Moffat completes two fine bowls wins for Linwood

Press, 29 December 1980, Page 17

Moffat completes two fine bowls wins for Linwood

Morgan Moffat and hie Linwood team of Ken Wat-i son. Sonny Calder and! Wally Wilkinson once again; proved themselves a class above any other club bowls four in Christchurch when they won the centre Christmas tournament in convincing style on their home green yesterday. In an all-Linwood final, Moffat beat Warren Fitchett, 21-11, with the last end unplayed. Fitchett’s partners were Clarrie Bateman, Ossie Cowie and John Saundercock. In taking the title Moffat’s tt-.m very likely created history as it also won the Easter foutu at the tail-end of< last season and no-one cam recall the same team ever: before "winning these two! major titles in the same! year. !

It was also a red-letter; day for Calder who now has] the five centre titles necessary for a centre gold star.) He may have thought the' omens anything but good when he arrived at Linwood ; early yesterday morning toi carry out his greenkeeping | duties and discovered thatl vandals had been riding' bic.vcles on the greens over-! night. Fortunately the dam-1 age was not beyond quick l repair. Yesterday’s win' should help wipe from Moffat’s memory his only previous appearance in the Christmas final. This was two , years ago when a misplaced drive cost him seven shots and, probably, the game against Ray Hay, of Dallington.

It was the second centre «. success for both Moffat and Watson, while Wilkinson now has 11 titles and is on the way to a double bar to his gold star. As in his previous 12 games in the tournament, Moffat won the final without <; much difficulty. All eight players - played well, but Mqffat’.s team, was ,the more , consistent and there

was always someone to put right any serious wrongs. It was a long g«me, lasting nearly four hours. Fitchett, who drove with great accuracy in the early stages,; burnt six heads and Moffat) or Wilkinson burnt three others. i

If there was delight in Calder getting his gold star, there was disappointment for Bateman, who has been sitting on four titles a lot longer and who has lost a few finals during this wait. Watson had a definite edge on him in the early stages, hut Batemen improved on the second half of the board, Calder was as. Steady as ever, although his opponent, Cowie, was little inferior and played one orl two very fine shots. Saundercock continued with his outstanding form of Saturday for a time and Fitchett. whether drawing or driving, was seldom far astray. But more often than not Wilkinson and Moffat held the better position and each played the occasional great shot to keep the game running their way. The winning break, in fact, came early, on the eighth end. Moffat drove off the shot Fitchett had drawn with his last bowl to score a five and advance to a 10-4 lead. Between a string of burnt

heads, Moffat picked up a succession of singles and playing the fourteenth end he was ahead, 14-5. On the fourteenth end Fitchett brilliantly ran off the oppos-

ing shot bowl to score a three, but his chances of a

comeback faded when he lost the next end and then could score only singles. Towards the finish Moffat was firmly in control and the long battle ended rather abruptly when he went beyond reach with a three on the twentieth end.

Moffat’s toughest test of: the tournament came’in the!

• first post-section .round on Saturday morning. He was 6-0 to Jack Edmonds (St ■Albans) after four ends, but ! recovered well to win 17-10. He then overwhelmed Jim iSimpsoh (St- Martins) — ! being ahead 26-0 at one [Stage and had only

slightly more difficulty in disposing of Roy Bailey (Mt Pleasant) in the semi-finals. The score was 17-9, but Bailey whose team w r as Jack Williamson, Brian Curtain and Tom Wood, won only , five ends. Fitchett, who has now lost two centre finals, the first being the champion-of-cham-pions pairs last summer, I was given a stern test by Keith' Donaldson (Cashmere) jon Saturday, six points on the last two ends (a five and a one) carrying him to victory, 17-12. He beat Alan Wright (Hornby) comfortably enough, and then did well to account for Peter Meier (South Brighton), 18-7, in the semi-finals. Meier, and his team of Duncan Collie, Gavin Good and Bernie MacManus, was generally expected to be Moffat’s last rival, but they could not counter the particularly fine bowling of both. Saundercock and Fitchett. Meier’s lack of a really fast drive also hindered him. Post-section results were: First round S. E. Lawson (Papanui) 21, W. A. Morrison (Burnside) 5; P. F. Meier (South Brighton) 17, K. Charteris (Spreydon) 15; A. Wright (Hornby) 16, A. Charteris (Papanui) 15; W. Fitchett (Linwood) 17, K. Donaldson (Cashmere) 12; R. T. Bailey (Mt Pleasant) 17, H. Berry (Linwood) 12; Tv Austin (Hornby) 12, J. Smillie (Elmwood) 8; M. Moffat (Linwood) 17, T. J. Edmonds (St Albans) 10. J. Simpson (St Martins) a bye. Second round Meier 23, Lawson 5; Fitchett 15, Wright 9; Bailey 22, Austin 17; Moffat 30, Simpson 10. . Semi-finals Fitchett 18, Meier 7; Moffat 17, Bailey 9. I Final I Moffat 21,. Fitchett 11.