Cremorne makes it three in a row
A report for The Mercury by Peter Kirby
After going winless for the first 5 rounds of Bowls South’s Divergence Built Premier Division, Cremorne made it 3 wins in a row on Saturday, sneaking home by 5 shots in a split rinks result at Dover, 80-75. Ashley Banks trounced Dover’s Roger Dale by a whopping 24 shots, 31-7, to set up the win for the visitors.
Brad Knight added a second rink win for Cremorne with his tight 2 shot win over Ricky Ormerod, 21-19, while Chris Norris, 21-15, over Peter Marshall, and Cam Norris’ 15 shot advantage over Leigh Munnings, 28-13, gained some pride for the hosts, but not enough to secure a win.
In a great team performance Brighton inflicted Glenorchy Rodman’s first loss for the year, winning on two rinks by 5 shots overall, 82-77. Missing three regular Premier Division players did not phase Brighton at all against the home side.
Rylie Davie was in magnificent form for the visitors and with great support from his rink got away to a great start and never looked like losing against Jacob Sheerin-Wall, eventually prevailing by 14 shots, 25-11.
Tayla Munro’s rink, with her grandfather Geoff Munro stepping up to fill the void, had a big second half against Jack Ellis to sneak over the line by 1 shot, 21-20. Cam Tegg was down early against Brighton’s Grant Wakefield but dug deep to get over the line by 1 shot, 21-20
Anthony Clifford continued his good form this year defeating Mick Daniels by nine shots, 25-16, securing another 2 valuable points for Glenorchy Rodman. Perhaps this was the wake-up call that Glenorchy Rodman needed going into the final round before Christmas against Sandy Bay but full credit to Brighton who have enjoyed a good year to date and are eyeing off a spot in the four.
Claremont reversed its recent poor form at Howrah on Saturday, and in the process extended Howrah’s winless year with a heart stopping 2 shot, 3 rink victory on Howrah’s indoor surface, 79-77. Paul Hart did most of the damage for the Mont with his 17 shot gain on Danny Neal, 27-17.
Mick Taylor added to his side’s rink wins, defeating Peter Jenkins by 3, 20-17, and Chris Chalker snuck home by 1 shot, 20-19, against Bill Butler for Claremont’s third rink victory.
John Sutcliffe strove mightily for his side against Claremont’s Justin Plumber, all but snatching victory for Howrah with his excellent 19 shot mauling of Plumber, 31-12.
Kingborough made light work of the poor conditions and Buckingham’s synthetic green to extend their lead over the rest of the competition with an emphatic 22 shot, 3 rinks win, 84-62. Top skip, Nic Courto, had to work extremely hard against Bucks’ Grant Chamberlain to keep his unbeaten season intact.
The lead changed a number of times over the first half of the match, before Courto exerted his authority over his opponent, creating a winning break from the 15th to 17th ends, adding 8 shots to his total in the process, and defeat Chamberlain by 8 shots, 23-15.
Other than losing on the first end of his match with Andrew Chamberlain, Kingborough’s Jason Fowler was in front all day, cruising to a comfortable 10 shot victory, 27-17, while Ryan Guy was never headed by Craig Owen in claiming a third rink win for the visitors, 19-11.
Will Coad’s team would have thought that they were in with a big chance of making it an all-rinks victory for Kingborough when leading by 4 shots after the 14th end, but Todd Oakley and his team had other ideas, winning 6 of the last 7 ends, adding 11 shots to their total to snatch a rink win for Bucks, 19-15.
New Norfolk and Sandy Bay went into their match at New Norfolk undermanned, but it was the Bay that displayed with an all rinks win by 39 shots, 86-47, at New Norfolk.
Young gun Lukie Howell was relaxing in his recliner for most of the afternoon while David Anderson, Peri Buckley and Stewart Cashion did the work in their 30-10 win over Tony Hack. At one stage it appeared Howell dozed off between ends.
Australian development squad member, Lauren Banks, had a tight tussle with Andy Norris. Norris eventually prevailing, 14-10. Jan Hobbs and Jacquie Phillips were solid in the front end for the Bay. Banks played outstanding bowls to give her team a big chance but it was not to be.
In the rink of the day, clean shaven and very sharp looking Sam Winter took on the in-form and equally sharp Josh Lording. In a ding dong battle early, Lording went on to win 20-13 with his three, Kyron Daly, playing big bowls when it counted. Winter’s rink of Ricki Monks, Garrath Johnston and Shane Hugo put on a great performance throughout the day but fell short in the latter ends.
The final rink saw Ryan McCoull take on the Eagles’ veteran Kerry Hill. Suffering the effects of over hydration in Friday’s heat, McCoull took an early lead and was never headed. Mark Quinane and Stephen Graf were superb in the moist conditions with Phil Hobbs also doing damage in the back end. McCoull won the rink, 22-14, which shored up the Bay’s first all rinks win for the season.