March 17, 2008
The final was played between two players who had never been involved in a Club singles final previously.
Click--Here --for picture
Click--Here --for picture
John Winship who has been playing for only three years, earlier this year won the Club Pairs and in with a big chance to win this game.
David Crook has some runs on the board with 2 club fours titles to his credit.
Who would be the favourite to win. For mine it was an even money bet !!
The game started out extremely well with John in particular having some great ends grouping his bowls well.
Dave was coming to terms with the conditions and after end 6 John was 8/4 then it got out to 11/6 on the 9th end and was clearly playing better that David.
The standard of the game fell away from the earlier part of the game.
It continued to along with David starting to gather momentum to be 13/14 down.
By 20th end it was David leading 17/16. It had became a very good and interesting contest From the 20th end onward the standard lifted quite appreciably with both players contributing with many close bowls and good heads. and from here the scores for David went 18/19, 20/19, 22/19, 22/23, and finally 25/23.
Congratulations to both David and John who will have learnt plenty from this game and they seem assured of winning more singles events in the future.
It was great to see two new faces competing for the Blue Ribbond event
April
1, 2007
This years final was played between Neil Minchin, last years winner and beaten
semi-finalist in the Champion of Club Champion Singles, playing Cliff Graybrook
who was attempting to win his 8th Club Singles title at Bedford
Click--Here--For
picture
Cliff can recall his first Singles win beating Merv Wiseman
The game was played in front of 250 spectators.
my! how things have changed !
The game promised plenty considering Neil had beaten two time winner Barry
Gartrell after being 11/18 down along with beating last years R.U Kevin Bourke
while Cliff had easily accounted for who ever he played to make the final.
That is the way the games started out with Neil Minchin playing superbly,
out drawing Cliff's ultra close bowls in a high standard opening 5 ends.
The score was 5/2 in favour of Neil. Cliff was bowling a great game and recovered
to lead Neil 7/5, However this is where Neil from here on played so magnificently
out drawing Cliff who has very close bowls often.
Neil set the rules for the game by giving the mat away to cliff every time
he won the end. When Cliff won the mat he kept it. The game started to get
away from Cliff even tho he was going extra well, he just could not contain
the pin point draw power or shot play of Neil.
The game proceeded with the score line for Neil being
9/7, 10/7, 10/8, 13/8, 14/8, 15/9, 19/9, 20/9, 21/10, 23/11, 25/11
Not many players at any level would have been able to match the game produced
by Neil Minchin today.
He is clearly the best singles player at Bedford and a more than worthy Club
Champion.
Cliff Graybrook was far from disgraced and under normal circumstances he
would have beaten most players at Bedford with game he produced today.
Paul Hunter defeated Paul Loveland in the plate in an entertaining game
April 4, 2006
Neil
Minchin defeated Kevin Burke in a terrific contest
Click-- Here--for
pic
It was Kevin who got away to a good start in the game to out bowl Neil who
was struggling to find the weight and led 6/1. From here on it was a battle
as both players were trying to establish a winning break. At this point Kevin
was holding the whip hand and playing very well to keep Neil at bay, 10/5
on the 12th end. From here on Neil found his weight as kevin lost his. Neil
was playing close to his best from this point with brilliant draw shots and
weighted bowls also to lead 17/11.
The game tightened up as both strove hard for victory and each playing magificent
conversion shots kevin coming back strongly to be 16/18 down and a sniff
of winning the games but it was Neil who provided all the answers to deny
Kevin any chance of victory with barely a bowl wasted whatever the circumstance
or shot to be played in a top class game to win the championship.
The Marker, Barry Gartrell was never in danger of being sunburnt during marking
the game but still managed to put in a top class performance
Ross Beaman won the plate 25/21 in a very good contest,
Rosco was r/u in 2004.
Ross defeated Charlie Pryde who has done very well this year, being runner/up
in the Club Championship pairs.
Congratulations and well done Ross and Charlie
April
4, 2005
Barry Gartrell won the final against Frank Andrich, in a good standard game.
Click--Here--for
picture.
Click--Here..For
picture.
Frank started out well leading 4-1 on the 3rd end and that was the only time
he led thru the game. Barry knuckled down and playing more consistently led
14--7 on the 11th end
From this point Frank come good winning 5 ends to be down 13--14, for a while
it was nip and tuck with both players lifting their rating with plenty of
close bowls the order of the day and some great conversions along the way
The score on the 24th end, barry leading 21-20 and anyone's game spelt the
end for Frank as he never scored again,
One of the features of Barry's win this year was being down 13-20
against Bob Norris and win that game followed by 2-13
down against Harry Matsen and getting up to win that game also.
It took Barry 30 years to win his first singles title in 2003 and followed
by a semi-final spot in the Champion of Champions, and its raining singles
titles for him now, well done on a fine victory Garts, must also congratulate
the marker Konrad Weiss for a brilliant exhibition.
The Plate winner was Ron Rushforth who defeated Keith Manton 25-14 and congratulations to Ron who had the game well in control for the whole game, andwell done to Keith to make it to the final.
The Novice singles winner was Kurt Scharzmann, who defeated Vic Usher in the final the score was.....?
In
this years singles final we saw CliffGraybrook defeat
last years runner/up, BillRichardson
Click on name for picture
in a game that promised plenty, but didnt live up expectations. The game
started out as we would have expected with both players drawing magnificently.
After 8 ends the heat went out of the game with both players losing touch
with the green and the high standard set earlier, Cliff was the first to
recover his early form and went on his merry way, however Richo's chances
never looked good from 5 / 10 down.
If Richo did get close Cliff got closer. On the day Cliff would have been
hard to beat the way he played and was well deserving of his victory on a
16 second green.
Perhaps on reflection Richo really needed to change the game plan because
when he won the mat he was very predictable, always played long ends and
Cliff was playing them extremely well and outpointing him with very skilful
bowls often grouping them in two's and three's.
When ever Cliff was in trouble he always provided the answer, Well done Cliff.
Richo runner/up two years in a row and this a worthy acheivement indeed.
If there was a hilite apart from the quality display by Cliff it was the
outstanding marking exhibition by Garts who sat in the shade for most of
the day. no chance of getting sunstroke.
This game was won by Joe Hofgesang who beat Rosco Beaman 25 / 17. Joe was well in control of the game leading 20 / 8 but to Rosco's credit he came back to make the scoreboard look a lot better. Well done to you Joe
Brad Morrison won the title from bill Scharzmann 25 / 10 and its great thrill for young fella as he is only 15 years old, looks like there will be many more titles to come his way in the future . Congratulations Brad
2008 D. Crook
2007 N. Minchin
2006 N. Minchin
2005 B. Gartrell
2004 C. Graybrook
2003 B. Gartrell
2002 B. Donovan
2001 D. Mariani
2000 C. Graybrook
1999 C. Graybrook
1998 R. Rushforth
1997 T. Sheridan
1996 M. Lemos
1995 B. Urqhart
1994 C. Graybrook
1993 C. Graybrook
1992 P. Hogan
1991 A. Davis
1990 C. Graybrook
1989 G. Scott
1988 A. M ayer
1987 V. Parker
1986 Z. Norac
Konrad gave an outstaning display of marking a great game of singles
