Manning River Times-Iguana Sportstar of the Week
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FORM in any sport is a fickle thing.
Errol Ruprecht now hopes he can maintain his current golden run of form on the bowling green until he plays in the State pairs and singles playoffs on the Central Coast in October.
Ruprecht, 68, won two Zone 11 championships in a matter of weeks – taking out the senior (over 60) pairs with Taree West club-mate Mal Drury and then claiming the senior singles. Along the way he was also crowned major singles champion at Taree West BC.
Ruprecht is the Manning River Times-Iguana Sportstar of the Week, earning a $50 open order at Iguana.
His next assignment will be the zone champion of champion singles to be played at Taree Leagues in early September. This is contested by all club champions in the zone.
“I’m in the zone at the moment,’’ Ruprecht said by way of explaining his success.
“But it's a long time to the State in October.’’
Ruprecht is a regular on the green, either playing competition or social bowls or rolling up. He expects to be spending even more time there in the months leading to October.
Ruprecht moved through to the zone singles semi-final played at Sporties at Tuncurry and it was here he showed he was a major contender when beating Jim Cherrett 31-5. Peter Wooley was his opponent in the decider.
Ruprecht played predominately long ends in the semi but changed to a shorter game against Wooley. He led out of the blocks and looked title-bound when up 29-12 until Wooley fought back to 29-20.
However, Ruprecht maintained his composure and closed out the last two shots. His singles successes at club and zone level were his first since he won a Manning District title back in the early 1990s, taking out the final played at Taree City against Alan Nelson.
“I’ve been runner up in club singles four times,’’ he said.
“So it was good to finally win one.’’
He defeated his pairs team-mate Mal Drury in the Taree West major singles final.
The State pairs playoffs will be decided at Ettalong followed by the singles at the same venue. Ruprecht gives himself a reasonable chance in both.
“We’re down to the final 16 in the State in both. I’m as good a chance as the rest,’’ he said.
Pairs is his preferred format of play. However, he added there’s nothing like pennants. Ruprecht skips a team in Taree West’s No 1 team.
“I did prefer the old style, when there were 16 players (four teams) in pennants and 25 ends,’’ he said.
“Even now with 12 players and 21 ends, it’s still a great battle – there’s nothing like it.’’