October 18, 2009

The Osborne Park 2009 Club Championship Fours final was won by David Rankin's team of Scott Edmonds, Harley Rankin and Bill Stephens. However because David and Scott Edmonds were on State squad duties all day. Two subs were called in for the semi, and the final if they made it.

Maurice Hardy and Les Thompson were called upon to be the subs and certainly answered the call with both players doing their part to bring about the victory

They defeated a good team of Fred DiGuiseppe (sk), Ray Wemm, Jim Nicolakis and Stuart Lofthouse in a solid game this afternoon

With the unavailability of Dave and Scott, this meant a change of positions with Dave's young son 15 year old Harley moving to skipper the side Maurice Hardy to play three, Les Thompson to play 2 and Bill Stephenson to stay lead

Dave Rankin and Scotty Edmonds on right

In the semi final this side defeated Bill Blakley's side who were in sensational form on saturday. Must say Bill who has won the Third division and under State Pairs was as good as any player could be in his game against Dave Appleton's side

Well a day is a long time in the world of Lawn Bowls as Bill will testify when they were completely dominated by Harley and his side. Harley in particular was outstanding with sub Maurice Hardy playing a good thirds game and the front two players doing their job.

In the final it was all the way with Harley and the team as they steam rolled their way to an impressive victory against skipper Fred DiGuiseppe, Ray Wemm, Jim Nicolakis and Stuart Lofthouse.

Harley was outstanding and it was hard to believe that a 15 year old boy could bowl to the level he did, he drew so well in tight situations and his drive which was not often changing a down situation to an up position to keep Fred and his boys at bay. Maurice did a good job the way he encouraged the young Harley who always responded to the Maurice's call

Les Thompson who has never won a club championship but was a runner up in the pairs sometime ago did play a couple of lucky ones and as they say if you are up any thing can happen and it did for Les, it is better than being short but he also played some blinders at critical times, over all he did a good job for the side as did Bill Stephenson who has been playing for only 3 months and now has a Club Championship under his belt which he thoroughly deserves
------------L/R:Maurice Hardy, Harley Rankin, Les Thompson, Bill Stephenson.
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A wonderful victory and these boys were a very happy group at the end of the game after winning the Osborne Park Club Championship Fours in season 2009

Bad luck to Fred and his boys who did a great job to make the final but were under the pump in this game and could not get into the game after the score reached 7-5 down, no matter what they did they could not hold shot when they had the shot. A late comeback of sorts got them to make it 12 - 18 down with an end to play but there was no way Harley and his boys were going to let this game slip after having control for such a long period.

The Plate was won by Gordon King who defeated Doug Eaton 18 - 11

J. Cooper	18 - 4
	D. Rankin
D. Rankin		15 - 5
		D. Rankin
J. Weaver	11 - 7
	P. Budd
P. Budd			17 - 14
			D. Rankin
T. Bellos	16 - 14
	R. Dewson
R. Dewson		16 - 11
		I. Payne
D. Mariani	21 - 12
	I. Payne			25 - 9
I. Payne				D. Rankin
G. Smith	15 - 11
	G. Smith	12 - 10
W. Galloway		D. Appleton
M. Swift	18 - 14		18 - 11
	D. Appleton		B. Blakeley
D. Appleton
	B. Blakeley	15 - 10
		B. Blakeley
	D. Eaton				WINNER
					D. Rankin 18
					DEFEATED
					F. DiGuiseppe13
	M. Wilhelm	12 - 11
		M. Wilhelm
	P. Pendergast
			17 - 10
			K. Sutcliff
	K. Sutcliff	20 - 10
		K. Sutcliff
	J. Krstic			16 - 15
				F. DiGuiseppe
	F. DiGuiseppe	14 - 4
		F. DiGuiseppe
	G. King
			15 - 10
			F. DiGuiseppe
	R. Lawrence	19 - 13
		R. Lawrence
	B. Fullagar

L/R: Ray Wemm, Stuart Lofthouse, Jim Nicolakis

A great effort for these boys to make thru to the final