The ladies played the next round of the Consistency Singles on Thursday. The weather was pretty hot so the ladies found it heavy going. Congratulations to the winners. The next round will be the semi-final on Tuesday. There should be some very good matches!

Greg Smith's form in this year's Handicap Singles competition has been top grade but yesterday's Final pitched him against the wily talents of Joe Shofer.

Greg had a 6-shot advantage on handicap and jumped on that advantage early to be up 11-0 after 3 ends. Joe got himself back in the game, taking four of the next six ends. However Greg still had a handy 15-7 lead after 9 ends. From this point Greg's control over the match reasserted itself as he won five ends in a row to stretch his advantage to 22-7.

This was too big a lead even for Joe and the match ended after 18 ends with Greg Smith a deserving winner. The final score was 24-11.

The ladies played the first round of the Consistency Singles in beautiful sunshine yesterday. There were some excellent bowls played. 

St Ives maintained its strong record against Turramurra BC yesterday winning the Ron Christie Trophy event. St Ives won four of the matches, drew one and lost just one. The aggregate score was 123 - 99. Bowling at both venues was heavily affected by a really strong and gusty wind that caused some frustrations to all the players.

At home our top grade side, skipped by Chris Carey, had a handy 22-15 win whilst Wes Taylor's B Grade rink was pushed all the way but held on for a 23-22 victory. In C Grade Dudley Wrigley's four had an impressive 24-9 result.

Over at Turramurra the top rink (skipper Jimmy Barclay) had a frustrating 14-14 draw in their match. In B Grade Greig Cohen's side were involved in a really close tussle before suffering a disastrous setback. Leading 15-14 after 16 ends St Ives gave up 3 shots on the next end to trail 15-17 and then gave up eight more on the next end- that as they say was that! Final score was a loss 17-27. Once again though the C Grade rink picked up the slack with a 23-12 win for Gerry Hurdwell's side.

The Men's Bowling Club AGM was held yesterday morning officiated by our President, Kevin Latham and Secretary, Michael Macourt. No ballots were necessary to determine the officers & other positions with confirmation of those agreeing to serve:-

• President                                   Kevin Latham
• Vice-President & Chairman of Selectors
  

                                                             Sam Johnston

• Secretary                                   Michael Macourt
• Bowls Secretary                        Tony Pope
  
• Committeemen                         Chris Carey
  

                                                             Richard Carey
                                                             Chris Wood

The meeting noted that Mike Gallagher would be succeeding Alwyn Ellem as Chairman of Coaches. Grateful thanks to Alwyn for all his hard work in this important area.

The meeting also approved the proposed change to the constitution, agreeing to delete clause 4.3.

The Women's Consistency Singles starts next Tuesday, 22nd. Here is the draw.......

Joan McCullagh and Jackie Wilmshurst took on Michelle Murphy and Rhonwen Martin in the final of the Women's Handicap Pairs. Joan and Jackie gave Michelle and Rhonwen a four shot advantage but the two "J"s started very strongly and had a big lead after 10 ends. Michelle and Rhonwen came back in the middle of the game but the two "J"s held their nerves to come away with a strong win. Congratulations to all players for making it to the finals!

On Sunday 13th October the semi finals of the 2019 Mens Handicap singles were played.

Greg Smith took on Shea Yu with Greg having a headstart of 2 shots. Greg and Shea traded shots to arrive at 8-8 by the 10th end. From the 11th end Greg started to gain the ascendency and never lost the lead, winning 19-13.

Joe Shofer and Gidley McCullugh battled for the second spot in the final.  Gidley got a headstart of 5 shots and built on his handicap lead to be 10-1 up by the 4th end. Joe then got on a run and by the 12th end it was 12-12. Gidley recovered the lead over the next two ends but then Joes got a 4 on the 15th end and never looked back, winning 21-16.

​The final between Greg and Joe is to be played on or  before 26th October.  Good luck to both contenders.

20 of our ladies represented St Ives in the annual Rose Bowl competition again Turramurra. It was Turramurra's turn to host the event this year. A huge congratulations to our ladies who won the trophy back from Turramurra with a score of 115 to 87. Well played to all!