Legends Day & Peter Mobbs’ Shield

The annual Legends Day was held on Monday 28th July at Davistown RSL Bowling Club on the Central Coast.  Blue skies made for a great afternoon of bowls. Unfortunately the Greenkeepers were defeated by the Bowls NSW Legends, with results below.  The Legends took home the Peter Mobbs Shield – thanks to everyone who attended for an excellent day and we look forward to next year’s match.

The 2013 Greenkeepers

The 2013 Legends

On Monday 29th July the annual Greenkeepers versus Legends game was held at Cabra-Vale Diggers Club. With the weather fine, Brent and his staff had the greens running well and the place looking tremendous.

With the Greenkeepers winning last year’s event for the first time in some time the NSW selectors picked a strong legends side with some interesting selections hoping to get the Peter Mobbs Shield back off the greenies.

The Legends got off to a good start jumping out to a 10 shot lead early and slowly increasing the lead over the next 20 ends, but the green keepers kept fighting and with the old fellas getting tired the greenies got it back to a handful of shots with a couple of ends left.

With one rink picking up a 5 on their last end it left the Canberra rink needing a 2 on the last end to have a draw on the master board. With all bowls played the measure came out and unfortunately it was just short of the 2 needed and the Legends won 121 to 120, with rinks finishing 3 rinks each.

The 2012 Turf Craftsmen

Shannon White, Bowls Secretary
On Monday, 23 July the annual NSW Turf Craftsmen played the NSW Legends side.

With the Legends winning past battles they went in confident, but this year the Greenkeepers stepped up a gear and after a few ends the Legends knew they were here to play. The Greenkeepers took hold of an early advantage and from that point on never looked back.

With strong rink performances by Phil Flippence and Marty Gosper’s sides the Greenkeepers went on to win the match 158 to 126 with a 4 rinks to 2 win and claim the trophy.

The Boys From NSWBGA

There were a few dubious inclusions this year, with the Legends side stretching the player eligibility rules yet again. I’m sure several of their players wouldn’t consider themselves ex-NSW representatives, not to mention the Greenkeepers they had playing for them.

OK. Enough excuses. It is a fantastic event and both sides eagerly await the challenge each year. The host club this year was Dapto Citizens. Troy and his team ran a good show and Scotty’s greens played very well given the heavy rainfall the previous week.

The final result was 3 rinks each with the Legends winning overall by 6 shots. We will eagerly await the rematch next year with the venue to be announced shortly, but it will likely be in the Central Coast to Newcastle areas.

Whilst at Dapto we took the opportunity of a captive audience to run a raffle for a very worthwhile cause. The raffle also rolled into the Six Way event during the week at Soldiers Point BC (that the RSL took out for the second consecutive year). The money was raised for one of our fellow greenkeepers, Bob Ware, who has been have a rough trot of late and everyone dug deep without hesitation; such is the respect we all have for him.

The 2010 Turf Craftsmen

Well July was a busy month of bowls with our annual clash against the Legends taking place at Grandviews Bowling Club.

With the Legends once again fielding a ridiculously strong squad for the day we needed to be at our very best to conjure up a victory to regain the title we’ve been missing for quite a few years. This year’s Turf Craftsmen side (pictured below) had a few new faces with P. Watts, C. Sandford, L, Johnson, B. Gainsford, M. Woods and M. Sagwell making their debuts trying to add a bit of spark.

Once again we got off to a flyer, handling the damp conditions and racing out to an early lead on the master board with some big scores. With Jason Pietraszek actually having some bowls in the head this year to work with he was comfortably holding off the best efforts of Dennis Harmer and his team. With Simon proving that his efforts at the Championship week was no fluke, this time partnering with Shannon instead of beating him to also nudge out to a handy lead even causing T. Harmer to start throwing things on the roof in despair. As per previous years, the Legends were just warming up and unfortunately for us didn’t they what! Then all of a sudden they started plonking bombs all over the jacks with our boys just looking for something to get us back on track. The Legends finished with a comfortable win 136-105.

2009 Legends Team

John Flaherty, Bowls Secretary
July and August brought some great bowls, with the annual Turf Craftsmen v NSW Legends being held at Valentine Bowling Club. The rescheduled final of the Championship Singles, and the inaugural four way tournament between Greenkeepers, Police Force, RSL and Defence Force being held at Soldiers Point Bowling Club.

So with the sun up (unlike last year) and the picturesque Valentine Bowling Club playing host for 2009 Legends, it was decided to play the delayed final of our Championship Singles between Phil Flippence and Wade Turner on the same morning.

