagui Golf Course. The winner of the day - and the Monthly Medal - was Fiona Hanks with a great 71 nett. Division 1 was won by Brenda Whiffen and runner-up Maggie Hayes - both 74 nett. Division 2 was won by Cath Skidmore - nett 73, and runner-up Trady Howarth - nett 78.

On Wednesday we had 40 bowlers making up six rinks of triples and a game of pairs. Winners were decided by Highest Winning Score and this week the winners were Mick Cavic, Jim Constan and Kevin Callaway (skip) who started well to lead 15 to seven after 11 ends and continued their good form for a 34 to 10 win against Garry Burke, Bates and Bruce Rapkins (skip). Second place went to Bob Murphy and Peter Murton (skip) who led 10 to seven after 13 ends before finishing strongly for a 32 to 13 win against Steph Maloney and Greg Maloney (skip). The first resting toucher at 3.03 went to Peter Murton who, as always, has been playing top bowls. Well done Peter.

There was a good turnout for Saturday bowls with winners decided by Lucky Rinks. Winners were Vince Stocks and Rob Coulson (skip) who had a great match where the scores were level on five occasions and they picked up one shot on the last end for a one shot win, 24 to 23 against Scott Kennedy and Tony Cobcroft (skip). Second place went to Carl Lee, Craig Campbell and Shorty Smart (skip) who led 12 to four after 11 ends, lost the lead to trail 13 to 14 after 16 ends and then regrouped to win their match 19 to 16 against Billy Wilton, Paul Naylor and Wazza George (skip).

On Sunday we had 22 bowlers who were terribly pleased that the rain finally came, on a freezing afternoon, to stop play early. Winners, decided by Lowest Winning Score, were Clare Cork, Pat Wood/Merrie Downie and Kevin Callaway (skip) who were down all day except for one end, and picked up two shots on the last end to draw 18 all but won on a toss of the coin against a devastated team of Rob McIntyre, Warren Bender and Bruce Rapkins (skip). Second place went to Kaye Whiffen, Sue Bender and Neil Verner (skip) who led 16 to seven after 11 ends and survived a spirited fightback to take their game 19 to 17 against Bill / Kathy South, Pieter Vos and Barry Lymbery (skip).

Club Triples Championship

One match was played last week with John Voytas, Garry Burke and John McNamara (skip) playing against Justin Bennett, Matt Dunn and John Breust (skip). John Breust's team started strongly and they led 11 to three after six ends but John McNamara's team got back into the game to level the scores at 15 all after 17 ends. The game remained tight with scores level at 17 all, 19 all and then at 21 all after the 25th end. An extra end was played and after both teams had shot at some stage John McNamara's team came up with the winning shot to take the great match 22 to 21.

Shearing/Penrich Shield

Our bowlers visited Bermagui to challenge them for the Shield, playing in Pennant format. Narooma won the match three rinks to nil. Results were - John Voytas, Terry Lewis, John Downie and Peter Jones (skip) won 34 to 12; Graham Cummins, Peter Dillon, Gary Murane and Greg Ryan (skip) won 24 to 14; and Darrel Goodridge/Mick Cavic, Kevin Callaway, John McNamara and Gavin Richardson (skip) won 39 to 14. Well done Narooma.

There were three games of two bowl triples on the green for social bowls last Tuesday, where Sue Waldock played swinging lead in her game.

When 'highest winning score' was drawn to find this week's winners, the game on rink 11 proved to be 'the one' where Anne Hunter, Suzanne Dainer and Janet Murphy (skip) met the 'in form' combination of Sue Sansom, Jan Rapkins and Marg Naylor (skip), who skipped away for a good win and claim the prize money.

It's consistency time again ladies, so check the notice board and hone your skills for next week.