Blind bowlers have a blast

by admin on May 2, 2016

Queensland blind bowlers zoomed up the mountain to Mount Tamborine for a “friendly” ahead of hopping on a plane to New Zealand for a serious test series. Blind bowlers came from as far away as Caboolture and Warwick to Mount Tamborine Bowls Club for a “friendly” game to blow out the cobwebs ahead of upcoming international and national tournaments. 
The game brought together a stellar crowd and reminded everyone that bowls brings together all kinds of people to enjoy the skills, tactics and camaraderie.

“Everybody had such a good time that the laughter on the green was heard in surrounding villages,” said club president Lance Cordingley.
“We look forward to our next meeting with great anticipation.”
Although travel time cut down time on the green, Queensland Blind Bowlers Association members enjoyed catching up with each other and further flung members, including one from Warwick who can’t get to their weekly games in Enoggera.
The quality of the bowling was outstanding, with one of the Tamborine skips gob-smacked when his completely blind teammate out bowled him all day.
“This is good preparation to defend the Australian title held by the QLD Blind Bowlers Association coming up at Port Macquarie (June 1-9),” said John Vance, club member and Blind Bowler.
After the Mount Tamborine bowls excursion, several Queensland players jumped on a plane to Auckland, to represent Australia at the international Trans Tasman Series (April 27 – 30).
Unfortunately, despite a great win in the final test, NZ retained the series trophy with a 2-1 test win, taking the first two tests.
For results see Bowls NZ website http://www.bowlsnz.co.nz

Results from Test 3 30th April
Results from Test 2 29th April
Results from Test 1 28th April
The Trans Tasman test 3 was completed today (April 30) to give Australia a test win over New Zealand with points of  24 to New Zealand’s 12 points.
However with their two tests to one win, New Zealand will hold the Flett Daniels Trophy for the next four years.
Following on from this morning’s whitewash in the Mixed Pairs, Australia took first points this afternoon when B4 Lynne Seymour once again blew Vi Coates out of the game, winning 21-6.
David Stallard was the first of the New Zealander’s to score a win for the day coming from behind to beat Chris Backstrom 21-11.  
Stallard was 11-8 down before he won the last five ends to take the game. 
James Dunn, up against Dennis Wormald, got off to a very good start but then watched as his good lead, at one stage 11-4, whittled down and down until the game was at 20-19 to Dunn.
He finally managed the final point on the twenty fifth end to take the game 21-19. 
Sue Curran had a valiant battle against Marion Morrison.
Leading 7-3, Curran then dropped her concentration and soon found herself at 16-7 down.
Morrison added a few more shots and then final score was 19-16 to Australia. 
Joy Forster, Australia,  managed a win over Keith Bell.
After leading for most of the game she took it out 19-16 at the end of the time limit. .
David Monk got his revenge on yesterday’s foe Wayne Thomson, leading from start to the finish at 18-14. 
Glen Hanneman started his game against Ralph Simpson well and was soon 8-4 up.
He then lost his way to find himself 14-11 down.
Although he came back to some extent the final score was a win to Australia 20-16.
Louise Henry lead from start to finish although she did drop seven shots on the last five ends to allow Australia back to a respectable 14-12 down. 
Congratulations to both teams on the spirit the three tests were played in.

***********
The round of Mixed Pairs to start the third test in the Blind Trans Tasman has gone all Australia’s way. 
The B1 pairing of David Monk and Louise Henry went down on the last end having lead from the first end.
The penultimate end saw New Zealand drop two shots to bring the score to 8-7.  
In the final end the New Zealanders dropped another two shots and the game to lose 9-8.
The B2 pair of Glenn Hanneman and Keith Bell also struggled against their counterparts, Joy Forster and Ralph Simpson.
The final score was 5-14 to the Australians but New Zealand was never really in contention throughout the fourteen ends. 
Sue Curran and David Stallard also struggled in their game against Marion Morrison and Christopher Backstrom.
New Zealand lead early on but saw their scores fritter away to finished the game at 9-16 down. 
James Dunn and Vi Coates had another lesson in bowling this morning losing out to Dennis Wormald and Lynne Seymour 18-7
New Zealand will need a concerted effort this afternoon to bring them back into contention in this test. 
************
A slightly more even afternoon in the singles games of Test 2 of the Blind Trans Tasman has resulted in New Zealand taking a net total of shots win over Australia.  
At 18 points to both countries it was down to net total of shots to decide the winner.
New Zealand with +9 has taken out Test 2. 

