Buckingham monstered by Kingborough
A report for The Mercury by Peter Kirby
After the completion of the penultimate round of Bowls South’s Divergence Built Premier Division, Kingborough has moved 18 points clear at the top of the ladder following their massive 71-shot, all-rinks win over Buckingham, Glenorchy Rodman and Brighton nullified each other at Brighton, and Sandy Bay is all but safe in 3rd.
Kingborough showed no mercy in their clinical 117-46 demolition of Buckingham. Will Coad led the way for the Tigers with a crushing 36 – 10 victory over Grant Chamberlain. Coad won 8 ends in a row from the 4th to 11th ends, for a 20-shot gain. Chamberlain finished strongly over the last 6 ends to add 6 shots to his tally, but by then Coad was coasting to an emphatic victory.
Nic Courto gave few chances in a 35-11 win over Bucks’ Stuey Rees. Only 4 shots behind after 5 ends, Rees then conceded 13 shots over the next 3 ends to be 17 shots adrift. From then on Courto controlled the match to ease home for a big win.
Buckingham provided early resistance on the other 2 rinks with both skips holding early leads. Andrew Chamberlain led Kingborough’s Jason Fowler until the 8th end, but from thereon Fowler slowly built a winning margin, a 5 on the 17th end putting the result beyond doubt, and a 4 on the penultimate end snuffing out any chance of an heroic recovery from Chamberlain, with Fowler enjoying a comprehensive 24-12 victory.
Bucks’ Todd Oakley had the better of Ryan Guy-Rees early, holding the lead until the 9th end. A four to Guy-Rees on the 10th end moved him into the lead, and despite a mini recovery from Oakley, Guy-Rees went on to complete a very successful afternoon in the Tiger’s Den, winning by 9 shots over Oakley, 22-13.
Sandy Bay, at home to last-placed New Norfolk, won on 3 rinks by 23 shots, 93-67. In a rare appearance these days, in a late change, Sandy Bay’s stalwart, Lindsay Lovell, stepped in as lead to assist Josh Mabb to a 2-shot win over Wayne Lampkin, 18-16.
In another close match, Andrew Norris triumphed for the Bay, finishing 2 ahead of Barry Bone, 20-18. It was left to recent Sandy Bay recruit, Lochie Sims, to put the overall result beyond doubt, finishing 28 shots clear of Samual Winter, 36-8.
New Norfolk’s Kerry Hill enjoyed a good win on the day, finishing 9 shots clear of Josh Lording, 25-16, to claim a rink win for the visitors.
Cremorne overcome a determined Dover to run out comfortable 22 shot victors, 94-72, winning on 3 rinks. Dover challenged the hosts and hit the lead at the 60-end mark, only for Cremorne to steady and pull away for a well-deserved win for their last home game of the season.
Fresh off being crowned State Pairs Champion, 18-year-old Reiley Banks skipped his first game and proved even further that he has a tremendous future in the game. Banks and his team of Geoff Jones, Paul Hoddy and Phil Ions scored a 7 on the first end and never looked back, running out 13 shot victors, 29–16, over Dover’s Roger Dale.
Peter “Tex” Marshall and his team had a tremendous tussle against Brad Carver. Marshall led for the entire game, although the margin was reduced to 1 shot on numerous occasions. A 5 on the last end to the Cremorne combination pushed the winning margin out to 7, with Marshall winning, 25–18.
Ash Banks and his team scored a 6 on end 15 to hit the lead against Dover’s Chris Norris. They were able to maintain the lead over the final stages of the match due to brilliant leading from 12-year-old Mitch Banks, finally winning, 24–19.
Shane Garth salvaged 2 points for Dover, winning, 19–16, over Brad Knight. “Skeeta” played a brilliant conversion shot with the last bowl of the 3rd end for a 7 to jump out to an 8–1 lead. Knight played some big shots himself, enabling his rink to stay in the contest, winning 12 of the 21 ends played, but that 7 proved to be the difference.
After 84 ends nothing separated the two sides at Brighton, with the home side sharing rink wins with their visitors, Glenorchy Rodman, and with the shots up equal, the match ended in a draw, 76 shots-all.
Matt Breward contributed most to a likely home-town victory, defeating Grant Allford by 9 shots, 27-18, but Rodman’s Cam Tegg countered this with a 10-shot margin over Grant Wakefield, 23-13.
Brighton’s Riley Davie, the other half of the current State Open Men’s Pairs Champions, won by 6 shots against Anthony Clifford, 22-16, and Jack Ellis just failed to clinch the match for Rodman, defeating Mick Daniels by 5 shots, 19-14, leaving the match all square on shots and rink wins.
There was no joy for Howrah at Claremont on Saturday, with Bill Butler their only winning skip, who managed to hold on to win by 2 shots against Chris Chalker, 19-17. Paul Hart set things in motion for Claremont, defeating Peter Jenkins by 20 shots, 29-9, well-supported by Michael Taylor’s 10 shot advantage over Glenn Frame, 24-14. Nic Chilcott wrapped up the 3-rink win for Claremont, winning by a more conservative 5 shots against John Sutcliffe, 23-18.