Once again another wet week but happy to say that our Ladies President’s Mixed Triples Day went without a hitch with a fine day and no rain.

We had teams from Tottenham and Trangie who came to support us.

The winners were Tamika Ryan, Richard Riley and Colin Gillespie. The Runner-up team was Trangie consisting of Leanne Furney, Andrew Barber and Luke Coffee.  The morning the round was won by Iris and David Lindsay and Pat McCarthy from Tottenham.

The afternoon round was won by Lyn Hawley, Dianne and Ron Smith.

The Lucky card winners were Dianne Wynne, Debbie and Col Piper.

During the Week Dubbo held a National Bowls Day at West Dubbo and Railway bowling clubs.

A good response for returned soldiers with 84 teams nominated with six greens occupied over the two clubs.

The final day was held at West Dubbo in which Wayne Arandale, Albie Gibbs (Millmerran QLD) and Len Brentz (Toowoomba QLD) managed to get in the money by coming third.

Mick and Tim Walsh and Steven Read travelled to Dubbo for the weekend to play in the BCIB Open Triples Tournament Day at Club Dubbo. Mick, Steve and Tim had three wins up their sleeve but by Sunday the bowls were cancelled due to rain. 

A great weekend just the same with Karen Murphy, Kelvin Kirkow and Steve Glasson who are some of our best bowlers and a an honour to have them present.  Warren Murray and his team had three wins.

Golden Oldies on Tuesday and the only game of social bowls for week won Warren Murray and Ian Scott.

Golden Oldies on Tuesday and the only game of social bowls for week won Warren Murray and Ian Scott.

To all members do not forget to check the due dates for championship rounds.

Bogan River Classics will be held on the long weekend which is an open event. This is a great weekend of bowling and draws a lot of bowlers from surrounding clubs. 

Nominations close Saturday 24th September 2016.

Bowls days:

Tues Golden Oldies 10am; Wednesday 2pm names in by 1.30pm; Friday night names in before 6pm; Sunday morning names in by 10am for 10.30am start.

Simpson Desert carnival

Col Hodges

Making hay while the sun shines was the course followed when Nyngan trainer Rodney Robb led a recent expedition to the Simpson Desert Racing Carnival in outback Queensland.

During his time away, many meetings were washed out in NSW including Parkes, Mendooran, Mudgee, Collarenebri, Grenfell and Walgett in the local region.

Hosting the meetings were Betoota, a ghost town where the hotel closed 20 years ago), and the small towns, Birdsville and Bedourie. 

Those remote towns are on the border of the Simpson desert which stretches through Queensland, Northern Territory and South Australia and is the largest desert of parallel sand dunes in the world. 

Average rainfall, per annum, for the arid region is about 125mm yet ironically the 2016 Birdsville races were nearly abandoned when around 50mm flooded the track during race week.

“The committee at Birdsville did an incredible job to drain the water from the track and repair the racing surface and likewise at Betoota," Rodney Robb said. 

(The scheduled meetings on Thursday and Friday at Birdsville were transferred to Sunday with a mammoth 11 races).

Over the carnival the Robb stable had five winners and with several placings picked up over $50,000 prize money plus a $3000 bonus for Jen See See being the leading horse (3 wins) and $1000 for Rodney Robb being leading trainer.

Ridden by Dubbo jockey Kody Nestor for Rodney Robb and the owner Hunter Valley publican Wayne Brown, Jen See See came from behind to win at Betoota as a $2.80 chance.

Jen See See (Kody Nestor) started the $2.40 favourite when leading all the way to win at Birdsville and completed the hat-trick when starting at $2.80 eq.fav. and finishing strongly after a slow getaway to win at Bedourie when ridden by Robb's apprentice Clayton Gallagher.

Gaining good experience from his trip away Clayton Gallagher also rode the Robb trained winners Nordic Red ($2.00 fav.) and Miss Mellencamp at Birdsville and Bedourie, respectively.

Owners of Nordic Red include Jim Hampstead from Nyngan and Moree bookmaker Terry Picone while Miss Mellencamp is raced by Wendy Robb from Nyngan.

GRAND FINALS

Caltex Park, Dubbo

Saturday

Under-10s: NYNGAN TIGERS 24 (Mason Rope, Digby Lees, Jack Finlay, Cooper Black tries; Lees 2, Black, Jack Finlay goals) defeated ST JOHN’S 18 (Jodan Porter 3 tries; Fletcher Hyde 2, Patty Cant goals).

Under-15s: ST JOHN’S 26 (James Nelson 2, Ben Cook 2, Jarrod Peachey tries; Nelson 3 goals) defeated NYNGAN TIGERS 20 (Cooper Ryan, Cody Yeomans, Aiden Butcher, Karl Anderson tries; Butcher 2 goals)

Western Rams to tackle Italian job

The grand finals may be done and dusted but the rugby league is a long way from over. 

Western Rams coach Darren Jackson is expected to announce a squad this week which will tackle the Italian national team at Bathurst’s Carrington Park on October 15.

The showcase match was announced in mid-August and will be used as part of Italy’s build-up towards the 2017 Rugby League World Cup.

Jackson is keen for his side to be tested by the ‘Azzuri’ and added he wanted a team named as soon as possible to allow plenty of preparation time.

“We wanted to leave the guys alone while they had semi-final and grand final commitments,” Jackson said.