The Yamba Grade 3 Pennant side has represented themselves and the Club with distinction at the New South Wales State Pennant finals co-hosted by the Maclean and District Bowling Club and the Yamba Bowling and Recreation Club. In Round 1 of the sectional play portion of the finals, Yamba was up against the strong Camden men’s club from the Campbelltown area of Sydney. The Yamba combination began the day hopeful that they would be competitive, but with the knowledge that they were well prepared. The good news started flowing almost immediately and by the conclusion of the match all three teams had secured Rink victories for a well constructed 71-49 (ten to nil) win. Round 2 didn’t provide the Yamba teams with any reprieve as they came up against a New South Wales powerhouse club in Ettalong Memorial. Brad Johnson and his team of Mark Scobie, Martyn Wood and Alan Abbott found their opposition a true challenge and after a great fight unfortunately were defeated 18 -10. The Peter Forrester skipped combination of Bill McDonald, Trevor Bardsley and Bob Ballantyne showed true grit to record a vital 16-11 win over their rivals, while Graham Meany and his team of Allan Parker, Bruce Angel and Steve Kliendienst provided a solid 30-13 foundation for an overall 56-42 (nine to one) victory. Day two of the finals required Yamba to secure victory over the all powerful Merrylands team. Again all three Yamba teams showed genuine character, determination and most of all ability when they recorded a clean sweep 66-45 (ten to nil) victory. Yamba were striving to qualify for the final to be played at their home club on Monday morning. However, to do so they needed to overcome one last hurdle and this was the perennial State final contenders, Malua Bay. The Malua Bay side had dominated their side of the draw and were raging favourites at this stage of the competition. Whether it was nerves or Malua Bay’s experience the first few ends of the match did not go according to plan when Malua Bay completely dominated to quickly establishing a healthy 18 shot advantage. The Yamba representatives fought valiantly all match and at one staged closed to within six shots of their impressive opponents. Graham Meany, Steve Kliendienst, Bruce Angel and Allan Parker combined extraordinarily to continue their golden streak of form to eventually overcome their opposition to record a solid 16-11 Rink win. However the teams of Brad Johnson and Peter Forrester found an opposition that managed to answer every challenge. The final result was a 41-57 (nine to one) loss. A real achievement during the finals was the unbeaten run by Graham Meany and his team against all opponents. Malua Bay and Molong, the victors of the Yamba hosted side of the draw, advanced to Monday’s final with all eliminated sides, including Yamba, left to dream of a possible title tilt next year. Results from the final were not available at the time of submission of this article and will be reported next week. The huge legion of volunteers, both men and women, from the Club, the green keeping staff, the Club management and staff and the Norfolk Bistro staff worked tirelessly and seamlessly to showcase the Club and the town in a magnificent fashion. The theme from all participants was that they are looking forward to Yamba hosting another State final in the not too distant future. Congratulations and thanks to all involved. The finals of the Men’s and Women’s Major/Minor Pairs Championships as well as the semi-final and final of the men’s Minor Singles Championship are scheduled for Sunday 14th August with all finals programmed to commence at 1pm in what promises to be a great day of lawn bowls. The next Travelling Bowler’s activity is a reciprocal visit to Yamba by the Park Beach Pirates on Sunday 28th August. Participation sheets will be placed at the main bowl’s notice board. The club will also host an RSL Social Bowls Day on Monday 5th September; the participation sheet is on the notice board. Social bowls continues with pairs on Wednesday and triples on Friday. All games commence at 1pm and names need to be on the respective nomination sheets by 11.30am on the day of play. All nominations are guaranteed a game and visitors are most welcomed. Results from last week are: Wednesday 27th July: Winners: Bob Gunning and Steve Grodzki. Runners-Up: Bill Huxtable and John Carroll. Consolation: Bill McDonald and Allan Parker. Thursday 38th July: Winners: Vern Nielsen, Len Woods and Peter Crossie. Runners-Up: Steve Butler, Bruce Angel and Don Freeman. Consolation: Chris Gunning, Bob Gunning and Peter Cawdrey. Don Freeman