Steve Goddard defeated Rod Silber by 19 shots to 10 to take his first singles title at St Ives.  Steve started with a six shot advantage over Rod.  By mid game the scores were fairly even but Steve dug deep to inch his way to an unassailable lead by the 19th end. 

David Hagley, Thursday, 16 November 2017 
 
Below is an update from the President Kevin Latham on our Club renovations and the re-opening of the restaurant & bistro:
 
CLUBHOUSE RENOVATIONS UPDATE
16th November 2017
 
Your new Club, The St Ives Club, will be ready next week.  We have transformed the 50’s and 60’s style clubhouse into a modern vibrant and colourful club that you will enjoy and will attract many new members and visitors to our Club.
 
We have made many changes to the clubhouse including the installation of the floor to ceiling windows and doors along the western wall.  This change has to be seen to fully understand the impact.  In addition the feature wallpaper adds to the ambiance of our new clubhouse.
 
All of the major construction work has been completed and the carpet will be laid today and tomorrow.  Those who come for Happy Hour tomorrow will enjoy the new Clubhouse and furniture.
 
The new restaurant will open on Friday 24th November for dinner service, after which it will be open for dinner Wednesday through Saturday and for lunch on Tuesday through Saturday.  On Sundays they will offer a special brunch/lunch from 10 am.  
 
We will also have a coffee station from Tuesdays to Sundays with a barista serving quality coffee and cakes and pastries.  So why not stop by for some down time to enjoy the views
 
There will be two styles of service in the restaurant:

• Full table service where the order will be taken at the table and food will be served to the table.
  
• Bistro/Pub style where you order at the counter and the food will be served to the table.

 
There will be a separate menu for each service.
 
So come and experience the new Club on Friday 17th November for drinks during Happy Hour from 3:30 to 6:00 pm or enjoy the new restaurant from Friday 24th November.  The phone number to make a reservation for the restaurant is 9488 9401 but the phone it will not be operational until 20th November.

David Hagley, Tuesday, 14 November 2017 
 
In an exciting final played on Sunday 12th November, Gidley McCullagh & Gerry Hurdwell prevailed by a single shot over Sid Caganoff & Bob Balmer in this year's Men's Handicap Pairs competition.   The final score was the narrowist of wins, 25-24.
Congratulations to all finalists and full details will be forthcoming. 

David Hagley, Monday, 13 November 2017 
 
Our Men's Club President has asked me to highlight the following:
 
"Please note that this year's Men's Club Presentation Day is to be held on Saturday, 2nd December.   The acknowledgement and presentation to all winners and finalists of our 2017 Men's Club events will commence at 11:30am and is to be followed by a sausage sizzle.    Even if you are unable to play social bowls in the afternoon I would love all members to join us to enjoy the festivities in our, by then, newly finished and modernised Clubhouse.   
 
The renovations and new facility are something that all members can be justly proud of and your Committee hopes that you can put this appointment in your diary as a "must do".   I look forward to seeing you on the 2nd."
 
See you there!!   

David Hagley, Sunday, 12 November 2017 
 
As can be seen on Joan Francis and Margaret Ledbury's faces above, the hosting of the annual Women's District Versatility Day last Friday was a huge success.    Smiles in abundance was the name of the game and for the record, while all who attended were winners on the day, Asquith women were the event winners.    
Di McBryde would like to thank all who helped make the day so enjoyable, particularly our catering ladies who don't get to play our favorite game.    
   
Thanks to our Catering ladies.

David Hagley, Saturday, 4 November 2017.
The 2017 final of the Club Men's Fours ChampionshiAnd, well done to all eight finalists.   Our apologies that the order for fine weather didn't eventuate. p was held today and our Champions are the team of David Hagley, Fred Alexander, Chris Carey and skip Rod Silber.   This foursome beat Sid Cagaoff, John Donnelley, Michael Macourt and Joe Shofer (skip) 23 shots to 17 in attrocious weather conditions.   
 
With Joe Shofer directing the play and pulling the strings at skip, the underdogs got away to the perfect start and led 7 to nil before Joe requested a rain delay after the 4th.     When the heavy rain cleared to a drizzle the boys returned and as soon as Silber got the mat, he turned to plan B - his traditional long ends.     The ongoing rain continued to make bowling extremely difficult but team Silber appeared to be handling the difficult conditions and long ends better than their opponents.   To show their dominance, in the 10 ends between the 7th and 16th, Silber's foursome won all ends and picked up a massive 21 shots.    At the end of the 16th they had therefore raced to a 22-8 lead and the match was all but.    It was going to take a monumental effort to come back from this position but Shofer's team rallied with short ends to win the following four ends and to bring the score to a challenging 22-17 in favour of Silber.   With a single shot on the last, the final score was 23-17 to Silber and the eight players moved to the warmth and comfort of the clubhouse to enjoy a welcome drink.
 
On the way to their win Silber's team created a number of interesting facts.   Hagley, Alexander, Carey & Silber have now won the final of the Fours Championship four years in succession (2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017), thus creating a club record.    Chris Carey has now won the Fours on 7 occasions, exactly the same number of Fours Championship wins as his father - as they say, 'like father, like son'.     However, it should be noted that Fred Alexander has achieved this feat an unbelievable 12 times, his first dating back to 1988 - it appears to many, that the more Fred practices the luckier he gets!!    But wait for it, here's another amazing fact emanating from today's game:    Chris Carey has now achieved the honour of playing in all four Men's Championship finals this year (Singles, Pairs, Triples and Fours) for a 50% strike rate (Club Champion in Singles & Fours).   Well done Chris. 

And, well done to all eight finalists.   Our apologies that the order for fine weather didn't eventuate.