Bowls North-West dominant in SWC
A report for The Mercury by Peter Kirby
Bowls Tasmania’s Statewide Challenge series for 2022-23 concluded with the final rounds of the Open Men’s and Women’s section at the Burnie Bowls Club on Sunday, with disappointing results for Bowls South’s sides. Commencing the day with prospects of winning both the Open Men’s and Women’s competitions, as well as good prospects of coming away with a victory overall, all hopes were dashed by the excellent play of their opponents from the North-West.
Bowls South’s Open Men’s side was forced to fight for every shot in their morning match with North West’s B side, managing to win one of the three rinks with an overall advantage of four shots, 53-49, largely due to Keghan Booth’s rink of Ryan Guy, Brad Carver and Josh Lording’s eight shot win against North-West B’s Patrick Smith, 25-17. Grant Wakefield, supported by Nathan Dinning, Mitch Banks and Nic Courto did well in contending with opposition skip Tim Douce’s many accurate drives at the head, converting to his advantage, to contain their loss to one shot, 15-16. Peter Bannister’s rink of Luke Turner, Cam Norris and Jack Ellis stuck to their task on a difficult, slow green, affected by overnight rain, to minimise their loss to Michael Sims to three shots, 13-16, and ensure the win for the South.
The final round in the afternoon pitted South’s Open Men against the formidable North-West side, and while losing on all rinks to the overall winners of the competition not one of rinks lost by more than four shots in the eleven shot defeat, 39-53. The brilliance of North-West skip, Josh Appleyard, was on full display in his match with Keghan Booth, converting heads to his team’s advantage on a number of occasions to win, 15-11. Peter Bannister lost to Mark Nitz, 13-16, and Grant Wakefield fell to David Gamble by four shots, 15-19.
Bowls South’s Open Women’s prospects of winning their competition overall came to nought in the morning round against North West’s B side, losing by three shots overall, 47-50. Lauren Banks and her team of Miley Sutton, Nadine Seabourne and Peri Buckley won the only rink of the morning round against Bev Polden, 21-15, while Maddie Johnston’s rink of Michelle Moate, Barb Liddington and Denise Tanner lost by a single shot to Rose’anne Howard-Smith, 14-15. Crystal Brooks, Peter Barnett, Kerrie Lane and Joy Voss found Gail Thow a formidable opponent, losing by 8 shots, 12-20.
The Statewide Challenge series ended badly for Bowls South’s Open Women in the afternoon round against North West’s A side, losing by nineteen shots, 43-62. Lauren Banks completed a successful day for her rink, winning her second game by five shots, 21-16, against Karen Redman. Maddie Johnston lost to Alison Venn, 14-20, and Crystal Brooks had no answers for the good play of Erin Moore’s rink, conceding her by eighteen shots, 8-26.
In other matches on the day, North’s Open Men lost to North-West’s A side, 37-62, in the morning, and rebounded in the afternoon to defeat the B side, 51-33. North’s Open Women were defeated by North West’s A side, 34-60, but also won against the B side in the afternoon, 58-33.
Bowls North-West was declared the overall winners of the Statewide Challenge series for 2022-23, on 270 points, followed by Bowls North, 208, and Bowls South, 205. Of the five competitions that made up the series, Bowls North-West won four to confirm their overall dominance, with Bowls South winning the Senior Women’s section to deny the North-West a clean sweep.