Marvellous Marlene is queen of bowls triples league

For her team are not only the league leaders, they are also the only unbeaten side after victories over out-of-form opponents led by Peter Taylor and Merv Pullin.

Marlene can expect harder matches in the weeks to come, and she can also expect a challenge in the title race from Marjorie Ward’s team, who enjoyed a battling 13-11 over Ian Chappell’s defending champions and followed up with an easy win over the bottom-of-the-table side.

Chappell’s team recovered to defeat Geoff Gray’s team 12-7, while another fixture resulted in a 14-6 success for Jean Flegg’s team against George Dodsworth’s side.

The Wednesday Sets League looks wide open with five teams sharing title chances, and two others not out of it either. The current leaders are Rita Proctor’s team, even though they have won only three of their five matches. They lost 4-2 in a very close contest against Jean Flegg’s side before thrashing Denise Jones’s team 6-0.

Keith Clark’s reigning champions overtook Merv Pullin’s team in the table by beating them 4-2 and they followed up with a resounding 6-0 victory over Carol Booth’s team to go second in the standings. Enid Underwood’s team drop to third but were unlucky to only draw 3-3 against Geoff Gray’s team, whom they comfortably outscored. They also suffered a narrow 4-2 reverse against Trevor Gaines’s team.

The new Australian Pairs League is similarly very competitive, with the top three teams sharing a record of won three, lost two, which means that opponents as low as seventh in the table still have a theoretical chance of taking the title. The inconsistency was summed up by Brenda Allen’s team, who ended the unbeaten record of fellow challengers John Hunt’s team by winning 16-12, but then lost 14-10 to Bob Baines’s team. Hunt’s side were also beaten 18-10 by Eric Dobbie’s team, who lost 14-12 to Barbara Coy’s fast-improving team, conquerors of Enid Underwood’s team too.