THE indoor competitions at Wellington Bowling Club are underway with two events - the Men's Singles and the Mixed Pairs.

A total of 26 bowlers have entered the Men's Singles and there are 16 teams in the Mixed Pairs.

At the weekend, three first round matches were played in the Men's Singles. Two of the club's top bowlers were unfortunate enough to come up against one another in the first round. Tony Gibson and Alan May.

Alan set off at pace. He was seven shots up after five ends and looking good. But Tony slowly but surely fought his way back into the match and by the 16th end he was two shots up at 13 – 11.

With just three ends to play, Alan was 18 – 13 down but he began to fight back and was only two shots away when the bell rang for the end of the match. Tony Gibson was the winner, 19 – 17, after a terrific battle and goes though into the second round.

Graham Brown is also one of the club's most consistent and capable bowlers but he ran into trouble against a newcomer. Roy Cutler only started bowling in the summer but he has taken to it like a duck to water.

Graham led to begin with but Roy was really on form. He soon overtook and despite Graham's best efforts went on to win comfortably 22 – 6.

Eddie Dilley and Bernard Barnes were very closely matched and no-one would have laid a bet on the winner. Sure enough the match was very even all the way through. After 21 ends the two were level on 15 shots apiece.

Then in the last three ends, Bernard picked up the all important winning shots for a 19 – 15 victory.