Howrah claim Women’s Division 1 Pennant
Ladies Division 1 report by Peter Kirby
6 April 2023
Composed Howrah claim Women’s Division 1 Pennant
Bowls South’s Women’s Thursday Pennant season came to an end on Tuesday with the Grand Finals in all four divisions being played in excellent autumn weather at the Buckingham Bowls Club. Finishing top of the ladder at the end of the roster season proved, yet again, to be no guarantee of securing the division pennant with Glenorchy Rodman, in Division 4, being the only minor premier to also win their Grand Final match.
In Division 1, Howrah reversed their Semi Final result against Kingborough with a solid twelve shot win, 60-48, claiming back-to-back wins in the top division, having won their maiden pennant in 2021-22. Howrah started the steadier of the two sides, building a comfortable early lead which Kingborough was unable to counter.
Howrah’s Rosie Geeves, played an excellent skip’s game against Sonia Martyn, many times converting the head to her advantage. Martyn’s lead, Sue Mann, played to her usual high standard, giving her skip good starts, but Geeves’ third, Sally Ridgeway, playing weighted shots into the head, often replaced Kingborough’s shot bowl with her own. Geeves won the match by eight shots, 24-16.
Wayward bowls by her front end did not assist Kingborough’s Sue Clark in her match with Denise Tanner, whose front end was able to set up good heads throughout the match. Although never giving up the struggle to compete on an even plane, Clark was able to put winning ends together, allowing Tanner a comfortable victory by fifteen shots, 26-11.
The third pairing was a Semi Final rematch between Howrah’s Charon Foster and Kingborough’s Maddie Johnston. This was a very close game for most of the match, with both teams locked at 10-all before Johnston powered away over the final ends to win by eleven shots, 21-10. A feature of this game was the thrilling contest between the two leads, Howrah’s Anne Mullavey and Kingborough’s Pauline Connell, regularly nullifying the other’s good bowls with their own close touchers.
Cremorne came from fourth position on the ladder to claim the Division 2 pennant against Brighton, defeating the minor premiers by thirty three shots, 79-46, to complete a splendid end to their pennant season, after having to play and win both the Elimination Semi Final (against Kingborough) and the Preliminary Final (against Sandy Bay) on the home green of their respective opponents.
North Hobart claimed the Division three pennant, defeating Brighton by seven shots, 63-56, and Glenorchy Rodman defeated Claremont, 59-58, to win the Division 4 pennant.