Greenhills members treated to a feast of bowls

LAST Thursday, Greenhills Bowls club members were treated to a fine display of bowling as the club hosted six matches, played under IIBA rules. All games comprised of seven ends.

The first fixture of the night, Claire Woods v Bridie MacGuire was a slow burner, both players levelling after two ends. But the game picked up in the fourth end with Bridie taking a slight advantage. The final end was a real shootout as Woods managed to sneak the win by two shots.

In the second on the night’s games, Francis Fleming took on Josephine Moran. Fleming took the initiative midway through the match and moved two clear. Moran came back strong however and she moved to three up in the fifth. Despite trying to fight back Fleming was never able to cut the lead and Moran took the spoils by three shots.

The third match was a real nail biter, going right down to the final end. Tony Lacken’s experience just told as he beat John McCann by just one shot. After making a fast start, going three up, Lacken was unable to respond to McCann’s pinpoint shots and the latter took the next two ends to trail by one with three to play. Tony’s experience proved crucial in the last end taking victory by one shot.

The clash between Alan Thornberry and Jim Hanlon proved to be one of the games of the night. Thornberry burst from the blocks to take the first two ends on the bounce to go three up. Hanlon responded with some excellent backhand draw shots to the head in the next two ends cutting the deficit down to one. The game was to be decided in the final end. Hanlon trailed by one shot but managed to put pressure on his opponent. Thornberry held the upper hand though and ran out the victor by three shots.

Claire Woods easily dispatched Anna McKenna in the fifth game. Woods went two up before moving through the gears to extend her lead to three. McKenna didn’t help her own cause by taking the wrong line on the mat into the head leaving gaps open for her opponent to exploit. Ultimately Woods secured a win with three shots to spare.

The final match saw two previous victors face-off, Tony Lacken and Josephine Moran took to the green again. It was a cagey start from both but Lacken made the breakthrough in the third. But Moran showed real invention and creativity to get nose in front and go two up. Despite being rattled, Lacken pulled out all the stops to level. Battle royal ensued between the two players in a nail biting finish in the last end with Josephine taking the game at the death with her last bowl by one shot in a superb match.

There will be no bowling on Thursday 13th and no bowling on Thursday 20th as the club is holding its AGM. Tuesday bowling Juveniles 7 to 8pm, seniors 8 to 10.30pm.