Top Four Taking Shape
Premier Division report by Peter Kirby
19 November 2022 (Round 6)
At the completion of Round 6 the top four sides of Bowls South’s Derwent Eye Specialists Premier Division have established a clear break on the rest of the competition. Competition leader, Sandy Bay, led the way with an all-rinks win against Claremont, 100-54, for a maximum 14 points gain. Winners for Sandy Bay were Keghan Booth, 32-11 against Shane Peck, Bryce Guy, 28-12 against Michael Taylor, Justin Plummer, 20-15 against Paul Hart, and in the closest game of the day, Andrew Norris, 20-18 against Paul Grover.
Recovering from a loss last round, Kingborough had a convincing win over the home team at Beltana. Shane Young played out a tight draw with Ryan Guy to secure one point for Beltana. However, it was the dominance of Kingborough’s other three rinks that secured the 13 points for the visitors, with Jason Fowler defeating Gary Richardson, 33-13, Nic Courto having a 25 shot win over Alex McCoull, 34-9, and Will Coad scoring a close 8 shot win over Shawn Leitch, 21-13.
At home, Glenorchy Rodman defeated Cremorne by 51 shots, picking up 13 points. After 11 ends Luke Turner had a slender 9-6 lead over Cremorne’s Ralph Tieman, but with great support from his rink, dropped just 1 shot over the final 10 ends to win 35-7. With his lead, Peta Barnett, enjoying a great season, Cam Tegg defeated Cremorne’s Tex Marshall, 24-12. Tony Vince, ably assisted by his front end players, Danny Gahan and Kelvin Lynema, won 28-17 against Cremorne’s Leigh Munnings. Brad Knight gained a valuable point for Cremorne, drawing 18-all with Jack Ellis.
At Brighton, the home side was soundly defeated by New Norfolk by 36 shots, winning on all rinks. Wayne Clark led the way, defeating Tony Bartninkaitis 23-9. A solid team effort aided Lauren Banks to a convincing win against John North, 22-11. Another team effort helped Chris Chalker to defeat Matt Breward by 9 shots, 24-15. In a tight contest, a brilliant conversion shot with his last bowl of the day, Kerry Hill sealed a close 2 shot win against Grant Wakefield, 19-17.
In a bottom of the table battle between 9th and 10th at Buckingham, the home side was triumphant over Dover, winning on all rinks, 93-68, and 14 valuable points to move away from the danger zone. Craig Owen, skipping for the first time this season, recorded a solid 14 shot victory over Dover’s Roger Dale, 31-17. Also contributing to Bucks’ win were Andrew Chamberlain, 21-20 against Chris Norris, Grant Chamberlain, 22-16 over Ricky Ormerod and Robert Stringer, 19-15 against Josh Mazur.