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November 8, 2007
-----------------Jason Bryan, David (the kid) Downey, Maurice Crabb
-----------------------------"From Protégés to Compadres".

As the former W.A. State Junior Coach, Maurice Crabb, had both Jason and David as two of his young charges in the State Squad. However they are now just team mates in the Brett Holland led Gosnells rink. Jason & David made their debut in One White last week against Kardinya and their rink had a 5 shot win.


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November 8, 2007

The opening round of matches in One White only confirms that this competition is going to be a CRACKER. Apart from some interesting results the main thing is that every one of the ten clubs opened their account on the scoreboard if only with one point.

The biggest winning margin of shots was thirty for Kardinya (6) over Gosnells (2); the next highest was twenty five shots by Yokine (7) over Morley (1); eight shots saw Leeming (6) account for Mosman Park (2); and four shot was the difference for both Thornlie (7) over Safety Bay (1) and Dalkeith-Nedlands (6) over Bassendean (2).

Re ‘My Prediction’: I’m not familiar enough with the teams and all the players at this stage to try to pick rink winners or point margins so ‘My Prediction’ is solely about the team I believe will pick up the majority of the points, which obviously includes the aggregate.

After the first round I stand a 3 – 2 winning rate.

ONE WHITE TABLE
YOKINE 7 THORNLIE 7 KARDINYA 6 LEEMING 6 DALKEITH-NEDLANDS 6 BASSENDEAN 2 MOSMAN PARK 2 GOSNELLS 2 SAFETY BAY 1 MORLEY 1

DALKEITH-NEDLANDS V’s MOSMAN PARK


DALKEITH - NEDLANDS
The Tom Williams rink Vs the Justin Opie rink was the match of the day and was by all reports a beauty. For the entire match it was a case of punch and counter punch with both skippers desperate to land the knockout blow. It came down to the final end when Tom’s rink misfired once and that was all she wrote.
I’m told from all quarters that Tom Williams had a terrific game with John McIntosh not far behind.

Marco (Krackerjack) Krajancic’s rink had a win by 10 shots. Norm Sutton at two was the standout and John Morgan in his debut game for the club played well. Ross McKenzie was his usual consistent self as lead.

A surprise loss was that of the Tony Skoric’s rink because on paper and in the practice matches they are, and have been, the stand outs. Ross Donald, the current club singles champion has been in superb form playing three and Vaughan Colley is one of the clubs best leads. However, they never really got going against a rink that played almost perfectly and Vaughan struck a red hot Norm Kirkup.

Debutant Mark Lindsay was dominant in his debut game for the club as the three for Peter Bacich. He settled in well and is a class player. Peter skippered well and at one stage was 14 shots up before taking the foot off the throttle in the latter stages. As I understand the side will remain as per last week.

MOSMAN PARK
The Mossies were disappointed with their opening round in One White. John Rainoldi was a late withdrawal from their ranks due to work commitments and this resulted in a reshuffle of a couple of the rinks. Peter Freunds came into the starting 16 and played very well.

The Steve Withers rink had a big win and all played solid bowls with great conversion shots coming from both Steve and Mark Simpson. If this side stays together they will be a very hard combination to beat.

The Rogers rink had a close encounter all day. They scored 2 on the penultimate end and the last end was killed twice before they eventually scored a 3 to win by 1 shot.

Lester Mortimer’s rink jumped beautifully from the blocks to race away to a 9-0 lead only to be pegged back and eventually lost by 4 shots.

Jarrad Rainoldi was moved to skip but unfortunately his new look rink drew Danny Comrie’s very solid quartet and were well beaten on the day. At this stage John Rainoldi will start this week and that being the case there will be a few changes. Jarrad Rainoldi will play three for Steve Withers and Mark Simpson will play three for John Rainaldi. Peter Freund will stay in as lead. Tom O’Neill will play two for Doug Rogers and Dave Teague will lead for Lester Mortimer. John Deery is the player who is missing from last weeks starting 16.

My Prediction: DALKEITH-NEDLANDS.

