Seagulls get their wings clipped
A report for The Mercury by Peter Kirby
Round 10 of Bowls South’s Divergence Built Premier Division provided some unlikely results, with a rejuvenated Howrah defeating Sandy Bay to lift it away from the dreaded 10th spot on the ladder, and Cremorne proving that Kingborough is not invincible on its indoor green.
In fine but breezy conditions, Sandy Bay took on Howrah on their home green. Howrah turned up to play and were victorious on two rinks, to win the match by 8 shots, 74-66. The Bay appeared to be suffering from long lasting hangover from New Year celebrations and were outclassed by a better opponent.
Glenn Frame’s rink of Anne Mullavey, Peter Latham and Denise Tanner were the big winners over Andrew Norris, 26-13. Norris led 11-10 at the halfway mark and dropped 16 shots to 3 in the second half. Frame reinforced the State Selectors’ recent decision to include him in the State Senior Men’s side with this emphatic victory.
John Sutcliffe added the second rink win for Howrah, jumping out to a 12-0 lead over Lucas Howell. Howell fought back in the latter stages but it wasn’t enough to peg back the early lead, ultimately going down, 17-9. Sutcliffe was ably supported by Robert Stadler, Robert Johnstone and Adam Butler who all played well.
Sandy Bay were able to recover 4 points with a rink wins to Ryan McCoull over Bill Butler by 3 shots, 18-15, and super skip Josh Lording, who managed a 10 shot win over the ‘Judge’, Peter Jenkins, 26-16.
Cremorne ignored the predictions of a crushing result from their visit to the Kingborough Indoor Bowls Centre by inflicting a humiliating 18 shot loss, 82-64, for the ladder leaders. While Kingborough accounted for Cremorne on 3 rinks, it was on the fourth rink that the visitors disposed of their hosts.
Cremorne skip, Ashley Banks, played some excellent draw bowls against his opponent, Ryan Guy, often converting the head to his favour. With nothing going his way, Guy lost each of the opening 8 ends to be 18 shots down, with Banks conceding just 5 ends to Guy to win by 26 shots, 33-7.
While Kingborough was successful on the other 3 rinks, it was the work of the Cremorne skips that ensured that Banks’ heroic efforts would be rewarded, with no one losing by more than 4 shots.
Leading by 8 shots after 12 ends, Jason Fowler appeared to be heading for a solid win, only for Cremorne’s Peter “Tex” Marshall to slowly peg back the deficit. Picking up 3 shots from winning heads on the 18th and 19th ends created a 5 shot buffer for Fowler, who restricted Marshall to single shot gains on the final 2 ends to win by 3 shots, 22-19.
In a low scoring match where no more than 3 shots separated the two teams throughout the match, it was Will Coad’s clutch single shot gain on the final end that proved the difference, defeating Cremorne’s Leigh Munnings by that margin, 13-12.
Cremorne’s Brad Knight forced Nic Courto to work hard to preserve his unbeaten status this season, grabbing the lead on the 10th end, and then consolidating to lead by 7 shots after the 15th. A 6 on the 16th end to Courto brought him to within a shot of Knight, and then a pick of 2 consecutive singles took into the lead. Knight took the lead back on the next end, but the 5 shots gained over the last 2 ends saw a very relieved Courto claim victory by 4 shots, 22-18.
Glenorchy Rodman started the New Year in perfect style, picking up the full quota of 14 points against New Norfolk, winning by 36 shots, 91-55. Cam Tegg’s rink of Peta Barnett, Geoff Tegg and Jacob Sheerin-Wall were in superb form, defeating Shane Winter by 19 shots, 33-14.
The other rinks were a bit tighter, with Grant Allford returning to the skip position to defeat Kerry Hill. Hill led after 11 ends but Allford’s rink enjoyed a better second half to eventually win by 8 shots, 20-12.
Anthony Clifford got away to a slow start against Mitch Banks, trailing 2-6 after 6 ends, but picked up a 5 and then never headed to win by 7 shots, 21-14. Jack Ellis, still recovering from a big week in Victoria, also struggled early against Barry Bone before getting his act together and, despite losing the last four ends, won by 2 shots, 17-15, to round out a successful day for the home side.
Brighton continued their good recent form with a commanding 85-58 victory over their visitors, Buckingham. Grant Wakefield played a superb game defeating Todd Oakley 25-13. Some rear-guard action by Grant early in the game kept the scores close but overall consistency, headed by Wakefield’s lead, Andrew “Mud Guard” Maguire, proved to be too strong for the Oakley rink.
Riley “Pup” Davie continued on his winning way, holding on to defeat a fast-finishing Grant Chamberlain 23-16, “Dutchy” Holland playing well in the lead position. In a very rare occurrence for Bucks, a late withdrawal from Bucks saw Alison Chamberlain step into the team and performed very well. A very rare occurrence to have Mr & Mrs C playing on the same rink.
Mick Daniels played some great clutch shots to keep Andrew Chamberlain at bay, 19-11. Chamberlain played some good draw bowls, but Daniels and his three, Tony Bartninkaitis kept the game tight throughout the match.
In a close match where scores could not be separated, Stewie Rees salvaged a single point for Buckingham, securing an 18 – 18 tie with his final bowl against Matthew Breward. Breward looked to have Rees’ measure all day, but the Rees hung in and aided by 2 bombs from his last 2 bowls of the game forced a draw.
Dover made it home and away wins against Claremont this season, winning on 3 rinks by 17 shots overall, 91-64. Chris “Nogga” Norris was the big winner for Dover, defeating Chris Chalker by 27 shots, 37-10. Roger Dale headed Paul Hart by 12 shots, 25-13, and Cam Norris rounded out the 3 rink win for the visitors, beating Michael Taylor by 3 shots, 18-15. Justin Plummer restored some pride for the Mont with his 15 shot advantage over Ricky Ormerod, 26-11.