Louise Henry from Hamilton has once again played some good bowls to take her game out against Jayne Parsons.
Henry lead all the way and picked up a four on teh last end to get her to the 21 shots required.  
The final score was 21-11. 
David Monk found himself 16-0 down against Wayne Thomson after just eight ends and never recovered.
The final score in his game was 21-4. 
Keith Bell came out firing again and was 9-3 up at the sixth end. Dropping a four on the twelfth end was not in the New Zealand game plan but Bell finished strongly to take the game 21-11.
Glenn Hanneman was up against Ralph Simpson and soon found himself down on the board.
A valiant effort brought him back but it was not enough to get the points for New Zealand and the final score was 21-15 to Australia. 
Sue Curran played a blinder this afternoon beating Marion Morrison 21-5. Director Ann  Muir said Curran was more at ease and playing her usual game this afternoon. 
But her pairs partner David Stallard did not fare so well in his game losing out to Christopher Backstrom 19-14 after their time limit expired. 
James Dunn fought strongly in his singles but was not able to beat Dennis Wormald.
The final score for their game was 21-19 to Wormald.
Vi Coates also had a hard lesson this afternoon being defeated by Lynne Seymour 21-14.
Coates played catch up for most of the game but couldn’t quite pull off an upset. 
The final test commences at 9.00am tomorrow. 
 
**********
New Zealand has continued their good form taking out round 1 of Test 2 this morning at Browns Bay Bowling Club in Auckland. 
The totally blind pairs of  David Monk and Louise Henry  started well and then got stuck for three ends while Australia’s  Wayne Thomson and Jayne Parsons scored the ends.
At 6-3 down the New Zealander’s hit their straps and the final score after the time limit had expired was 11-6 to New Zealand.
The B2 pairing of Glenn Hanneman and Keith Bell also started slowly and were 7-2 down by the fifth end.
The managed to creep ahead by one shot on the ninth end and picked up a five on the twelfth end to finish the game at 16-12.
Australia had their revenge in the B3 category with Marion Morrison and Christopher Backstrom beating Sue Curran and David Stallard.  
At 10-3 down Curran and Stallard had their work cut out to bring the game back to 12-13.
James Dunn and Vi Coates were sitting at 7-4 down at the ninth end.
Holding five shots to bring them back into the game they could only watch in dismay as Australian skip Dennis Wormald dead dre the shot with his final bowl.
The Australians were clearly delighted with the shot to given them a four point advantage but the New Zealanders, who yesterday did not manage to topple the Australians in either the singles or the pairs,  came back and scored on the last four ends, picking up eight shots and three vital game points to take the game 12-8.
A round of singles will be played this afternoon. 
*******************************
There were mixed results from the Mixed Pairs of the Trans Tasman this afternoon with the honours being shared equally.
Some good bowling from both Louise Henry and David Monk put New Zealand on the board this afternoon winning the B1 pairs.  By the ninth end the New Zealand pair were ahead 10-8 but scoring the final two ends played took the totals to 13-8.
Glenn Hanneman and Keith Bell had a tight game until at 12-11 up, the New Zealander’s picked up six shots to stretch their slim lead to  a more comfortable 18-12.  They managed a further two on the last end to take their score to 20-11.
The B3 pair of Sue Curran and David Stallard struggled against Marion Morrison and Christopher Backstrom. The New Zealand pair did not play badly but even when they had bowls close the Aussies went closer! The final score was 12-18.
In the B4’s New Zealand had no answer for the Australians bowing out of the contest 4-15 after their 14 end match. It will be back to the drawing board for tomorrow’s test. 
**********
The New Zealand Blind Jacks have drawn first blood in the Blind Trans Tasman this morning winning the singles rubber 4 1/2 games to 3 1/2. 
Both B1 players, David Monk and Louise Henry won their game , Monk comfortably 19-9 and Henry and close 15-14 after dropping three on the last end. 
The B2’s saw Glenn Hanneman drop his game to Ralph Simpson but Keith Bell took our his game 20-16 against Joy Forster. New Zealand does not have any B2 ladies to play the event. 
In the B3 category, David Stallard had a good win 21-11 but pairs partner Sue Curran had to settle for a draw after the three hour time limit caught her out. At 19-19 after 25 ends Curran had to be content with sharing the spoils  with Queensland’s Marion Morrison. 
The New Zealand B4’s both had games they would rather forget with James Dunn losing to Dennis Wormald 21-11 and Vi Coates going down to Lynne Seymour 21-7.