GOSNELLS V’s BASSENDEAN

GOSNELLS
Playing Kardinya on their home surface was always going to be a difficult task so to come away with 2 points was a credible result - not that our starting 16 would agree with me.

Brett Holland’s new rink got home by 5 shots with a real team effort and they all played well. Kevin (the Bear) Bairstow’s experienced rink of Trevor Gibbs, Peter Hodgson and Andrew Hay-Hendry all played well to get home by a shot

No prize for guessing what happened to Alan Corby (I put the mocker on his rink by giving him a wrap last week) and Bert Cruickshank’s rink had a hard day at the office from go to whoa. There are a couple of changes to the Gosnells rinks for this coming week due to availability. Mike Jaworski is unavailable so the very good and very versatile Andrew Hay-Hendry will step up from leading for Bairstow last week to play third for Bert Cruickshank. (Andrew was voted the club’s ‘Pennant Player of the Year’ last year). Trevor Simons is available for this week after all and will lead for The Bear. The Gossy boys will be keen to deliver a win in this season’s first home game at our railway tracks.

BASSENDEAN
The Basso boys shouldn’t be disappointed whatsoever with their debut game back in One White. Against the team who I believe are the favourites to win the division they went within 4 shots of the aggregate and had some outstanding performances.

The Justin Opie rink had a heart stopping win when they picked up a 6 on the last end to win the game by 5.

The John Lynch rink had a good win and I’m told that lead, Norm Kirkup, had a blinder and played faultlessly. In fact the opposition Skip, Tony Skoric, stated after the game that Norm’s performance was one of the greatest displays of leading he has ever seen. (High praise indeed - Well done Norm).


Sherro adds, Norm played a blinder against Bedford last season. He could easily play premier league



-----------------------------Norm Kirkup (above) a terrific leader for Bassendean

Gordon Gray played well and his rink containing debutants, Fred Early and Colin Irvine, did well to hold their very strong opponents to 10 shots.

Marcel (what have you done) Heruer’s rink was 6 shots down after the opening end and 14 shots down at one stage during the match but fought back to only lose by 8 shots. (I’m not surprised ‘Marc’ was missing a few bullets from his armory because I played on the rink against him last Thursday and some of his conversion shots were sheer precision).

No changes to the Bassendean team to take on the Gossy boys at our railway tracks. The Basso selectors had agreed to leave the teams alone to gel for the first three weeks regardless of results. As it is there wouldn’t be any need for change any way after their good effort last week.

My Prediction: BASSENDEAN.

LEEMING V’s YOKINE

LEEMING
A good win by Leeming over the much fancied Mosman Park. Danny Comrie’s very solid quartet played extremely well and although the opposition stayed in touch early Danny and his boys steamed home and scored 13 shots to 1 in the last six ends alone. Danny played some outstanding conversion shots and first time third, Gary (Fordy) Ford, had a great game. (Is it true that Fordy wasn’t shy in letting the boys know about his good game all the way home, is now referred to as a type of JAM and will be fined accordingly?).

Lindsay Strange and his rink were slow out of the gates but soon gained momentum and a good struggle ensued before getting home by 4 shots. Gary Anderson and Dennis Pemberton continually got close all day and Lindsay drew shot with his last bowl when Mossie were holding 3.

The Peter Morris rink had a great battle and had their noses in front for nearly the whole game. The last end was killed twice before they lost a three to lose the game by 1 shot.
Although the Don Munro rink struggled on the scoreboard I’m told that there’s no need to panic as the opposition had a real day out with their conversion shots. On the bright side Don’s rink picked up a 4 on the 19th end and 1 on the last when the aggregate was still up for grabs. This week Peter Morris is unavailable for the clash with Yokine so Ian Ashworth will move to skip and big bad Colin Gilmore comes into the starting 16 as his third.

YOKINE
Yokine certainly made a statement with their opening game against Morley which was always going to be a yardstick as to where they’re at.

