Glenorchy Rodman remain undefeated
A report for The Mercury by Peter Kirby
More pain for Claremont in Bowls South’s Divergence Built Premier Division, this time at home to Glenorchy Rodman, the still undefeated visitors crushing their hosts by 29 shots, failing to secure an all rinks win by 1 shot, 98-69. Chris Chalker salvaged a point for Claremont, drawing his match with Jacob Sheerin-Wall, 21-all.
Jack Ellis continued his good recent form with a comprehensive win against Paul Hart, 29-14, Cam Tegg had the better of Michael Taylor, 29-21, and Anthony Clifford completed a hat trick of rink wins for Rodman with his defeat of Justin Plummer, 19-12.
Howrah belied their lowly status on the ladder with a strong start to their match with ladder leaders Kingborough, at Kingborough, by jumping the frontrunners with a powerful start to their match, taking full advantage of Kingborough’s renowned frontend machine misfiring early. The host’s supporters were having some very nervous moments as they watched their heroes being outdone.
Behind 1-16 after 8 ends, things were looking fairly grim for the favourites, and Howrah was playing with confidence, hopeful of causing the major upset of the season, but ever so slowly the Tigers calmly gained momentum, pegging back the deficit to Howrah to be 5 shots in arrears after 42 ends, 40-45.
Again, it was the third quarter surge from the premiers that did the damage, adding 29 shots to their overall tally by the 59th end, limiting Howrah to a 5 shot gain, 69-50, and from this point on the result of the match was never in doubt, other than by how many rink wins and shots up.
Howrah was definitely in good form but it was the relentless pressure applied by the Tigers that eventually broke down the visitors’ resistance. Bill Butler’s rink of Rosie Geeves, Chris Chivers and Glenn Frame did best for their side, maintaining their form throughout their match with Will Coad’s rink, with a well-deserved rink win, 26-24.
The outcome on the other 3 rinks went Kingborough’s way, albeit not without a struggle early. It wasn’t until the midway point of any of these matches that Kingborough could claim to be in control. Nic Courto, with Jason Commane providing good starts, and Darren Reeve putting on a clinic of draw bowling, gained the upper hand over Danny Neal by the 8th end, who was well supported by his lead, Anne Mullavey, and Denise Tanner at three, but could not stop Courto winning the game by 8 shots, 22-14.
The 13th end was the pivotal point for Kingborough in the other two matches, with a 5 to Jason Fowler enabling him to get in front of John Sutcliffe for the first time, and a 2 to Ryan Guy allowing him to slip into the lead against Peter Jenkins. Guy, with his lead Jack Butler finding his range, and birthday boy, Jarod Long, playing superb draw bowls at three, added 15 shots to his total over the final 9 ends, conceding just 3 to Jenkins, to win, 28-14.
Again, it was the resurgence of the lead for Fowler, Tony Rowe, which proved the telling factor in the final ends of his match with Howrah’s John Sutcliffe. Excellent support bowls from Michael Andersch at two, and Brent Forsyth at three, Fowler accumulated 12 shots over 4 ends from the 12th to 15th ends to take a winning lead, and go on to win by 8 shots, 24-16.
Although beaten on 3 rinks and losing the match by 27 shots, 98-71, Howrah should be encouraged by their efforts overall. For Kingborough, back to full strength with the return of Brent Forsyth to the side, it was once again an example of maintaining pressure over the full 84 ends of the match. An exciting match to watch, although with some nail biting moments at the beginning for Kingborough’s supporters.
Cremorne enjoyed their second win of the season with a massive 80 shot, all-rinks annihilation of Buckingham, 122-42, with Buckingham failing to come to grips with the conditions at Cremorne’s seaside fortress.
Peter Marshall and his rink consisting of Geoff Jones, Dave Watkins and Ralph Tieman jumped out to an early 17-0 start after 5 ends against Grant Chamberlain and were never challenged running away 32 shot victors, 42–10.
Brad Knight and his team of Reiley Banks, Teresa Newman and Phil Ions kept Todd Oakley scoreless until the 14th end when the scorecard read 23–1. Knight running out a comfortable victor 29–5.
Winning all but 1 of the final 11 ends played, and amassing 23 shots in the process, Ashley Banks completed another convincing win for the hosts, defeating Craig Owen by 18 shots, 30–12.
In the day’s closest matchup, the scores were level, 15-all, after the 18th end between Pat Hoffman and Bucks’ Andrew Chamberlain. Chamberlain fought valiantly to earn some points for the visitors, but he was eventually overrun by Hoffman, who won the last 3 ends, picking up 6 shots to win, 21-15, completing the all-rinks win for the hosts.
Dover would be disappointed with the outcome of its away game at New Norfolk, winning on 3 rinks but losing overall by 3 shots, 76-79. Samual Winter won the game for the home side, defeating Chris Norris by 18 shots, 29-11.
Dover’s winning skips, Roger Dale, 21-18, against Kerry Hill, Ricky Ormerod by 2 over Lauren Banks, 18-16, and Cam Norris’ 10 shot margin against Mitchell Banks, 26-16, not enough to counter Winter’s winning score.