Henty claims victory
Henty’s number one bowling team defeated old rivals Culcairn to claim the Odewahn Shield in the major country clubs competition at the weekend.
On a day that most people were safely indoors, Henty bowlers braved the elements and travelled to Howlong to contest Holbrook in the semi-final of the Odewahn Shield.
Conditions were not bowls friendly and as John Kane was overheard saying “it should-a-been called off”. In short, conditions on Saturday were atrocious with a wind so strong it was extremely difficult standing up, never mind playing bowls.
Each of the Henty rinks settled down into a good rhythm playing some excellent bowls and ending up with a well deserved win. The rink scores were as follows: Mick Broughan 23 defeated Phillip Swan 10, Colin Barrett 23 defeated Max Clark 15 and John Kane 30 defeated Allan Dunn 17, giving Henty a resounding win of 76 - 42 to move into the final on Sunday. In the other semi-final Culcairn defeated Howlong.
The stage was set for another local derby between the old rivals Culcairn and Henty at Howlong on Sunday November 23.
After the first five ends both Mick Broughan and Col Barrett were even, but Kane was six shots down. After the 11th end, things had got worse for Henty as Culcairn now had an overall lead of 13 shots.
It was now up to Henty to reproduce some of yesterdays form. What ever it was, it definitely worked because from that point each of the Henty’s rinks put in some solid ends to start the fight back. Broughan’s rink went down a five on the 14th end, which must have spurred them on to winning the remaining seven ends to gain 14 shots to nil, thanks to superb leading by veteran Ray Eulenstein. Kane’s rink also started their fight back on the 12th end by amassing 11 shots over five ends, not only to give them a five shot lead, but to withstand a determined fight back by Ian Bahr’s rink.
It was a similar story on Col Barret’s rink, who went down a five on the 11th end only to pick themselves up and win the next eight ends for 14 shots to nil, giving Col a 6 shot lead. However, Dave Trebley’s rink had other ideas, winning the final two ends for five shots. A gallant effort but still one shot adrift giving Col Barret’s rink the win.
This was always going to be a close game between two top teams; however it was Henty who turned out to be the better team on the day.
The Final result was that Henty 66 defeated Culcairn 53 in a marvellous final.
Henty: R Eulenstein, K Boyle and M Broughan 23 defeated G Finlayson, J Allit and P Kissell 13. K Bourke, K Knobel and C Barrett 22 defeated J Humphrey, T Smith and D Trebley 21. W Stagg, J Pertzel and J Kane 21 defeated H Cunningham, H Hensel and I Bahr 19.
It is only now that we can reveal Henty’s secret weapon ‘a Ray gun’ - Ray Eulenstein was voted by his fellow players as the ‘bowler of the series’ - not bad for an 88 year old!
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