Bowls South’s Senior Women’s side emerged the champions at the conclusion of their State Wide Challenge series at the Burnie Bowls Club on Tuesday, after convincing wins against North West’s A and B sides, first defeating the B side on all rinks by 32 shots, 65-33, then a solid 2 rink 11 shot win over the A side, 62-51. Trailing the North’s Senior Women by two points going into the final two rounds, North’s loss to North West’s A side in the morning round and South’s convincing all-rinks win over North West’s B side created the opportunity to take the series with victory over North West’s A side in the afternoon.
South’s women conceded just one rink for the day, with Lyn Triffitt and her rink of Peri Buckley, Noelene Fehlberg and Di Cleary, 20-9 and 23-17, Jeanette Lane, with Cheryl Nielsenbeck, Trudy Davis and Adrienne Calnan assisting 22-15 and 21-13 undefeated for the day, and Rosie Geeves’ rink of Denise Tanner, Janet Rutherford and Kerry Lane, 23-9 and 18-21. South’s women won their section on 59 points, from the North on 53 points, and an improving North West on 32 points.
Unfortunately, Bowls South’s Senior Men did not fare so well, losing by 8 shots in the morning round to North West’s B side, 41-49, with Grant Chamberlain’s team of Phil Hobbs, Steve Graf and Leigh Munnings the only successful rink, 8 shot winners against the rink of Geoff William, 21-7. Tony Vince’s rink of Grant Allford, Greg Fehlberg and Scott Booth were 3 shot shy of Wayne Willcox, 13-16, and Shane Young’s team of Chris Norris, Glenn Frame and Michael Andersch went down to Grant Youd’s rink, 7-20.
With a point to prove, the Southern men came out in the afternoon to surge to a one shot two rink victory over the series’ top side, North West A, 56-55. Shane Young bounced back from the morning’s loss to defeat Ian Moore, 23-10, and Tony Vince won by 12 shots over Ricky Richardson, 26-14. Grant Chamberlain could not repeat his morning’s success, losing to Greg Douce, 7-31. North won the series on 65 points from the North on 49 and the South 30.
Bowls South’s Junior side also completed their State Wide Challenge series last Sunday at Longford, sadly finishing last, on 24 points, to the North West, 46 points, and the North 37 points. South2 skip, Jordan Croft, and his team of Brandon Beattie, Angus Bennett and Jaylah Triffett had a good win in their fours match against North1 skip, Henry Hollingworth, 17-10, and South1 skip, Sebastian Triffett and his lead, Brandon Beattie, won their pairs encounter with North West1 skip, Jonty Jones, 14-11. While not experiencing a great deal of success over the series there is potential for future progress as some of the players, because of age, particularly Brandon Beattie, Mitchell Banks and Lucas Raine, will be in the junior program for a number of years.
Bowls South trails the North West by 17 points for overall honours, but its Open Men’s and Women’s sides can secure top spot for the South if they win their matches against North West’s A and B sides in the final rounds of the State Wide Challenge series in Burnie this Sunday. Bowls South should win the Open Women’s section, with a current lead of 17 points, and the Open Men have the potential to win their series also, if they win both of their matches.