Winter League 2002 : Week 24 Report

Submitted by Robin Clarke

10th March 2003

Amid some unseasonably mild weather, the Winter league is finally over, and the bowlers can now look forward to a few weeks break before the start of the Summer session. Here's how the last night turned out.

In the first match Hitmen, with a 29 point lead, were guaranteed first place and were under no pressure. Their opponents, Wasters, required 11 points to ensure they kept their 2nd place and they started on the right track with a 4 - 1 win in the first game. Ally Gray then hit 202 pins in game two to help Hitmen take 3 of the available 5 points. Wasters, with solid games from Matthew Heenan (214) and Mark Whale (203), secured the last game by 3 points to 2, despite a good 201 from Roddy Bremner. Wasters ran out 12 - 8 winners overall to nail 2nd place.

The fight for third place was still a 3 horse race. Papa's Kids played Gowks and took the early advantage with a 3 - 2 win in the first game, and a 4 - 1 win in the second, including a 205 from Geoff Simpson. Gowks responded in the final game with a clutch of 200+ games from Barbara Ogrodnik (209) and Ronnie Gray (200) to take 4 points to the Kids' 1. This took the overall score to 11 - 9 in Gowks' favour.

Gutterlevel were left in the unenviable position of requiring 19 of the available 20 points in their game against the vacancy scores to make the jump from 5th to 3rd place. They started well with a 5 - 0 win in game one, with the night's high score coming from Robin Clarke with 243 pins. However, a poor showing in the second game saw them lose 2� points. Knowing the pressure was off, they relaxed and walked the final game with another 5 - 0 result to take 17� points in total.

Best series' of the night came from Geoff Simpson (591), Matthew Heenan (589), Robin Clarke (587) and Barbara Ogrodnik (555).

Final results of the Winter League are therefore:- Hitmen (302), Wasters (277), Papa's Kids (264�), Gutterlevel (263�) and Gowks (262).

Congratulations.

Robin Clarke
Secretary/Treasurer
Monday Night League