Unfortunately they can’t say that they came out with ‘all guns’ blazing because they weren’t able to start the season with their new recruit, Jamie O’Keefe, which is disappointing for both the club and the player. We all want our game and competition protected from any shenanigans but when a player genuinely relocates from interstate with an interstate clearance (and in this case before the competition even starts), and both the club and the player are prepared to categorically declare and guarantee that the move is genuine and for the long haul, it must be frustrating not to be given a green light, even if it’s given on a provisional basis. i.e. penalties to apply in the form of loss of points if it’s later found to be suspect in any way.

They had to reshuffle Tony Kay’s rink to cover the O’Keefe no start and this saw Graham ‘Smokey’ Dawson come into the side to make his debut in 1st Division, Terry Fulcher to second and Chris Busing to third. Not only did this group all play well but they recorded the biggest winning margin of the rinks. Well done on debut Smokey.

Rod Heaton’s rink performed well while Scotty Edmonds’ rink battled hard to win in what I’m told was a very good and close encounter. Late word is that it’s been decided that Jamie O’Keefe will have to sit out for the first three weeks of the season.

This week Adrian Durrant in unavailable so Darren Kellond will move from third to skip, John (Schnapper) Gallop who was unavailable last week will take up his place in the side keen to prove his worth, and the man with the famous sporting commentator’s name, Graham ‘Smokey’ Dawson, deservedly gets another start in the Doggies top side.

My Prediction: YOKINE.

MORLEY V’s SAFETY BAY

MORLEY
I haven’t heard from Morley this week so can’t report on any news or changes to their line-up. I think Morley would have been taken back a little by last week’s result but of course it early days yet. Peter Aungier’s rink had a good win. The Robbie Urquhart rink only went down by 3 shots. The Bruce Walter rink went down by 13 shots and the John Armstrong rink went down by 14 shots.

SAFETY BAY
I haven’t heard from Safety Bay this week either so can’t report on any news or changes to their line-up. I’m sure the Bay wouldn’t have been happy with only picking up 1 point at home despite only a 4 shot loss for the aggregate. The always hard to beat Matt Masari’s rink wasn’t far away, Paul Beaumont’s rink was even closer (and I put the mocker on them with my wrap last week) and Graham Scott’s rink closer still having only gone down by 2 shots. The Beard and Biglin show rolled on and pulled off a hard fought win.

My Prediction: MORLEY.

THORNLIE V’s KARDINYA

THORNLIE
Thornlie were delighted to have travelled to The Bay and to come away with 7 points. The Bay were very generous to their opening round visitors in that the sea breeze was a no show and a much more visitor friendly easterly was the only wind present.

Both Andy Lill and Jake Halse produced strong maiden efforts (well done boys) and Alan Petchell's experience and class showed through allowing Jim McKenzie's rink to gain a 10 shot win.


------------------------------------------------------------------L/R: Andy and Jake


The strong leadership of Glyn Vaughan saw his rink hold on for a 2 shot win and the current club singles champion, Paul Pohe, and his boys came away with a 6 shot win.

The Ravens had a solid first up win but so did Kardinya. Thornlie will be very mindful of past outings against Kardinya who made the finals last year. Only change to the starting 16 is that Mick Hanson is back and will come into the side to replace Doc Kimble who has a personal engagement this weekend.

KARDINYA

Kardinya opened their season at home in convincing fashion. Sizeable wins on two rinks meant that the aggregate was never in danger despite the small losses suffered by the Hastings and Sweet rinks.

Geoff Haynes got into the lighthearted swing of young David (the kid) Downey’s debut by posting David’s photo on their notice board Vs their four skippers. Steve Vinci was the lead that drew ‘the kid’ amongst the hype and the honours were apparently evenly shared between the two.

Geoff Gould’s rink powered away from about the halfway mark for a convincing win.

Terry Ball’s rink of John Smith, Kerry Eames and Les Phillips were well and truly on song from word go and deservedly picked up the Melville Mazda ‘Rink of the Week’. (Incidentally – I’m told that Terry, John and Kerry are all past One Red Safety Bay players).

The only change for this week is that Tommie Perse, who was a late inclusion for Shaun McCormack last week, will come out as Shaun is back and available.

My Prediction: THORNLIE.