Sport
31 May, 2026
First whitewash of season
THE all-conquering Country Club Two was to administer the first whitewash of the season upon the cellar-dwellers’ Farmers’ Arms Two in round five of the Inter-Hotels Pool Competition last week.
By BOB WOOLEY
THE all-conquering Country Club Two was to administer the first whitewash of the season upon the cellar-dwellers’ Farmers’ Arms Two in round five of the Inter-Hotels Pool Competition last week.
But next week they will confront the feisty Farmers’ Arms One side who should be refreshed and fired up following the bye and their shock capitulation to the battlers from the Avoca Forest in the previous round and thereby thirsting for revenge.
The match, played on the baize amongst the now-grassy fairways of the Country Club, began ominously for the Farmers’ Two when Jack Hodges was seven-balled in the opening frame by the Club Two’s skipper Harley Durward.
This set the pattern for the remainder of the contest as Will Jackson, Grant Doyle and Jake Male brushed aside Luke Pole, Zoe Cunningham and Bianca Cannon.
The second round was to produce similar results to have the cruising Clubbers in a commanding position at the end of the singles contests, leading by eight games to zilch.
Simon Elliott then joined the party, partnering Harley to victory against Jack and Luke in the first of the doubles.
The sanctity of the floundering Farmers’ posteriors was now in the hands of the dazzling damsels from the Parisian end of our village, Zoe and Bianca, against Grant and Jake.
But they were to succumb in a tight, black-ball finish thus providing the grazing marsupials and other nocturnal residents to the spectacle of four extra celestial apparitions in the night sky.
For Jack it was to be a double mooning, the first that I can recall in the history of the competition.
Eighty-five years’ ago on this day the battle of Crete commenced with a German airborne assault that began well for the Allied defenders until their commander, Kiwi Lieutenant-General Bernard Freyberg, made a critical decision that handed the initiative to the attackers.
The opposite was to occur at the RSL when the Diggers were assaulted by the squad from the Sporting Club with Tim Wright taking the opening frame against Diggers’ captain Mitch Phillips. The Postlethwaite siblings, Sam and Kyle, were then both out of tune against their respective opponents, Jesse Cook and Dayle Pitt.
Trailing by three games to nil, it was up to the jaunty jeweller Dave Russ to reverse the situation and this he did with victory against Cheynne Vogler.
This counter-attack gained momentum in the second round when the Diggers won all four frames.
But they had good fortune with Jesse making a costly mistake that cost him the frame and Cheyenne was retired by a foul on the black ball.
Now leading by five games to three, at the top of the third round Mitch extended their lead when he invited Tim to join his fiancée but they had a slight hiatus when Jesse dismissed Sam.
Kyle, however, avenged his brother’s defeat by sending Dayle to the bar and then they went onto win both of the doubles matches for a final winning score-line of nine games to four.
The Country Cup One team made the road trip to the Pub in the Scrub to take on the Loganites but, even though the Mean Machine were never to be headed it produced the closest match of the evening.
Paul Mullins got the visitors off to a winning start against Stephen Rodger and his teammate Troy Shields was to follow up against Jacob Vanrenen.
Logan captain Shaun McNaulty was to pull the reins against San Harkin before Des Moulday took the Meanies to a three games to one lead at the end of the first round of singles with a win over Keith Turner.
At the top of the second round Paul eliminated Stephen, but Troy allowed Jacob to square his match then Shaun breathed some life back into the contest when he eliminated Dan.
It was up to Des to get the Meanies back on track and this he did with aplomb and this inspired Troy to greater things against Jacob to put the issue beyond doubt, now leading by six games to three with just the two doubles matches to be completed.
Stephen and Keith were to win the first of these against Paul and Dan then Heckle and Jeckle, replicating the inaccuracy of their beloved Magpies against the Swans, fell at the last hurdle against Jacob and Shaun to return with the points by six games to five.
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