Top Five pull away from the competition
Premier Division report by Peter Kirby
10 December 2022 (Round 9)
At the halfway stage of Bowls South’s Derwent Eye Specialists Saturday Premier Division Pennant the top five have a clear 20 point buffer over the rest of the competition. Sandy Bay leads by 6 points from Kingborough, with Glenorchy Rodman a further 16 points in arrears. Cremorne and New Norfolk are in a battle for fourth position.
Cremorne moved into the top four following a come from behind 5 shot 3 rink victory over New Norfolk, 79-74. Peter Marshall and his rink were in control all day securing a comfortable 10 shot victory over Kerry Hill, 29-19. Pat Hoffman found himself 11 shots down early in his match against Lauren Banks but steady bowls from his team saw him hit the lead late in the game, which resulted in an important 2 shot win, 19-17. Brad Knight and Chris Chalker played an incredibly tight match. The 21st end was killed on 3 occasions by Chalker but Knight and his rink held their nerve to record a 14-12 victory. Wayne Clark gained 2 points for New Norfolk following a 9 shot victory over stand in skip Garry Banks, 26-17.
Sandy Bay overcame a gallant Beltana in the dying stages of the match to turn a seven shot deficit into an 18 shot, 3 rink win, 92-74. Beltana’s Shane Young continued his good form beating Ryan McCoull 26-11, however, the other rinks resulted in solid wins to Sandy Bay. Andrew Norris had a great tussle with Alex McCoull to control late in their match to win by 6 shots, 23-17. Justin Plummer scored 11 shots in 3 ends late in his match against Shawn Leitch to win by 15 shots, 30-15. David Morris who stepped up in the absence of Bryce ‘Bondi’ Guy, had a solid 12 shot win over Gary Richardson, 28-16.
Kingborough executed a percentage-boosting all-rinks win over bottom side, Dover, in the Kingborough Indoor Centre, 128-41. Will Coad, with his three, Brent Forsyth playing his best bowls for the season, had a massive 37 shot, 43-6, win against Bill Eather. Jason Fowler’s rink was not far behind, winning by 34 shots, 40-6, against Meg Wilson’s rink. The other two matches were loser affairs, with Nic Courto’s rink overcoming a slow start to finish 8 shots clear of Cam Norris’ rink, 23-15, and Ryan Guy also completing an 8 shot win against Dover’s Ricky Ormerod, 22-14.
Glenorchy Rodman proved to be too strong for host, Brighton, winning by 27 shots, 92-65. Rodman’s win was set up by Luke Turner and his team of Ben Stearnes, Anthony Clifford and Jacob Sherrin-Wall who restricted Breward’s team to scoring on just 4 of the 21 ends played in their 31-6 victory. Jack Ellis stormed home for a 6 shot win over Tony Bartninkaitis, outscoring his opponent by 17 shots to 1 in the last 8 ends, winning 22-16. Grant Wakefield had a great contest all day with Cam Tegg. After 20 ends the score was locked at 19-all. With Brighton holding shot on the final end, Tegg drove with his last bowl. Fortunately, Brighton had good back bowls and scored 4 shots to win, 23-19. Ricky Limbrick fought all day to salvage a 20-all draw with Tony Vince. Limbrick lost a 7 on the second end, but his team didn’t give up and they scored 5 shots in the final 3 ends to tie the match at the finish.
Buckingham enjoyed a 79 – 71, split rinks win over Claremont. Barry Nash, with Jeanette Lane playing some sensational shots at three, underpinned the victory with a 25 – 12 win over Paul Grover. Craig Owen also won for Buckingham, defeating Paul Hart by 2 shots, 16-14. Claremont won on the other two rinks, with Michael Taylor winning by a single shot against Todd Oakley, 21-20, and Shane Peck winning by 6 shots against Buckingham’s George Kovacs, 24-18.