Sandy Bay’s moment of truth arrives
A report for The Mercury by Peter Kirby
Sandy Bay would have been quite content to take on Kingborough on their indoor green, and bolstered by the return of former State player, Josh Mabb, after a 5 year hiatus, rather confident of causing an upset by defeating their rampaging hosts in Round 5 of Bowls South’s Divergence Built Premier Division. The first 25 ends of the match were closely fought, with the Bay trailing by just 3 shots, 17-20. Even at the halfway mark Sandy Bay was still in with a definite chance of causing an upset, just 8 shots adrift, 32-40.
In the third quarter of the match, Kingborough asserted its ascendancy, extending their lead to 20 shots, 67-47. From there on, the home side controlled the match, maintaining its shot advantage to win by 19 shots, 83-64.
The match between Kingborough’s Nic Courto and the Bay’s Kyron Daly was tight until the 14th end where the scores were level, 12-all. Courto won each of the next 6 ends, adding 17 shots to his tally to be in an unbeatable position with one end to play. Daly won the last end, but the damage was done, Courto winning by 15, 29-14.
Jason Fowler had a dream start against Sandy Bay’s Lucas Howell, winning the first 4 ends for a 9-0 lead. Howell strived to make inroads, and was well supported by his three, Andrew Norris, but Fowler was able to counter with strong support from his team, with lead Tony Rowe providing great starts, Brad Carver drawing shot regularly and Michael Andersch playing with great confidence at three, going on to win the match, 23-11.
Sandy Bay’s Josh Lording provided a masterclass in draw bowling against his fellow State Men’s Open representative, Ryan Guy. Guy played some great bowls of his own, and was well supported by all members of his team, but Lording had ways of either producing the winning shot or reducing the shot count against him end after end. This match was winnable by either skip with 2 ends to play and the scores 13-12 in favour of Lording, who won the last two ends to accumulate 7 shots to win, 20-12.
Josh Mabb, although little rusty over the first few ends, soon displayed his exceptional talent with great draw bowls and drives at the head, playing three to Sandy Bay’s Ryan McCoull. McCoull’s two, Matt Grace, also contributed with excellent close draw bowls. This was the contest of the encounter with the lead changing several times, neither McCoull or Kingborough’s Will Coad able to build more than a 4 shot lead, and the scores being level at the 15th and 18th ends, so a 19-all final score was a fitting result.
Dover moved into 4th spot on the ladder courtesy of its 51 shot victory over Howrah in Dover, 109-58. Guest skip, Lee Schraner, lived up to expectations, winning his match against Howrah’s Danny Neal by 24 shots, 30-6.
Chris Nogga Norris was not far behind his more illustrious teammate, defeating Adam Butler by 20 shots, 29-9. Peter Jenkins made Cam Norris work hard for Dover’s third rink win, losing by 7 shots, 18-25. In a high scoring tussle, nothing could separate Dover’s Roger Dale and Howrah’s Glenn Frame, ending in a 25-all draw, and Howrah getting a solitary point from their visit to salmon central.
At Dover, guest skip, Lee Schraner, lived up to expectations, winning by 24 shots against Danny Neal, 30-6. Chris Norris was not far behind, 20 shots up over Howrah’s Adam Butler, 29-9, and Cam Norris added a third win for the hosts with a more conservative 7 shot win against Peter Jenkins, 25-18. Glenn Frame claimed a point for the visitors with his 25-all draw with Roger Dale.
Although winning on 3 rinks, Claremont, at home, just survived to win a 2-shot thriller over visitors, Brighton, 73-71. Claremont’s Chris Chalker rink led the way, winning by 9 shots over Matt Breward, 22-13. John McDonald held off a fast-finishing Mick Daniels by 1 shot, 19-18, for a second rink win for Claremont.
Brighton’s young Riley Davie, playing some huge draw shots, overcame Paul Hart’s rink by 10 shots, 23-13, the only winning skip for the visitors. With one end to go, Brighton was 2 shots in front overall, courtesy of Grant Wakefield, but Mick Taylor’s front end responded to the challenge to be 3 up in the head, forcing Wakefield to drive with his last bowl, only to miss narrowly and concede 4 shots to Taylor, which secured an important win for the Claremont rink, and a good win for the home side overall.
Buckingham celebrated their first victory for the season in a tight away encounter, defeating New Norfolk, 90–86, after strong finishes on several rinks. Todd Oakley skipped out to an early 10 shot lead over New Norfolk’s Lauren Banks, but was then pegged back in the middle stages of the match, eventually steadying to record a 25-22 win.
A late surge saw Bucks’ Andrew Chamberlain pull away to a 21–16 victory after a seesawing affair with Samual Winter. Craig Owen and New Norfolk’s Barry Bone played out a 24–all draw, while Grant Chamberlain recovered from an early big deficit, eventually conceding to Kerry Hill, 20-24, the close 4-shot deficit securing the overall victory for Buckingham.
Cremorne remains winless so far this season after suffering another close split rink loss against a strong Glenorchy Rodman outfit, 73-85. Rodman’s victory was set up by Jack Ellis’s rink. With lead Kelvin Lynema having a strong game, Ellis was able to cash in, jumping out to a big margin at the half way mark only to see Cremorne’s Pat Hoffman reduce the deficit late but still lose, 12–27.
Jacob Sheerin–Wall was in control for most of the day recording a 22–14 win over Ash Banks. Cremorne’s rink wins came from Peter Marshall and Brad Knight. In a good team performance, Marshall finished strongly to defeat Cam Tegg, 27–19. Knight was in control for most of the day against Anthony Clifford, only to see Clifford win 3 of the last 4 ends to reduce the margin to 3, with Knight prevailing, 20–17.