Fast Lane

The Orange City Championships commenced last weekend at the Orange Tenpin Bowl and conclude next weekend with the staging of further singles, doubles and teams events as well as the Orange Masters in Open, Graded and Veterans categories.

Henry Phillips has both hands grasped firmly on the Open singles title following a terrific 653 series in his attempt.

Leaders in the other men's grades after the first weekend are Frank McGovern 541 (Classic), Pat Cass 530 (A grade), Alan Priest 488 (B) and Murray Smith 458 (C).

There have been no entries so far in the women's Open singles while Brigitte Eden leads the pack in A grade with a 416 series. Cindy Clements well and truly bettered that in B grade with a 490 set while defending champion Kathy Aurisch leads the way in C grade with 453, a similar score to her winning effort last year.

David Hayward and Jason Osborne are setting the pace in the men's Open doubles with 1107 while Hayward is also leading the Classic grade with Pat Cass after the pair shot a handy 1155 series, good enough to win in most years.

Keeping the connections going, Cass joined John Hayward in A grade and they rolled a leading 972 block wile Allan and Murray Smith head the charts in C grade with 945.

Judy Louie and Marilyn Schwenke are in front in the women's Open doubles with a 1056 set while defending champions Dorothy and Lyn Priest rolled 789 to lead in C grade. There were no entries in A or B grade on the opening weekend.

The mixed doubles leaders are Bruce and Cindy Clements 1013 (A grade), Jan peters and Leo McKay 831 (B grade) and Allan and Dorothy Priest (C grade).

Jason Osborne is trying to defend his title in the Open All Events category but his 1688/9 series is well below last year's effort and will be under pressure to hold up. Leading the other grades are Frank McGovern 1568 (Classic), Pat Cass 1571 (A grade) and John Hayward 1420 (B grade)

Winners of the Teams Classic last Sunday were Black Opals although the team members weren't displayed.

Apart from Phillips' hot singles effort, scoring has been fairly sedate compared to last year when seven records were boken. No records have been placed in danger so far this year. The low scoring in week one should offer plenty of encouragement to those who haven't bowled yet to lodge and entry or two and win a city title.

There's a break in Championship action this weekend while attention is focused on the sixth and final qualifying round of the South West zone Country Challenge series at the Bathurst Bowl.

The two Orange teams held steady in the previous round at the Mudgee Bowl and are assured of a spot in the finals. The women's team is in third place behind Bathurst, who have the women's title at their mercy, and Canberra while the men's team is a distant second behind tearaway leaders Wagga.

No teams were displayed on the notice board at the Bowl so just who's playing for Orange is a mystery. Check next week's "Fast Lane" for results of this weekend's play.

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Junior player Greg Perry is this week's star performer after a great 267 game in the Friday Triples League.

After that brilliant game the former city champion wasn't able to hold his composure and game two was well below average. He recovered with a solid 199 in game three for a nice 624/3 series.

The only other 600 series in the league was a 638 from Mark Lijic who fired games of 221-225.

There were numerous other 200 games including Lyn Handel 212, Henry Phillips 208-205, Marilyn Schwenke 205, Gwen Britt 234, Des Britt 212, Jason Belmonte 225, Tony Richards 222, David Rosser 204, Frank McGovern 204 and June Reil 201-207.

David Hayward started with a nice 235 game but faltered after that while Chris Collins lacked consistency, starting with a big 245 and closing with a 202 but still not making 600. Tony Irwin rolled a 234 but struggled in his other two games.

Joe Werner was in good touch in the Wednesday 7:30 league with a 243 game while Ian Carr shot 204 and Bruce Glover 201.

Allan Kinghorne maintained his good recent form with 200-212 in the Friday 6:30 league while Ray Parkes cooked up a 209 game. Daphne Stojanovic rolled an even 200 game in the Monday 10am Triples.

Ian Hazzard shot a 686 series in the Wednesday Doubles with games of 203-246-237 while good games were also supplied by Chris Tyack 204, David Hayward 213 and Leo McKay 203.

After some lean weeks, scoring in the Monday Scratch Singles with Jason Belmonte's 1242/6 leading the way. Belmonte started well with games of 202-221-210-231-204 (1068/5) before slacking off with a 174 in game six.

Wally Price had mixed fortunes, rolling some good games of 206-207-214 plus a couple of below par efforts while June Reil was also slightly inconsistent, coming up with high games of 208-213-209 plus one bad game that prevented a 1200 series.

Also doing well were Mark Lijic 203-202-223 (601/3), Jason Brown 201-200-205, Chris Collins 215-237 (630/3), Tim Irwin 205 and Bindy Irwin 206.

After a slow start David Rosser charged home with 224-207 (620/3) while Les Gunner was in solid form, finishing the evening with 213-203 (600/3).

Personal best games this week included Laura Howarth 130, Brenda Boerckner 188, Matthew Carroll 152, Ray White 162 and Nicky Meyers 143.

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