Magpies suffer mauling at Kingborough
A report for The Mercury by Peter Kirby
The highlight of Saturday’s round of Bowls South’s Divergence Built Premier Division was the much-anticipated clash between the top two sides, Glenorchy Rodman (first) and Kingborough (second), in the Kingborough Indoor Bowls Centre. Kingborough announced its intent from the outset, with all four of its rinks leading from their first ends. Kingborough went on to record a resounding all-rinks, 56 shot victory, 107-51, to reclaim top spot on the leader board.
Jason Fowler, with his lead, Tony Rowe, establishing good starts most ends, won six ends from the 8th to 13th ends to create the winning break over Rodman’s Cam Tegg, allowing Tegg just 3 shots over the final 8 ends for a huge 24-shot margin, 31-7.
Ryan Guy-Rees celebrated not having to play on rink 3 (his nemesis rink), smashing his Rodman opponent, Anthony Clifford, winning 9 of the first 12 ends to lead by 13 shots. A 7 on the 19th end put the result beyond doubt, Guy-Rees ahead by 19 shots at the end, 31-12.
Kingborough’s Will Coad got going early to lead by 11 shots at the halfway mark. His opponent, Grant Allford, picked up 8 shots from the 12th to 14th ends to close to within 2 shots of Coad, only for Coad to power away, allowing Allford just 2 more shots to finish 9 shots up, 23-14.
It was an arm wrestle early between two of the Division’s top skips, with Rodman’s Jack Ellis gaining the lead over Nic Courto on the 5th. Courto then slipped into another gear to lead by 8 shots after 11 ends. Ellis won the second half of the match 11 shots to 7, but just not enough to overtake Courto, who went on to win by 4 shots, 22-18, to remain top of the skips’ ladder.
At Claremont, Sandy Bay won in a split-rinks, 5 shot decision, 82-77. Recent acquisition, Lochie Sims, demonstrated his worth to the Seagulls, defeating the Mont’s Paul Hart by 12 shots, 24-12.
Josh Lording recorded Sandy Bay’s second rink win, getting over Michael Taylor by the barest of margins, 21-20. From there everything went Claremont’s way, Chris Chalker besting Ryan McCoull by 7 shots, 28-21, and Nic Chilcott shading Josh Mabb by 1, 17-16, but Claremont’s winning margins just not enough to overtake the Bay.
It was a valiant effort by New Norfolk at home to Brighton but with little reward for effort, losing a split-rinks decision by 6 shots, 77-83. Matt Breward set the visitors on the way to victory, defeating Samual Winter by 22 shots, 32-10. Riley Davie added another scalp to his debut season as a Premier Division skip, beating Barry Bone by 4 shots, 22-18.
Greg Banks made good inroads into Brighton’s overall lead, reducing the margin by 12 shots in his defeat of Grant Wakefield, 26-14, and Mitch Banks had a solid 8 shot win against Mick Daniels, 23-15, with the home side falling short.
Dover, playing at home against Buckingham, enjoyed a 79-73 split-rinks win. Shane Garth led the way for Dover with a convincing 26-12 victory over Craig Owen, while Brad Carver kept his nose in front all day to defeat Andrew Chamberlain, 20-16, in a tight tussle.
Buckingham’s Grant Chamberlain established a good early lead over Roger Dale, then conceded 9 shots in 2 ends at the midway point, before rallying to hold on for a 21-18 win. Stuey Rees secured another rink for the visitors with a 24-15 result over Chris Norris.
In a high standard encounter, Cremorne overcame a gallant Howrah to record a split rinks 2 shot victory, 79-77. Cremorne sat on a 10-shot lead for much of the game only to have the visitors hit the lead after 75 ends. Cremorne then steadied, although the overall result went down to the very last bowl.
Cremorne’s Peter Marshall and his team were in control all day against Glenn Frame, recording a strong 8 shot victory, 22–14. Leigh Munnings, off his sick bed, got the staggers late but hung on to record a 21–19 win against John Sutcliffe, to gain a second rink for Cremorne.
The results were reversed on the other two rinks. Howrah’s Bill Butler and his second, 2 Denise Tanner, both played some brilliant draw bowls, enabling them to record a sound win 24–18 against Ash Banks.
Peter Jenkins started strongly against his Cremorne opponent, Brad Knight, leading 11–2 after 8 ends. Knight and his team then raised the bar, hitting the lead at the completion of end 18.
On the final end, Jenkins was 1 shot up and holding shot when Knight killed the end. On the replay, Knight was holding a solid 3 shots when Jenkins’ three, Steve Hyland, put the jack into the ditch. Knight was still holding shot for a draw, but Jenkins played an amazing shot to sit on the edge of the green and grasp victory by 2 shots, 20-18.