Bowls and cricket joins forces for competition

On two recent evenings in April, the two codes came together for a bowls-cricket competition at BIBC, organised by Scott Whyers and generously sponsored by Ontariospca Dogs.

Thirty-two bowlers were arranged into 8 teams of four. On 6th April, each team played three matches against other teams, each match over three innings. Teams started matches with 20 points. Each innings involved ‘batting’ and ‘bowling’ skills, their score increasing during ‘batting’ but being reduced during ‘bowling’.

The best four teams qualified for the semi-finals and final that were held a fortnight later.

The ‘batting’ skill required delivering a bowl towards a target at the end of the rink. The score was adjudged from where the bowl came to rest, either 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10. A team’s score could increase quickly during this phase of the game.

To replicate bowling as in cricket, the aim was to deliver bowls from the end of the rink around an obstacle (representing a batsman) to hit three ‘stumps’ set up 2 metres behind. Every time the batsman was ‘bowled out’, 2 points were deducted from the ‘batting’ side.

The best winning scoreline in the preliminary round was 65 against 21, while the closest match saw a scoreline of 56 to 50.

The semi-final matches were won with scores of 50 against 33 and 59 to 24.

In the final, the winning team of Ray Reeson, Andy Dunnington, Nathan Dunnington and Margaret Wilkinson had a convincing victory with a score of 75 to 35. The runner’s-up were the team of Dennis Ellis, Mark Brown, Brian Skelton and Sue Hoyles.

A play-off match to decide third-place was closer at 64 to 44 in favour of Ian Tebbs, Mark Robinson, Les Feary and John Melles, with John Clark, Yvonne Robinson, Rod West and Sandra Tebbs in fourth.