Flippo shot out of the blocks leading 8 nil early and increased his lead to 17-5 not long after, but with singles being singles it was far from over with Wade edging back to 17-14 to give the arriving mob plenty to watch.

With the scores going up in ones for the next few ends Flippo notched a four stretching his margin to 29-19 and then finished Wade of 31-22 to secure his singles title.

Lunch brought the arrival of the draw for the afternoons clash with both sides naming some of the strongest sides put together for a Turf Craftsmen v Legends.

With Brent’s side getting out to an incredible 17-0 lead after 8 ends and four of the five other rinks also leading the masterboard was looking good for the greenies.

The next 10 ends brought a revival from the Legends edging there way back into the game with Rex Johnston and Troy Somerville leading the charge snaring the lead 117-112 with 3 ends each to play.

M. Stead’s rink was first to finish defeating K. Trezise 20-19 and J. Cearns not far behind defeating J. Fitzgerald 26-18 making it 2 nil to the Turf Craftsmen.

Unfortunately from there on it was all downhill for the greenies next of the green was J. Pietraszek and co going down 29-13 to Rex Johnston followed by S. White narrowly losing 21-19 to K. Jaques and A. Troth losing 22-20 to R. Hill.

This leaving Brent and the boys last ones to finish and amazingly going down 23-22 to Troy Somerville giving the Legends a four rinks to two 137-120 win. Once again a very well supported event and a great day had by all. Next year’s venue will be Grandviews Bowling Club in Sydney and hopefully a better result for the Turfcraftsmen.

The next day saw the start of the inaugural four-way tournament at Soldiers Point between the Greenkeepers, RSL, Police Force and the Defence Force with a pennant type round robin format in place for the fours and sectional play organised for the pairs.

With majority of the boys still in the area from yesterday 4 strong teams were selected to take part over the 4 days.

NSW TURF CRAFTSMEN v NSW LEGENDS
31 July 2007
This year’s event was held at Birrong Bowling Club with an extra rink being added to the competition as both sides went to great effort to be in attendance with Greenkeepers coming from Yamba, Forster, Canberra, Bribie Island and Coonabarabran, just to name a few.

With the Turf Craftsmen winning last year’s event at Halekulani the Legends were determined to regain their title and went on a campaign to recruit a team to knock us off.

Lunch brought the presentation of the Scotts Australia NSW Bowling Greenkeepers Association Greenkeeper of the Year Award and this year’s prestigious award went to John Cearns from Cabramatta Bowling Club.

With the Legends side as per program and a couple of late changes for the Greenkeepers, all was set for a great afternoon’s bowling. The first few ends saw Barry Wilkinson, Adam Troth and John Cearns’ sides off to early leads and Wade Turner’s rink nice and close but with Brent Norman not knowing which way to look trailing 14 nil on 8 and Ray Cooper’s decision not to roll up with Simon Cooper in his side looking questionable, it was pretty close on the master board.

As the halfway mark approached all the games had evened up with Brent getting within striking range and all the other rinks either in front or behind by 1 or 2 making for some great bowls to come.

With the trophy firmly set in their minds the Legends started to edge their way clear with all rinks bar 2 surging to good leads, but whilst Adam was playing some brilliant bowls and Barry keeping his nose in front giving the Turf Craftsmen some hope of retaining their title it wasn’t quite enough as the legends ran out winners 128 to 109 overall with 4 rink wins to 2.

Many thanks to Birrong Bowling Club for hosting the day; the Royal for their continued strong support of this day and to all bowlers for making such a big effort to be part of this very successful day.

2006 Team

Monday, 31 July the annual Greenkeepers v Legends game was held at Halekulani Bowling Club on the Central Coast with members attending from areas of Yamba to the north, Canberra in the south and from Coonabarabran and Tamworth in the west.

A special mention to Bill Mitchell who came along to support.

The results from the day were as follows: After 25 ends we had the lead 27-25. After 50 ends the Legends had clawed their way back to lead 43-40; as you could see it was a real battle.

At the 75 ends mark we had our noses back in front 73-70, with the money ends fast approaching and the pressure mounting with 5 ends to play we were still in front 96-91. The effort of the 5 teams and the supporters cheering helped us with our first win in 5 years with a score of 100 to 97.

We as a team would like to thank host greenkeeper Phil Flippence and his staff Luke and Bob along with Halekulani Bowling Club for their hospitality and support in hosting the day.

Again, a special thank you to everyone who travelled a distance to attend; if it wasn’t for your support this day would not be a success.