Region Fours Championships played in Young

The Young Bowling Club hosted the finals of the Riverina Murray Region Fours Championships on Sunday. Originally the games were scheduled to be played on Saturday but a decision was made on Thursday to transfer the games to Sunday. The outcome was that all scheduled games were completed in fine sunny conditions. Games were played in four divisions with some at the semi–final stage and some having already been reduced to just two teams playing the final. In the Men’s State division the morning game saw Junee opposed to Wagga Rules. Both teams won 3 of the first 6 ends with Junee leading 9–3. From that point the Wagga Rules team were in complete control and went on to win 28–12. The afternoon final of this division saw the Wagga team playing Narrandera. After the first 7 ends the scores were level at 5–all but Wagga Rules won 6 of the next 7 ends to lead 18–6. The Wagga team of Bryce De Bruyn, George Jackson, Cody O’Keefe and John Harriott went on to win the game 22–11. The morning saw two semi–finals of the Open Gender Reserve division. In one game the Boorowa Ex–Services combination of Michael Munn, Darryl Murphy, Robert Styles and Shane Foote proved too strong for their Narrandera opponents and won their game 24–9. In the second game Wagga RSL played West Wyalong. West Wyalong held the lead at 10–1 after 6 ends but the Wagga RSL team of Greg Mitchell, Max Sanbrook, Robbie Marshall and Darren Walker won all except 1 of the remaining ends to win the game 26–11. The final of this division was a very close contest. After 11 ends the scores were tied at 9–all before Wagga RSL scored 6 shots on the next end to lead 15–9. The Boorowa team then won 3 consecutive ends to lead 16–15. The final 3 ends were won by Wagga RSL with just 1 shot on each end and they won the title 18–16. In the Men’s Senior division there was only the final to be played in the afternoon with the Temora B&R team of Wayne Foote, Bill Robertson, Trevor Firman and Bruce Lack opposed to Bruce Russell, Richard Durnan, Peter Durnan and David Ivanoff from Narrandera. The first 9 ends saw Narrandera in front 8–7 and a score of 5 shots on the 10th end gave them a lead of 13–7. The next 4 ends were won by Temora and they led 14–13. After 19 ends the score was 16–all and on the 20th end the Narrandera skip moved the jack to give his team 4 shots and with another 2 shots on the final end Narrandera took out the championship. The Women’s State Fours also involved just a final match with Jenny Holt, Lisa Boyd, Jill Rosen and Kate Cooper playing Harden’s Keryl-Anne McKellar, Dianne Peisley, Kelly Daley and Ann Marie Phillis. After 8 ends the score was 5-all and after 15 ends Harden led 12–11. Harden then won 3 consecutive ends to lead 20-11 and they went on to win 21–14. The winners and runners–up presentations were made by Diane DeBritt, a director of the Region committee. The winners of each of the divisions have qualified to play in the State Finals that will be held at Ballina, Lennox Head and Alstonville from 7th to 9th April 2025. The hot and very humid conditions on Thursday kept player numbers down with just 12 starters. Brian McNair and Russell Boyd won their game by 8 shots to claim the vouchers and the other winners were Albert Carter and Greg Woods with a margin of 7 shots and Milan Brankovic and Joe Bargwanna with a margin of 3 shots. The final rounds of the Guy Pickering Charity Challenge were played during the week. The Lachlan Street team were the overall winners for the Wednesday night division. The FATBBOTS team had the best score on Thursday night with 17 points and No Names were the overall winners for Thursday night. The final between Lachlan Street and No Names will be played on Thursday 12th November. - CLIFF TRAYNOR